Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 7, 1 July 2016 — Hanafuda Nā Pua [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hanafuda Nā Pua

By Lynn Cook The ancient Japanese card game Hanafuda is all new, all Hawaiian and all ready to grow memories for a new generation. Helen Nakano, a dedicated teacher, mother and grandmother, premieres her new Hanafuda Nā Pua Hawai'i set at gift stores statewide this month. Special classes and demonstration games will be offered on July

9 at Nā Mea Hawai'i and the Louis Pohl Gallery. If you're loeal, there's a good ehanee you remember parents and grandparents sitting on the porch playing Hanafuda at the end of the workday, a unique clicking sound punctuating their moves as they slapped down thin wooden cards. Kept in wooden boxes with sliding tops, the 48-card decks were divided into 12 suits, eaeh with four cards. With points for suits and points for combinations, the fastpaced game could be mind-boggling until the rules heeame clear. Observant keiki often picked up the rules and played after school. Among adults, betting was sometimes involved. But, like many things from "small kid days," longer work hours, twocareer families and the internet edged out the porch-time, along with the century-old game called Hanafuda. Now Helen Nakano has brought the game of Hanafuda back with a new Hawaiian style. In 2010, after a successful career as an educator and a mom, as well as living around the world as the wife of military officer, Nakano retumed to Hawai'i to lead Mālama O Mānoa, the heritage preservation organization. Spending time with her then five-year-old granddaughter, Nakano realized how mueh heritage was slipping away. She began teaching Hanafuda to granddaughter Arielle, whieh led to writing a little instruction booklet. That grew into a larger book and in 2010 she founded Hanafuda Hawai'i to produce a new version of the traditional cards. The updated decks were an immediate success but Nakano

wanted something more. She says, "It isn't often that a retired person over 70 starts a company and an all-new career but I didn't want the Hanafuda tradition to fade into distant memory. The game made me do this." Nakano says she is on a mission to generate a new fan base for the game, starting with her now 13-year-old granddaughter. Her artist son, Jason, agreed to work on a Hawaiian version, Nā Pua Hawai'i. The two consulted a diverse group of respected leaders in the Hawaiian eommunity including Maile Meyer of Nā Mea Hawai'i; scholarManu Meyer; practitioner of kapa, Kaiulani de Silva; 'Anela Iwane from Hawaiian charter schools; Kaholo Daguman, a farmer from Laupāhoehoe and more. Changes and adjustments were made. Jason Nakano says, "We went through 14 versions of the cards before we settled on our hnal results." The cards include suits

of endemic plants including 'ōhi'a lehua, 'iliahi, 'ilima, limu, and hāpu'u, as well as suits of eanoe plants: hala, kalo, kl,

'ulu, and kukui. Cards also illustrate birds, oeean life animals and objects, including the 'iwa, pueo and 'a'ama. Ulua, pulelehua, 'Ilio, pua'a and kapa, pahu and ki'i pōhaku are also featured. The art is so attractive that individual prints have been suggested and will be available at the Louis Pohl Gallery. Growing up in a Hawaiian-Chinese family in 'Ewa, Charlie Chong remembers family and neighbors playing the game for hours. Now retired,

Chong is one of Nakano's first instructors — or as she calls them, "sensei." He will be teaching at the Pohl Gallery on July 9, telling his story of watching and learning the game. "I know that we identified the cards not by the Japanese names but by the pictures on the cards. Our neighbors had different versions depending on if they were Hawaiian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese or haole." His enthusiasm for the cards is catching. "Like trumps, Hanafuda is a matching game that requires quick recognition," he says. "It keeps the brain working." Chong is one of many sensei recruited by Nakano. "My bank teller, friends from the Mānoa Heritage Center, senior centers and neighbors, my plan is to gather multiethnic, multi-age groups to leam and play against eaeh other," she says, suggesting that if Hanafuda wasn't part of your childhood, now is the time to make your own memories of the sound of Hanafuda cards hitting a table. Check the web site www.hanafudahawaii.com for a full schedule of demonstrations and classes and details of a tournament at Ward Centre. Find the card sets at Louis Pohl Gallery, Nā Mea Hawai'i, Bishop Museum, Honolulu Museum of Art, Hakubundo, Kailua General Store, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, Nā Makana at Paradise Park and on the website. ■ Lynn Cook i.s a loeal freelance journalist sharing the arts and euhwe ofHawai'i wiih a glohal auāienee.

How to Hanafuda Taught by Helen Nakano and her Sensei Free classes July 9; 11 to 2 at Pohl Gallery; 3 to 5 at Nā Mea. July 11; 10 to 1 at Nā Mea July 12; 10 to 12 atthe YWCA July 13; 12 to 3 at Nā Mea July 19; 6 to 8 pm at Nā Mea July 21; 10 to 1 at Na Mea

Helen Nakano's passion for reviving interest in Hanafuda is a family affair. Pictured left to right, George, Gregg Nakano, Arielle Spivack, and Helen Nakano. - Photo: Courtesy Jason Nakano