Seems like there isn’t a variety of finishes available like there used to be? Finding the right finish is critical in card handling and close up magic.
I own decks with 3 different material and feel to them and I haven't really went out of my way to look for them - just been picking them up when I'm out and about and either need a deck to play, for souvenirs, or see one I like.
That being said, I haven't seen magic being done with these kinds of cards - they're much harder and smaller (think hard carton rather than paper) so you'd have to come up with new routines specifically for them.
Oh, there are different materials and finish of hanafuda cards, even from Nintendo. I have a couple of different sets and used to play regularly years ago. The traditional ones have a really nice feel to them IMO!
Still amazed that a company like Nintendo survived over 100 years of dramatic cultural and economic change in Japan and remains as relevant and innovative as ever. How is a company culture for creativity sustained like that for so long? Most corporations seem to go stale especially after the founders die off or fade out.
Nintendo prospered after their head guy went to america to meet with their head of playing cards and found out it was some shitty back office, panicked, and tried to pivot rapidly. They tried, among many ideas, love hotels.
Luckily some guy made this zany grabby arm that turned out to be a popular kids toy and the day was saved. Then they started making video games. The wikipedia is fairly entertaining.
After watching “Summer Wars” (spoiler alert: Japan is saved through a heroic game of Koi-Koi) I went shopping for a hanafuda deck and was delighted to find that Nintendo still makes them! I am still bad at Koi-Koi but I love my Nintendo cards!
They also included Koi-Koi in Clubhouse Games/51 Worldwide Games, recently released on the Switch. The 'Impossible' CPU is a fairly worthy opponent for a computer player (many others in the same collection are hopeless), making it very nice when you don't have a human with whom to play!
Is it only Japan that has such a long time horizon? I feel like that a subset of Japanese companies really try their best to simply stay alive for hundreds of years.
Just looking at this list, Japan just obliterates any other country in having the oldest companies in the world [1].
I feel like there are lessons to be learned here. I hope someone on HN knows a thing or two about it.
I do recall something about how Japanese companies are traditionally careful with their money, and therefore expansion. I can't remember where I read it, but there was a tendency to save money during the good times by not chasing excessive growth in order to have a buffer for more difficult times. Maybe this is a reflection of the impetus on the leaders of companies to take responsibility for their failures, in that they are therefore less inclined to take risks; it's usually the CEO who resigns before they axe swathes of employees.
From what I've seen of Japanese culture, I think they have a very interesting ability to explore their creativity but without straying too far from what they already know. Nintendo opts for tried-and-true hardware in their consoles, but implements creative new ideas using it. Craftsmen from Japan are renowned worldwide for things like woodcraft and musical instruments etc, and from the various videos I've watched the thing that has struck me most about their attitude to their craft is _patience_.
Japan has an extensive history of employers adopting male employees to keep successors "in the family", which may explain at least part of this: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/japanese-adoption-r... The Western family unit has not generally been associated with business as strongly.
One could also make the point that Japan's long time horizons were a leading factor in the "lost decade"; Western companies reorganize and recapitalize through bankruptcy and some do not survive the process, but Japan's focus on stability kept "zombie" companies operating longer than they should have.
They're mainly family-owned and the business just gets passed along to the next generation. They're also "timeless" businesses; things like construction and hospitality have been a necessity basically since humans existed.
I once visited Japan on a business trip. At the company I was hosted by, every person I spoke to had worked there for 15 years or more. Their culture frowns upon job-hopping, which I would guess also has something to do with company longevity.
In recent decades, hanafuda cards are probably used moreso in South Korea than in Japan in the game Go-Stop. Classic gambling game. It's really fun! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-Stop
A fun (i thought) fact i heard the other day is that both Nintendo (founded 1889) and Coca-Cola (founded 1886) predate Dracula (published 1897). So it would be entirely euchronistic for an adaption to feature Dracula lounging about, drinking Coke and playing Nintendo.
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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 66.2 ms ] threadMy favorite so far is an Evangelion themed one. A bit gimmicky and may be confusing to play with but I think the art is actually nice. http://www.tabroid.net/news/2012/06/enjoy-hanafuda-with-eva-...
That being said, I haven't seen magic being done with these kinds of cards - they're much harder and smaller (think hard carton rather than paper) so you'd have to come up with new routines specifically for them.
The good thing about this is that this shows that it's not impossible for Nintendo to be around 1000 years later.
Luckily some guy made this zany grabby arm that turned out to be a popular kids toy and the day was saved. Then they started making video games. The wikipedia is fairly entertaining.
https://store.nintendo.com/daitouryou-hanafuda-cards-red.htm...
Just looking at this list, Japan just obliterates any other country in having the oldest companies in the world [1].
I feel like there are lessons to be learned here. I hope someone on HN knows a thing or two about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies
From what I've seen of Japanese culture, I think they have a very interesting ability to explore their creativity but without straying too far from what they already know. Nintendo opts for tried-and-true hardware in their consoles, but implements creative new ideas using it. Craftsmen from Japan are renowned worldwide for things like woodcraft and musical instruments etc, and from the various videos I've watched the thing that has struck me most about their attitude to their craft is _patience_.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22791300
One could also make the point that Japan's long time horizons were a leading factor in the "lost decade"; Western companies reorganize and recapitalize through bankruptcy and some do not survive the process, but Japan's focus on stability kept "zombie" companies operating longer than they should have.
Rules: https://www.pagat.com/fishing/gostop.html