Playing Karuta — かるた遊び

Playing karuta (かるた遊び) — the traditional Japanese card game played at New Year's, in which players race to match poem cards — is depicted with the animated concentration that characterizes Shuntei's best children's and women's game scenes. Karuta was both a New Year's tradition and a vehicle for the memorization of classical Japanese poetry (particularly in the Hyakunin Isshu card set), giving the game an educational as well as recreational dimension. Shuntei captures the competitive energy of the game: the outstretched hands, the focused attention, the quick-reaction dynamic.