How to Play Hanafuda Koi-Koi | Rules, Every Yaku and Its Points (Mon), When to Call Koi-Koi, and Winning Tips for Beginners

Koi-Koi is a two-player game of matching months and building yaku

Koi-Koi is the most widely played two-player hanafuda game. A hanafuda deck has 4 cards for each of the 12 months from January to December, 48 in all, and in Koi-Koi you capture cards by matching cards of the same month. When the cards you have captured form one of the set combinations (a yaku), you can win that month's round.

• Players: 2. One is the dealer (oya) and the other is the non-dealer (ko).
• Deal: 8 cards to each hand, 8 face up on the table, and the remaining 24 face down as the draw pile.
• A turn: play 1 card from your hand and capture a card of the same month, then turn over 1 card from the draw pile and do the same.
• Winning: once you form a yaku, either say “shobu” (stop) and score, or say “koi-koi” and play on for more yaku.
• Length: the usual game is 12 rounds (12 months, January to December), and the total points (mon) decide the winner.

Points are counted in mon. Each yaku is worth between 1 and 10 mon, and the winner of a round adds up every yaku formed that round. The fun of Koi-Koi lies in the moment a yaku appears: do you take the sure win, or push for more? Under most rules, if you call koi-koi and your opponent then wins first, your yaku score nothing and your opponent's score is doubled, so greed can cost you a lot.

Telling the 48 cards apart: the plant of each month, and brights, animals, ribbons and plain cards

The plant on a card tells you its month, and the picture puts it in one of four types. There are 5 brights (hikari), the highest-value cards; 9 animal cards (tane) showing animals or objects; 10 ribbon cards (tan) showing a poetry ribbon; and 24 plain cards (kasu) showing only the plant.

Most months have one animal or bright, one ribbon and two plain cards, but there are three exceptions. August (pampas grass) has no ribbon and instead has one bright and one animal; November (willow) has one card of each type; and December (paulownia) has one bright and three plain cards. The willow plain card shows a dramatic lightning drum, so newcomers often mistake it for a scoring card.

• The three Red Ribbons (pine, plum and cherry) are red ribbons with writing. Pine and plum read “akayoroshi”; the character that looks like “no” is an old cursive form of “ka”, so many people read it “anoyoroshi”. The cherry ribbon reads “miyoshino”.
• The three Blue Ribbons (peony, chrysanthemum and maple) are blue or purple ribbons without writing.
• The four plain red ribbons without writing (wisteria, iris, bush clover and willow) count for neither Red nor Blue Ribbons, but they do count towards Tan (5 ribbons).
• The Sake Cup on the chrysanthemum is an animal card, but most rules also count it as a plain card. It is also used for both sake yaku, which makes it the hardest-working card in Koi-Koi.

Setting up: choosing the dealer and dealing

1. 1

   Choose the dealer

   Shuffle the cards, place them face down, and each player turns over one card. Whoever turns over the earlier month (January's pine is earliest) becomes the dealer. If both are the same month, draw again. The dealer plays first, which is a slight advantage.

2. 2

   Deal the cards

   The dealer deals 8 cards to the non-dealer, 8 face up to the table and 8 to themselves, and places the remaining 24 face down beside the table as the draw pile. Hold your hand so your opponent cannot see it.

3. 3

   Check the table

   If all 4 cards of one month land on the table, the usual rule is to redeal. If 3 cards of a month are on the table, play starts as normal, and whoever plays the fourth card of that month captures all 4.

4. 4

   Check for dealt-hand yaku

   Under some rules, if your 8 dealt cards include all 4 of one month (Teshi) or four pairs of months (Kuttsuki), you win 6 mon on the spot before any card is played. Agree beforehand whether to use these hand yaku.

From the second month on, the usual rule is that the winner of the previous month becomes the dealer. If neither player forms a yaku and the month is drawn, the dealer stays the same. Because the winner keeps the deal, a player on a winning streak also keeps the advantage of playing first.

How a turn works: one card from your hand, one from the draw pile

1. 1

   Play one card from your hand

   Choose one card from your hand and play it to the table. If a card of the same month is on the table, take both cards and lay them face up in front of you. If there is no card of the same month, the card you played stays on the table as a discard.

