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Format Guide · Showa Note · 1997 to 2026

Pokemon karuta: how the game works and what the cards are

A karuta box is a game with a checklist hiding inside it. Nothing is numbered, so the kana does the indexing, and the same kana holds a different Pokemon in every box.

A Kanto-box card at kana に. The card carries no number anywhere.
Kana ぬ is Haunter in the Kanto box and Dragonite in the Johto box. Dragonite is at ぬ in Johto and at り in the New Year Kanto box. The kana is a position, not an identity.
Kana ぬ is Haunter in the Kanto box and Dragonite in the Johto box. Dragonite is at ぬ in Johto and at り in the New Year Kanto box. The kana is a position, not an identity.
Kana ぬ is Haunter in the Kanto box and Dragonite in the Johto box. Dragonite is at ぬ in Johto and at り in the New Year Kanto box. The kana is a position, not an identity.

The archive holds photographed karuta rows on only three pages: original-kanto (2 rows), gold-silver-johto (1 row) and original-kanto-new-year (1 row, front only). There is no box-side photograph of any karuta product and no photographed card for any 2021 to 2026 box. The article says so rather than padding, and the closing section asks for exactly the two photographs that are missing.

Karuta is a matching game: one player reads from the character cards while everyone else races to grab the matching picture card off the floor, and whoever holds the most wins. [1] [2] The match is by sound, since each reading card opens with its kana and names its Pokemon inside itself, which is why one photograph of a reading card is catalogue-grade evidence for a pairing. [3] [4] A current box holds forty-five picture cards, forty-five character cards, two blank supplementary cards and one hiragana chart. [1] [6] [7]

It is forty-five and not forty-six because a karuta deck runs the kana from the first syllable through wo and skips n, which begins no Japanese word. [1] There are no card numbers anywhere in the box, so a card is identified by its kana together with the Pokemon printed on it. The catch is that a kana is a position and not an identity: the Kanto box puts Haunter at nu where the Johto box puts Dragonite, so a loose card is only a coordinate and you need the box or another card from the same deck. [1] [11]

To place a box, read its side. Showa Note prints a nine-digit item code beside MADE IN JAPAN whose middle three digits are a licence field, and 729 is Pokemon. [1] [14] The year in a retailer’s name is not the release year, since from 2020 every box is named only karuta pocket monsters and the trade sorts them by the New Year season they were sold for, so the box released in October 2024 is sold as karuta 2025. [1] [16] If the box is gone, the picture-card background dates the printing, and the lid slogan splits the catalogue, reading playable through 2017 and learnable from 2018. [1] [17]

A box whose card list is not finished shows a locked tile with no checklist or photo slots, because with no numbering a missing kana can only be photographed, not inferred, and it opens the day all forty-five positions are read. [1] [18] Two photographs would beat any further searching: the box side with the item code and barcode in one frame, since not one modern JAN has been read off an actual box, and the reading card, which settles its own pairing. The vintage boxes need it most. Credit stays with you.

Questions this article answers

How do you play karuta?

Spread the picture cards face up on the floor. One player reads from the character cards, and everyone else races to grab the matching picture card. The reader’s verse opens with that card’s kana and names its Pokemon inside the verse, so the line tells you what to look for. Whoever holds the most picture cards when the character cards run out wins.

Is there a Pokemon karuta card list?

There is one per box, and it has to be one per box, because the cards carry no numbers and every annual printing assigns its forty-five kana positions to different Pokemon. This archive publishes a box’s list only when all forty-five of its positions have been read off photographs of real cards, and shows a locked tile otherwise.

What is in a Pokemon karuta box?

Ninety-two pieces of card: forty-five picture cards, forty-five character cards, two blank supplementary cards and a hiragana chart. The lid offers three games, karuta plus a counting game and ABC cards. That contents line is read off the current box and is confirmed for the 2018, 2021 and 2022-and-later releases; the 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2006 box sides have never been read.

Is Taruka the same as Pokemon karuta?

No. Taruka is a different Pokemon Center game and is not karuta, so it is deliberately excluded from these pages. The archive also searched for a Pokemon Center exclusive karuta and found none: the official store sells the ordinary Showa Note year boxes.

