Clubs and Circles : Karuta-kai

Karuta-kai is an inter-college club based at the Ichigaya Campus that enjoys playing competitive karuta. The members practice three times a week in the club in a game format to hone their skills.

The competitive karuta is a game of karuta playing using cards from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, a Japanese anthology of 100 poems, in which players compete one-on-one to see who can get the first card with the last word of the poem when the first word of the poem is read.

In the game, the winner is the player who has reduced to zero the 25 cards lined up on his or her side of the table. The winner is the player who has 25 cards lined up on his or her side of the table. If a player's cards are taken from his own position or if he makes an otezuki, his opponent will send his cards back to him, so it is a game of split-second judgment," says former representative Matsuoka, who explains the appeal of competitive karuta. We have a record of winning the top university in Japan in a tournament held before the Corona disaster, so we have a group of karuta enthusiasts who were drawn to the club by its strength," he says with a smile.

There are many competitive karuta tournaments, but the club focuses especially on the "University Championship," which determines the number one university in Japan each year, and the "National Professional Karuta Tournament," which is held twice a year.

To enter each tournament, students are ranked by grade, starting with E, then moving up to D, C, and B as they compete and perform well, with A being the highest grade.

The Corona disaster caused a series of tournament cancellations, and I lost the opportunity to try for promotion for a while, but I was finally able to show the results of my practice," said Mr. Akasaki, happy to have been promoted to A-kyu, which he had longed for. To become an A-kyu player, you need to win or finish second twice in B-kyu tournaments. To keep winning tournaments, you have to stay focused all day long, so I was relieved and happy when I was promoted," he recalls of his moment of accomplishment.

The Karuta Kai has a good atmosphere within the club. Of course we compete seriously in games, but there are also many members who want to enjoy playing karuta. In our daily lives, we are increasing opportunities for social events where we can casually enjoy playing competitive karuta while talking to each other regardless of rank or grade," says Murata. We are considering resuming the training camps that we used to hold three times a year, and since 2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of our founding, we have begun planning events that will include alumni.

The club is now more active than ever, energized by the thoughts and feelings of the past three years as it looks toward the year 2023, when it will finally be able to resume its full range of activities.

(First published in the March 2023 issue of Hosei, a public relations magazine)