2. 2

   Turn over one card from the draw pile

   Next, turn over the top card of the draw pile. If a card of the same month is on the table, capture it; if not, leave the drawn card on the table. You cannot choose this card, so this part is luck.

3. 3

   Check for a yaku

   If your captured cards now form a yaku, choose shobu (stop) or koi-koi. If not, it is your opponent's turn.

• Two cards of the same month on the table: choose one to capture. As a rule, take the more valuable one, such as a bright or an animal.
• Three cards of the same month on the table: capture all four together with the card you played.
• If the card you draw matches a month still on the table, capture it in the same way, even if it is the same month as the card you just played.
• Sorting your captured cards by type lets you and your opponent see at a glance how close each yaku is.

The dealer and non-dealer take turns like this. Each turn uses one card from your hand, so after 8 turns each, 16 in all, the hands are empty. If neither player has formed a yaku by then, the month is a draw (or a win for the dealer, depending on the rules).

Yaku list and points (mon)

Yaku and their points vary a little by region and by group, but the values widely used, for example in the rule sheet of Nintendo's hanafuda, are these.

• Only one bright yaku counts. With 4 brights you score Four Brights (or Rainy Four Brights) only, not Three Brights as well.
• All other yaku are added together. A card may count towards two yaku, as with Boar-Deer-Butterfly and Tane, or Red Ribbons and Tan.
• Three brights including the rain man (Ono no Michikaze) make no yaku. The rain card only helps as a fourth or fifth bright, which makes it an awkward bright.
• The Boar, Deer and Butterflies are animal cards, so two more animals give you Tane (1 mon) as well, for 6 mon in total.
• Under the rule that counts the Sake Cup as a plain card, 9 plain cards plus the Sake Cup make Kasu (1 mon).

Scoring: the double for 7 mon or more and the koi-koi double

The winner scores the total of all the yaku formed at the moment they stop. Most rules add two doubles on top.

• Double for 7 mon or more: if the total of your yaku is 7 mon or more, the score is doubled.
• Koi-koi double (winning after your opponent's koi-koi): if your opponent called koi-koi and you then form a yaku and stop, your score is doubled. Together with the 7-mon double, that makes four times the points.

Compare the second and third rows: one extra ribbon lifts the score from 6 mon to 14 mon. Under the 7-mon double, the gap between 6 and 7 mon is huge. This “7-mon wall” is the single most important factor in deciding whether to call koi-koi, as the next section explains.

Deciding whether to call koi-koi or stop

When you form a yaku, you choose to stop (shobu) or to call koi-koi and play on. Calling koi-koi gives you the chance to add yaku or raise your score, but if your opponent forms a yaku first, your yaku count for nothing and your opponent scores double. Here are some guidelines.

You can see how close your opponent is by looking at the cards they have captured. If they hold the Boar and the Deer and the Butterflies are still on the table or in the draw pile, they are one card away from Boar-Deer-Butterfly. Calling koi-koi while a peony (June) card sits on the table is risky. Be just as wary of an opponent holding 2 brights, or 2 Red or 2 Blue Ribbons.

• After calling koi-koi, if you form another yaku or raise your score with more Tane, Tan or Kasu cards, you may choose again between stopping and koi-koi.
• If your opponent forms a yaku after your koi-koi, they usually stop at once and you score nothing. Under the koi-koi double, their score is doubled.
• If both hands run out after a koi-koi, the usual rule is that the month is drawn, and the player who called koi-koi does not score their yaku either.

Six tips that help beginners win

1. 1

   Take the Sake Cup first

   The Sake Cup counts as an animal (Tane), as a plain card (Kasu) and for both sake yaku. One card feeds three yaku, so go for it as soon as a September card appears on the table. If your opponent takes it, both sake yaku are gone for you.

2. 2

   The Cherry Curtain and the Moon each feed two yaku

   The Cherry Curtain and the Pampas Moon count towards the bright yaku and towards a sake yaku. If you already hold the Sake Cup, taking either one gives you a 5-mon yaku.