Do graded Pokemon karuta cards exist?

Yes, and this archive uses them as evidence. Graded single karuta cards, including reading cards, carry a legible face and a stated year of manufacture, and slabbed examples supplied the corrections to four positions on the 2024 box and eight positions on the 2025 box. A grading label will not tell you which printing a card came from, though: the kana and the Pokemon are a coordinate, and the box is what fixes it.

Sources

  1. Karuta (かるた) is a Japanese matching game, not a trading card line ... The contents printed on the current box (JAN 4901772670650) are 45 picture cards, 45 character cards, two supplementary cards (補助札) and one hiragana chart ... Forty-five is not a rounding of forty-six. The kana run goes あ through を and skips ん, so a finished box is 45 pairs. That count is read off the current box; the vintage era boxes have not been separately verified ... Karuta carries no card numbers. The kana is the index ... Showa Note prints a nine-digit item code on the box side beside MADE IN JAPAN, grouped in threes and fours (674 7290 02) ... That label is the New Year season the box was sold for, not the date it shipped, so it sits one year ahead ... the あ card is Zorua in 2024, Fuecoco in 2025 and Chikorita in 2026 ... The 2007 Diamond and Pearl cards sit on a pastel checkerboard with a swirl of small stars, the 2008 cards on pale blue carrying a large Poké Ball watermark, the 2009 cards on diagonal stripes repeating POCKET MONSTERS ... It opens for everyone on the day the last of its 45 kana positions is read off a photograph of a real card.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:478, hub prose fold (sections hubcopy-karuta-hub-what-pokemon-karuta-is through hubcopy-karuta-hub-why-some-boxes-stay-closed)
  2. The picture cards go face up on the floor. One person reads from the character cards, and the other players race to find and take the picture card that matches. Whoever holds the most picture cards when the character cards run out wins. Pokemon boxes also print two other games on the lid, a counting game (かずあそび) and ABC cards, so one box covers three.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:211 (FAQPage) and :691 (visible FAQ)
  3. Every reading card prints its species in katakana inside the verse, so each card states its own identity.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-original-kanto-new-year.astro:64; sample verses published at pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:70 and pokemon-karuta-2025.astro:70; all 45 Kanto verses transcribed in data/research/karuta-original-kanto-verses-2026-09-02.json
  4. A Best Wishes reading card opens its verse with the card kana and names the Pokemon in hiragana, so a legible reading card is catalogue-grade evidence for that pairing.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-bw.astro:89
  5. The documented box contains 45 picture cards + 45 reading cards and prints three games on the lid: かるた, ポケモンあつまるかな and かさねてポケモン.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-gold-silver-johto.astro:67
  6. Ninety two pieces of card in total: 45 picture cards, 45 character cards, two supplementary cards and a hiragana chart. That is 45 kana pairs, not 46, because the run goes あ to を and skips ん.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:219 and :691 (FAQ); per-set statements at pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:66, -2025.astro:66, -sword-shield.astro:67
  7. 20 picture cards, columns は ま や ら わ, plus the blank 補助ふだ.in-repo research draft: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, kantoPrintingRoster.images[3].shows
  8. Karuta 2024 · JAN 4901772670582 · ¥1,100 ... price ¥1,320 tax-included.in-repo published page and research draft: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:66 and -2025.astro:66 (¥1,100); data/research/karuta-2026-exact-product-recovery-2026-09-01.json (¥1,320 tax included)
  9. The cards have no printed set number, so each stable row is keyed by its kana in gojūon order.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:71 (same sentence at -2025.astro:71)
  10. 45+45+2+1 is now confirmed ... for the 2018, 2021 and 2022-and-later releases ... 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2006 box sides remain unread. Retailer contents line: 絵札/45枚・字札/45枚・補助札/2枚/ひらがな表×1 日本製.in-repo research draft: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, reconciliations[5]; retailer contents string at :270
