[4] E-awase originally derived from kai-awase, which was played with shells but were converted to card format during the early 17th century.

It is often played by children at elementary school and junior high-school level during class, as an educational exercise.

It kept the four Latin suits of cups, coins, clubs, and swords along with the three face cards of female knave, knight, and king.

As a result of Japan's isolationist Sakoku policy, karuta would develop separately from the rest of the world.

By the mid-20th century, all mekuri karuta fell into oblivion with the exception of Komatsufuda (Japanese: 小松札, English: Small pine cards) which is used to play Kakkuri, a game similar to Poch, found in Yafune, Fukui prefecture.

Six of the ranks were face cards of female knave, knight, king, "Un" (うん), "Sun" (すん), and dragon.

Unsun karuta is still used in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto, to play hachinin-meri, a game descended from Guritipau, a relative of Ombre.

Inverted ranking is a feature found in Madiao, Khanhoo, Tổ tôm, Ganjifa, Tarot, Ombre, and Maw and is believed to have originated in the very earliest card games.

The gambling game of Tehonbiki [ja] can be played with either a Harifuda (張札) or Hikifuda (引札, lit.

"reading cards"), which have the complete poem taken from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (小倉百人一首), and the other is torifuda (取り札, lit.

[13][14] In both games, the poems are irrelevant, and the only parts of the cards that matter are the appearance of the poets such as their clothing, sex, or social status.

[15][16] They are used to play a competitive partnership game called shimo-no ku karuta [ja] in which the last half of the poem is read.

[17] Iroha karuta (Japanese: いろはかるた) is an easier-to-understand matching game for children, similar to Uta-garuta but with 96 cards.

[18] Success requires knowledge of Japanese mythology and folklore as players attempt to collect cards that match clues read by a referee.

The game is one of the earliest attempts by Japanese companies to categorize legendary creatures, label them, define them, and subsequently market them.