3. 3

   Take the cards that block your opponent

   Even if a card does nothing for you, taking the card your opponent needs to complete a yaku is often the right play. If they hold the Boar and the Deer, take the Butterflies; if they hold 2 Red Ribbons, take the third, ahead of a low-value plain card.

4. 4

   Discard cards that will not help your opponent

   When you have no match and must discard, play a card that will not lead to a yaku if your opponent captures it. Plain cards of months whose bright or animal is already taken, or cards of months unrelated to your opponent's yaku, are safe.

5. 5

   Count the remaining cards from what you can see

   Each month has 4 cards. By counting how many are on the table, in your captures and in your opponent's captures, you can narrow down where the rest are (your opponent's hand or the draw pile). For example, if 3 September cards are visible and the Sake Cup is not among them, the last one is the Sake Cup.

6. 6

   Use plain cards for that last mon

   Kasu needs 10 cards, so it is not a yaku to chase from the start. But if your yaku total 6 mon, the 1 mon from a tenth plain card brings you to 7 mon and doubles your score to 14. Plain cards are most useful for pushing your score up late in the round.

House rules that differ from table to table, and what to agree before playing

Koi-Koi rules differ a little between families, regions, apps and video games. To avoid arguments over points, agree on the following before you start.

Nintendo's hanafuda rule sheet and many apps use 5 mon for each sake yaku, with both the 7-mon double and the koi-koi double. If your family cannot decide, start with that set and change it to taste once you are used to the game. The Hanafuda Koi-Koi Score Calculator lets you switch these rules in its settings and scores accordingly.

Scoring rules often vary by table in other games too. For mahjong, see rounding up to mangan and other scoring house rules, which also lists what to check before you play.

Common Koi-Koi terms

• Mon: the unit of points in Koi-Koi, taken from an old Japanese coin.
• Oya and ko: the player who plays first is the dealer (oya), the other is the non-dealer (ko).
• Table (ba): the face-up cards. You capture them by playing a card of the same month.
• Draw pile (yamafuda): the face-down stack of remaining cards. You turn over one each turn.
• Scoring cards (yakufuda): brights, animals and ribbons, the cards used in yaku, as opposed to plain cards.
• Shobu (stopping): ending the month once you have a yaku and collecting your points.
• Koi-koi: carrying on after forming a yaku to try for more.
• Koi-koi return (koi-koi gaeshi): forming a yaku and stopping after your opponent has called koi-koi.
• Dealer's privilege (oya-ken): a rule that gives a drawn month to the dealer.

FAQ

Can you explain the Koi-Koi rules simply?

Two people play, with 8 cards in each hand, 8 on the table and 24 in the draw pile. On your turn, play a card from your hand to capture a table card of the same month, then turn over a card from the draw pile and do the same. When your captured cards form a yaku, either stop to score or call koi-koi to keep playing. Repeat for 12 months; the higher total in mon wins.

How is the dealer chosen in Koi-Koi?

Usually each player turns over one card and whoever shows the earlier month becomes the dealer; if the months are the same, draw again. From the second month on, the previous month's winner deals. After a drawn month the dealer stays the same.

What happens if I call koi-koi and my opponent wins?

You score nothing for the yaku you had, and your opponent collects their score. Under the koi-koi double, their score is doubled: if your opponent has Boar-Deer-Butterfly plus Tane for 6 mon, they score 12.

When is the best time to call koi-koi?

When your opponent is still far from any yaku, you have plenty of cards left, and many unseen cards would add a yaku or raise your score. It is especially worth it under the 7-mon double when you have 6 mon, since one more mon makes 14. If your opponent is one card from a yaku, or you have only 2 or 3 cards left, stopping is the safer choice.

What is the difference between Rainy Four Brights and Three Brights?

Three Brights is 3 brights not including Ono no Michikaze (the rain man), worth 5 mon; 3 brights including him make no yaku. Four brights including him are Rainy Four Brights (7 mon), without him Four Brights (8 mon), and all 5 are Five Brights (10 mon). Only the highest bright yaku counts.

Which cards are November and December in hanafuda?

In Japanese hanafuda, November is the willow (Ono no Michikaze, the Swallow, a ribbon and the lightning plain card) and December is the paulownia (the Phoenix and 3 plain cards). In Korean hwatu, the plants for November and December are swapped.