Japanese Kana Cards (Printable Version)

Number of Players

1+

Components

99 cards per deck

Good For

Learning the Japanese alphabet!

Tags

Card Game, Hiragana, Japanese, Reading

Forget boring flashcards! Learn the 46 character Japanese Hiragana alphabet through card games! I custom designed these to play a bunch of different games, with no knowledge of Japanese required.

This downloadable set comes with 11 pages in US Letter or A4 sizes. A set of alternative special cards is also included.

Perfect for studying Japanese and playing with friends. Here are some games you can play with these:

Crazy Kana – A game similar to the classic Crazy Eights. Try to get rid of all your cards first! For an extra challenge, say a word that begins with that Kana. Don’t forget to say “Kana!” when you have one card left.
Speed Kana – A game with no turns, try to get rid of all your cards by replacing cards from the middle of the table and forming words.

I’m currently developing instructions for 2 additional games, Rummy Kana and Nani Kana – stay tuned on my website and socials!

All games can be played without knowledge of Japanese, but it helps to learn it.

Questions, comments, new game ideas? Let me know!

Download/Purchase Links

How to Play 遊び方

I designed these for playing multiple games. The highlight game is Crazy Kana (based on Crazy Eights), with special cards designed specifically for it. I’m currently working on instructions and developing more games – feedback is appreciated!

Printing this out produces 99 cards in this set with 2 copies of each kana character with extra copies of ん (n) and ゛(dakuten).

Crazy Kana

3+ players

  1. Shuffle all the cards, then deal 7 to each player
  2. The remaining cards form a deck. Flip one card face up in the middle of the table next to the deck.
  3. Decide who goes first then play goes in clockwise order
  4. The goal is to get rid of all your cards first!
  5. On your turn, play a card from your hand. You can play any card that shares the same sound (for example, あ, か, た all use “a”, and are red) or from the same “column” of cards (for example, あいうえお, these are listed on the top left).
  6. For the specially marked cards (the black cards), these can be played on top of any other card. However some of these cards like や or ゛(Dakuten) will restrict the next card for the next player.
  7. If you don’t have a card you can play, you have to draw a card from the deck. If you are able to play that card, you can.
  8. Once you have just 1 card left in your hand, make sure to say “Kana!” If you don’t and others catch you, you’ll have to draw 3 new cards.
  9. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins. You can start again or keep going until only 1 player remains.

2+ players

  1. Shuffle the deck, take out the dakuten card.
  2. Deal 10 cards to each player.
  3. In the middle of the table, set the remaining cards to make a deck. Then reveal 2 cards and put them next to each other, trying to form a Japanese word. If a word can’t be formed, keep drawing cards from the deck and placing them on top of one of these cards until a word is formed.
  4. The goal of the game is to get rid of your cards as fast as possible.
  5. You do so by playing a card that can replace one of the two faceup cards and still forms a valid word.
  6. There are no turns, it’s a race!
  7. If no player is able to play any cards (a new word can’t be formed), then the game is paused. Deal 1 new card to each player from the deck. If a word still cannot be formed, then play cards from the top of the deck face up into the middle two cards until a word is formed. Discard any extra cards by putting them at the bottom of the deck.
  8. Play continues until there is a winner.

 

More instructions, images etc. coming soon.

Hiragana Chart

A printable Hiragana chart comes in the folder so you can look up which kana belongs to which row or column.

Special Cards:

In Crazy Kana, the black cards や (ya)、ゆ (yu)、よ (yo)、わ (wa)、を(wo)、ん (n) 、゛(Dakuten) are sorts of “wild cards” which have special effects when played.

They do not follow the normal rules of having to match a kana sound or column in order to use them, and unless they restrict the next card, any card can be played following them.

や (ya):  The “wild” wild. After playing this, choose a color or kana sound – for example “Red” – which is the あ (a) sound, or “Orange” which is the え (e) sound. The next card played must match the chosen color/sound.

ゆ (yu): Sounds like “you”. The next player is forced to draw 2 cards and loses their turn. Can stack (though there’s only)

よ (yo): “Yo, you skipped my turn!” The next player’s turn is skipped.

わ (wa): Meant to symbolize harmony, わ (wa) reverses the turn order. So instead of going clockwise, go counter-clockwise. Another わ (wa) reverses it again.

を (wo): カードをあげる(I give a card). When playing を (wo), every player gives a card to the player on their left.

ん (n): “んんん don’t do that.” ん (n) can either be played to block the effect another special card (such as ゆ (yu) or よ (yo)) and is the only card that can be played when it’s not your turn. Can only be played by you on your turn if it’s your last remaining card (make sure to say “Kana!”).

゛(dakuten):  When this is played, the next played card MUST be compatible with dakuten.

For example, あ (a) cannot be played because it’s not compatible. But か (ka) which becomes が (ga) with a dakuten IS playable!

If you’re still learning Japanese and it’s a bit of a struggle, feel free to remove the dakuten card from the game.

Printing Tips 印刷について

Please check out my Printing Tips page for more information.

Japanese Kana Cards – Hiragana

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Japanese Kana Cards - Hiragana - Rudo & Japanese's Ko-fi Shop