0 comments on my sanity Listening to: Castlevania music
Mood: Amused
It's New Year. Happy New Year.
In honour of 2007 I thought I would bring you a traditional Japanese New Year game. Fun for all the family.
It's called "Iroha Karuta" and is the children's version of an apparently very exciting similar card game. In the full version, verses of poetry are read out- they are often extracts of famous poems, haiku or even Buddhist zen poems. There is then a mad scramble of all the players to find the card with the matching picture from those which are spread out on the floor.
Obviously presenting small children with verses of zen poetry is likely to get you some blank looks and some "What does it *mean*, Mummy?" so to let the kids in on the fun of this exciting game, a simpler version was produced.
"Iroha" is the order of the Japanese phonetic alphabet, and the idea is that there is one card for each of the sounds. Mummy spreads the picture cards out on the floor and the kids gather round, poised to elbow each other in the face and stamp on little Taro's hand.
Mummy picks a reading card from the box. On it is a Japanese proverb. Among the picture cards is one which (apparently) matches the proverb, and to help out the kids who don't yet know much classical Japanese (shame on them), the first syllable of the proverb is printed in the top corner of the correct card as well.
Mummy reads the proverb. Instantly, there is a mad rush of screaming, fighting kids as they all reach out for the card at once. The one who lays its sticky little mitt on the correct one first gets to keep it, the winner being the one with the most at the end.
Helen and I played this last night (in Japanese) and were reduced to helpless mirth by the proverbs, the pictures, and in some cases our complete inability to understand what the hell the picture had to do with the proverb. We did quite well at deciphering most of them in the end, but by far the most fun was had in coming up with a bunch of our own proverbs, based on the pictures.
I thought you guys might like to join in the fun.
The challenge is simple- come up with your own proverbs to match the selection of cards.
The previous ten entries contain the cards, give me the proverbs in the comments! Here is a handy picture with all of them on one page so that you can laugh merrily at them all at once if you like.
In a few days when everyone has had enough and is sick to the back teeth with them, I will post the real proverbs and the best approximation I can make to an explanation of it.
Here is an example.
I favoured "Wear a pot on your head and you will never be caught short".
However, the real proverb is
Tsukiyo ni kama wo nuku
On a moonlit night, watch out for your pot.
My handy(!) note from the game box says "On a bright, moonlit night your important cooking pot will be stolen." I think it means "take extra care of important things when you know there is a risk involved". I lean towards a variant of "Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted".
Go! Create humourous proverbs!
On each page, clicking on the picture will get you the full-sized one in all its glory in a new window.
There are ten in all. Here is the picture with the whole lot all together.
And in case you want to jump to the last one:
#1: Mr. A
#2: Mr. Ku
#3: Mr. and Mrs. Se
#4: Mr. So
#5: Mr. (Mrs.?) Nu
#6: Mr. He
#7: Mr. Ho
#8: Mr. Ma (and friend)
#9: Mr. Ya
#10: Mr. Yo
January 01, 2007 at 1:28 p.m.