Hanami Hanafuda & Fusion (Poker) Playing Cards. (on KS)

[DoubleOOJ]

Hello everyone.
Our newest project, Hanami Hanafuda & Fusion (Poker) Playing Cards, will be launching soon on Kickstarter.

Hanami (“flower viewing”) was inspired by the floral motifs and symbolism-rich imagery of traditional Japanese hanafuda. Every card in the Hanami deck is unique. Hanami was designed as 13 tetraptychs, creating a unique floral scene for each month.

Hanami will be printed by Legends Playing Card Company (LPCC) on Emerald Finish card stock and will feature gold gilded edges, a numbered seal, and a foil-stamped tuck.



What is Hanafuda?
Hanafuda (known in Korea as 'Hwatu') are floral-themed playing cards that are rich in symbolism and popular in Japan, Korea, and Hawaii. Hanafuda cards have 12 suits. Each suit is represented by a month (e.g. June) of the year and each month is represented by a flower (e.g. Peony).



What is the Fusion deck?
Since traditional hanafuda cards lack pips and indices, we designed our own hanafuda indices to indicate the flower, month, and type of each card. We combined these indices with traditional hanafuda imagery and standard poker indices to create a multipurpose deck that could be used to play both Eastern and Western games.


Hanafuda Rulebook
Given the popularity, long history, and wide geographical range of hanafuda cards, there have been many games invented over the years. Unfortunately, rules for hanafuda games can be difficult to find and interpret, so we decided to create a rulebook that would gather these rules into a single clearly written source. Our 250 page rulebook contains 31-games with numerous illustrations, intuitive scoring examples, and quick reference charts and will be available as part of our Kickstarter project.



Hanami was inspired by our love for hanafuda. We hope to bring that joy to others with our Kickstarter project.

Kickstarter Link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iws/434670968?token=75f48f08

Thank you for taking the time to read our post and checking out our project!

Jason & Antonietta

*Edited to update the Fusion deck image to reflect the new design.

[JuFiN]

When do you plan to launch? Any early birds?

Ill definitely be backing this one

[Bruno]

Yehyehyeh !
Me want these gilded lillies ....
Beautiful work, absolutely .... and the book in color too !
That Hanafuda Uncut is mesmerising.
So Yes !
When may we have the pleasure of purchasing the fruits of your lovely artwork and design ?

[DoubleOOJ]

@JuFiN @Bruno
Thanks for the enthusiasm

We are planning to launch the project on May 2nd at 9am EST.

We are not planning on offering early bird tiers. We prefer to give all our backers the best price we can.
We do offer significant discounts for larger deck quantities, though.

The Hanafuda Uncut is our favorite as well.

[shermjack]

I think that the Hanafuda deck and uncut are beautiful , but I find the Fusion deck has too much white space and wonder whether you could figure out how to reduce the white space and include more of the beautiful art. This may be the first Hanafuda deck I get

[ecNate]

Very cool and I love that it comes with option for rule books and uncut. It's also neat to offer a fusion version. So many options! This is one I'll likely be backing despite my cutbacks since I can justify it as both collection material and usable for games. Good stuff!

[JuFiN]

Yea as someone who owns a handful of nintendo hanafuda decks but doesn't actually know how to play any of the associated games, the rule book is a big draw for me on this one.

[DoubleOOJ]

We put a lot of time into the creation of the rulebook, so we are happy to hear that there is interest. We are also sincerely excited that we are introducing more people to hanafuda.

@shermjack We originally experimented with extending the artwork on the Fusion decks, but it interferes with the Indices. We felt the white border was a cleaner look. (Imagine that you are looking through a window and observing nature. )

@JuFiN We really like their Mario-themed decks. We have the original Mario-themed deck from Club Nintendo.
Fun Fact (you may already know): Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a hanafuda manufacturer.

BTW: We have added a pledge calculator to the project to make the add-on calculations more convenient.

[Bruno]

Aah yes Nintendo Hanafuda .... pricey little numbers eh ....
Gilded the way they aren't !

But with the border issue, have you looked at enclosing those important indices within a lozenge, what they call a cartouche, so as to bring your glorious art further out ?
If you have not already, could you experiment a bit with that .... ?
It would promote for the better all that smashingly vibrant range of color, yes ?

[JuFiN]

An image of what Bruno is talking about as an option for the fusion deck indices. (taken from Pipmen worlds deck in this case).

[Bruno]

Thanks JuFin ....
Perhaps separate the lozenge from the corner .... with the art fading to the rear .... ?
But that is the strategy.
P'raps.

[DoubleOOJ]

Thanks for the feedback. We are re-exploring the fusion design. We’ll let you know what we come up with.

[shermjack]

Thanks for the feedback. We are re-exploring the fusion design. We’ll let you know what we come up with.

This is great news! Thanks for listening to feedback and your willingness to try and accomodate!

