This is our take on the traditional Hyakunin-isshu.



The Hyakunin-isshu is a deck of cards with 100 Japanese traditional poems by 100 different poets edited in the early 1200’s. The poems are made of a top phrase and a bottom phrase. When playing the cards in Japan, a reader reads only the top phrase and the players pick the card with corresponding bottom phrase as soon as they recognize the poem. The player who gets the most cards is the winner.
*If you would like to know more about these Japanese traditional poems, please refer to the book One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (Penguin Classics) by author Peter Macmillan.



We invited manga artist Radio Wada to draw up-to-date illustrations for the classical poems, based on literary interpretations by late author Mr. Osamu Hashimoto.



This Hyakunin-isshu was initially created as a small version for the Hobonichi Techo 2020 Store Exclusive, but we soon realized it was too good for it to just be a bonus item, so we made one with the traditional card size so that it can be enjoyed in the long term. The size of the cards are 52mm x 76mm (2.0” x 3.0”) with ample thickness. We asked Radio Wada to color in his illustrations once again for this edition, making it all the more delightful.







These cards are put in a dark green box with the words “Hobonichi Hyakunin-isshu” foil-stamped in gold.







Not only can it be used as a card game, it can also be enjoyed by interpreting the meaning of each poem and its corresponding illustration.