  11. Haunter karuta card, kana ぬ, Pokémon Karuta · Original / Kanto Checklist ... Dragonite karuta card, kana ぬ, Showa Note Pokémon Gold & Silver Johto Karuta Checklist (2000).in-repo photo row (the site’s own data): data/photo-manifest.json, pages[’pokemon-karuta-original-kanto’][’23’] and pages[’pokemon-karuta-gold-silver-johto’][’45’] (generated 2026-09-13 from the photos table by tools/build-photo-manifest.mjs)
  12. Dragonite karuta card, kana り, Showa Note Pokémon Karuta Kanto, New Year cover, front.in-repo photo row (the site’s own data): data/photo-manifest.json, pages[’pokemon-karuta-original-kanto-new-year’][’40’]
  13. A second Kanto-era printing, complete at 45 of 45. Its box front is a New Year scene with Charizard and Snorlax around a kotatsu. It disagrees with the checklist above at 44 of 45 kana positions and spends four positions on people, so it is a different product rather than a reprint.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:499 (New Year cover tile)
  14. Digits 4-6 of that code are a LICENCE field. 729 = Pokemon across karuta, shitajiki, notebooks, erasers, memo pads and pencil cases ... The PRINTED grouping is 3-4-2, so the licence field straddles the printed grouping.in-repo research draft: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, threadA_karuta.the_identification_laws_this_pass_tested[0]
  15. Ten Pokemon karuta JANs, in one unbroken run, against exactly ten ... karuta releases in ... chronology for the same span. The run has no gaps and no spares, and it is pinned at BOTH ends by bindings the site has already verified independently ... None of these JANs was read off a box side.in-repo research draft: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, threadA_karuta.janRunClosed.result and .whatThisIsNot
  16. CONFIRMED on a second, independent product line ... Kamen Rider Revice karuta (a show that ran Sept 2021 to Aug 2022, so an autumn-2021 karuta) is tagged 2022 ... The JAN is stable; the wholesaler’s year tag is not. Treat the tag as a lead only.in-repo research draft: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, the_identification_laws_this_pass_tested law 2 (confirmation, exception and mutability)
  17. OVERTURNED. This pass read seven box fronts directly. あそべる runs from the Kanto era through the 2017 release; まなべる starts at the 2018 release and continues to 2025. There is ONE switch and no reversion ... The line name is now a coarse but real discriminator: it splits the catalogue at the 2018 release.in-repo research draft and acceptance record: data/research/draft-karuta-gaps-pencil-boards-2026-09-13.json, the_identification_laws_this_pass_tested law 3; FABLE_QUEUE_2026-09-08.md:837
  18. This box is here so collectors know it exists. Its checklist is not finished, so it stays closed and takes no photographs yet. It opens for everyone the day all 45 kana positions are identified.in-repo published page and build gate: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:227 and the locked banner repeated at pokemon-karuta-2021.astro:77 and siblings; enforced by tools/karuta-upload-gating-regression.cjs
  19. The official Pokemon Center store sells the ordinary Showa Note year boxes rather than an exclusive of its own. Searches recorded in this archive turned up no Pokemon Center exclusive karuta. The Pokemon Center game called Taruka (タルカ) is a different product and is not karuta, so it is deliberately excluded from these pages.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:243 and :691
  20. None has been found. This archive searched specifically for a magazine-supplement karuta and for variant types such as English, proverb, encyclopedia and bath karuta, and found no evidence that any exists.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta.astro:251 and :691
  21. Graded slabs supplied the four 2024 label corrections ... 2024-manufacture slabs for eight 2025 positions.in-repo published page: src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:70 and -2025.astro:70
  22. The official Pokemon Center product record establishes the Karuta 2024 name, JAN, contents and November 9, 2023 release date. Its sample establishes Zorua at あ.external primary source already cited on the set pages: cited at src/components/pages/pokemon-karuta-2024.astro:70 and -2025.astro:70
  23. Showa Note’s own product record for the 2026 box, product number 430729001.external primary source already cited in the research record: data/research/karuta-2026-exact-product-recovery-2026-09-01.json

Hidden Temple Codex, 13 September 2026. Card lists here open only when every one of a box’s forty-five kana positions has been read off a photograph of a real card. Photographs remain the property of the collectors credited on them.