How to Play
The Aim of the Game
To collect as many cards as you can.
What You Need
Three or more players, a flat surface, and a full set of Whack a Waka cards. The game is traditionally played on Japanese tatami mats, but you can play on any floor surface or tabletop.
What to do Before you Begin
The first hundred cards, called reading cards (yomifuda), contain complete poems. The second hundred, called playing cards (torifuda), each contain the final phrase of one of the poems.
Spread out a number of playing cards with the text facing up. Shuffle the corresponding reading cards and place them to one side.
How to Play
One player takes up the deck of yomifuda cards and reads a complete poem at random. As the poem is read aloud, the remaining players compete to find the matching torifudaplaying card. Repeat this process until all the playing cards have been taken. As the reader remains outside of the competition throughout the game, players take turns being the reader. Poems can be read or chanted.
How to Win
When all the cards have been taken, the player with the most correct cards wins.
The surest way to find a correct match is through each poem’s sound: high-level players know a poem from its kimarigo, its first word or words. For competitive tournament play, it is helpful to learn these words by heart. However, this is not necessary when playing with friends.
A partial list of the kimari-go for numbers one to ten.
1 In this
2 Spring
3 The long
4 Coming
5 In the
6 How the
7 I gaze
8 I live
9 I have
10 So
Find a full list of kimarigo here.
Looking for the illustrations on the cards is another way to find cards quickly.
Penalties
There are no fixed penalties for cards taken by mistake, so you are free to make up your own rules. Common examples include skipping a turn, surrendering an additional card, or having no penalties at all.
How Many Cards to Use
Whack a Waka can be played with any number of card pairs. We recommend 20 or 40 pairs for beginners. Only proceed to 60 or more once you are familiar with the game. For ease of use, the 100 card pairs are divided into five color-coded groups of 20. Make sure to match the colors of the playing and reading cards before you commence.
Variations
These cards contain many playing possibilities: The Japanese text is provided on the reverse, allowing speakers of Japanese to play the game in the original language. Players can also read in English and match in Japanese, read in Japanese and match in English, read the final phrases and match the full poems, or play bozu mekuri. Feel free to create your own version of the game or to explore other alternative rule sets.
Competition
Whack a Waka belongs to the Japanese game genre of karuta, which maintains a tournament system and official governing body. The more complex tournament rules can be found in on the "Tournament Rules" page of this website.