I will also correct my statement from my previous post...this WILL be the first Hanafuda deck (and uncut) I get!

[guru]

Jason - These are beautiful decks. Good luck with the campaign. As the Hanafuda deck has got a thick black border, there is a high chance of color bleed during handling, and if I'm not mistaken, a few of the decks coming out of the Taiwan factory had this problem. Collectors may not not notice this but this issue will be noticeable to whoever is getting this deck for regular play.

Legends also gets printing done from a factory in China, and such an issue might not happen with that printer, who knows? I assume this bleed issue might be factory specific. So,I'll advise you to have a word with them and get their thoughts on the bleed issue to see if that can be an issue with this deck.

All the best once again.


Regards,
Sunish

[DoubleOOJ]

Jason - These are beautiful decks. Good luck with the campaign. As the Hanafuda deck has got a thick black border, there is a high chance of color bleed during handling, and if I'm not mistaken, a few of the decks coming out of the Taiwan factory had this problem. Collectors may not not notice this but this issue will be noticeable to whoever is getting this deck for regular play.

Legends also gets printing done from a factory in China, and such an issue might not happen with that printer, who knows? I assume this bleed issue might be factory specific. So,I'll advise you to have a word with them and get their thoughts on the bleed issue to see if that can be an issue with this deck.

All the best once again.


Regards,
Sunish

Thanks for the heads up. We will be using their Chinese factory for the Emerald Finish, but we will definitely ask about the black borders.

[DoubleOOJ]

Thanks for waiting. We have spent the last few days chained to our desks exploring our options…

We have created four design options based on your feedback.

Samples of each design can be found here:
http://www.indianwolfstudios.com/hanami-fusion.html

We are still deciding which design we prefer. Feedback is welcome (and expected )!

Thanks,
Jason & Antonietta

[JuFiN]

personally like the cutout with border

[shermjack]

DoubleOOJ,

Thank you for listening to and working so hard to accomodate our opinions, it is very much appreciated!

I hate to continue to ask for things, but could you show us what the uncuts will look like with the various versions that you have created?

At the moment, I am with Jufin and like the cutout with border

[Bruno]

Cartouche with edge fade thanks .... !
No border, white or black ....
More color, more Art !

[guru]

Thanks for the heads up. We will be using their Chinese factory for the Emerald Finish, but we will definitely ask about the black borders.

That's good. It may not be an issue then but you can still check.

I like the cutout with border, btw.

[DoubleOOJ]

I hate to continue to ask for things, but could you show us what the uncuts will look like with the various versions that you have created?

Added the 4 Uncuts to the sample page:
http://www.indianwolfstudios.com/hanami-fusion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Stepchild]

I am feeling the cartouche over the cutout, definitively. And am utterly ambivalent about the borders, oddly.

[sunlance]

These decks seem amazing, and the fusion deck is actually something I'd been looking for ever since I learned about hanafuda cards. Also, your openness to community feedback is really encouraging! For the fusion deck design, I prefer the cartouches to the cutouts, but wonder if it's possible to have the art bleed beyond the borders, similar to the black-bordered hanafuda deck?

[DoubleOOJ]

For those who requested it, we have added a 5th option to the sample page: ‘Cartouche with Full Bleed’. This was actually the first option we tried, but we were concerned that it got a little busy with the cartouches. The cartouches add another dimension/layer. We felt the white border without bleed made the fusion cards look cleaner.

http://www.indianwolfstudios.com/hanami-fusion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JuFiN]

I just find the Cartouche itself a bit "loud". Feels a bit big and clunky looking for my taste. If you could go cutout with full bleed that could be pretty awesome, but I actually think I would still prefer cutout with border. The fusion deck I think should focus a little bit more on functionality, being able to be used when playing cards of any kind with some friends. I think the Cartouche and the full bleed actually get in the way of this. The bordered cutout version is very clean and easily legible. If you want a deck that is more beautiful and artistic, then the Hanafuda version already exists!

[DoubleOOJ]

Thanks everyone for all the great feedback. We feel our changes to the design have created a stronger Fusion deck.

We have decided to go with option #1 Cutout with Border.
Not only was this a popular choice, we feel it's a cleaner look for the Fusion deck. The cutout indices are simple, clean, and fan nicely, while still allowing for more art to be on the cards than the original Fusion design.

We have updated the kickstarter to reflect the new Fusion design, in preparation for the launch tomorrow (5/2 @ 9am EST).

Thank you!!

[DoubleOOJ]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have launched!

[vasta41]

For the first time ever I debated buying the uncut instead of the deck. But also, as is my luck, for the first time ever there is no reward tier for an uncut. I guess it was meant to be! Hahaha

[sunlance]

I am in! Really hope this takes off!

[Bruno]

For the first time ever I debated buying the uncut .... but there is no reward tier for this ....

Let the colors convince .... !

Make a dollar donation and Add that Uncut beauty on !