The Korean Hwatu

Hwatu (Hwa-tu) is the Korean version of the Japanese playing card game Hanafuda. The cards were brought into Korea in the early 1900, but both the deck and game have now become a part of the Korean tradition. The name Hwatu is translated into English as “flower cards”.

A deck of Japanese Hanafuda cards

The Hwatu deck has 48 cards, divided into 12 suits each named for flowers or plants during a month of the year; each suit contains four cards, one for each season. The deck is also smaller in size than the normal Western deck. Older traditional versions of the deck is made of thick cardboard, thus making the small sized deck thicker.

The game played with these cards is often referred to as Godori or Go-stop. I am sure you’ve heard of Go-stop if you are a k-drama fan. I think eight out of 10 dramas have the card game featured in it! (don’t you agree?)

Two popular games that you can play with a Hwatu deck are Go-stop and Sotda. Both games can be used to gamble, the latter, i learned from watching the movie “Tazza: The High Rollers”.

The Korean deck has 48 suit cards plus 6 extra cards.

A deck of Korean Hwatu cards

The Suit Cards: There are 12 suits, each with four cards, and each suit represents a flower or plant and a month of the year.

January – PINE (Sol)
February – PLUM BLOSSOM (MaeJo)
March – CHERRY BLOSSOM (Sakura)
April – WISTERIA (HukSaRi)
May – IRIS (NanCho)
June – PEONY (MokDan)
July – BUSH CLOVER (HungSaRi)
August – MOON (PalGong)
September – CHRYSANTHEMUM (GukHwa)
October – MAPLE (Pung)
November – PAULOWNIA (Dung)
December – RAIN (Bi)

Do you know how to play Go-stop? Do you own a deck of Hwatu cards? I read somewhere that if you fly Korean Air, you can find the hwatu on board.