JAPAN ALMANACPlay Koi-Koi

05 / Early summer

May

Iris and bridge imagery point toward water, poems, and summer.

Launch Note

The full May almanac essay is not published yet. This page is live so the calendar foundation has stable URLs, verified Hanafuda month data, and exact Koi-Koi card art from the approved deck.

Iris in the Hanafuda deck

菖蒲 / ayame. Hanafuda uses four cards per month; these are the current May cards imported from the Koi-Koi source deck.

May Hanafuda card: Iris, Eight-plank bridge, Animal/Object
Eight-plank bridgeAnimal/Object
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Plain ribbon, Ribbon
Plain ribbonRibbon
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Iris chaff, Chaff
Iris chaffChaff
May Hanafuda card: Iris, Iris chaff, Chaff
Iris chaffChaff

Sources

  1. Try Playing Hanafuda!, Nintendo Museum. Accessed 2026-09-01. Used for the 48-card, 12-month Hanafuda structure and Nintendo Museum workshop context.
  2. Cultural Reference - Hanafuda & the Twelve Months, Koi-Koi repository. Accessed 2026-09-01. Internal topic map only; not treated as external factual authority.