From: ManbowPapa@hotmail.com   
      
   Chihayafuru   
      
   by SUETSUGU Yuki   
   as a "BLKC comic" published by Koudansha   
   7 volumes (on going)   
      
   Don't get fooled by the embarrassingly girlish appearance of   
   the book cover. This manga is an extremely well written sports   
   manga with pile of traditional Japanese cultural references,   
   poetries, morals, friendship, passion, love triangle and   
   much more. Give a try to the first volume AT ANY COST.   
      
   Sorry, this post is LONG.   
      
   [ Story ]   
      
   When Chihaya is in 6th grade, Arata is transferred to her class.   
   Classmates tease him for his strong local accent, but Chihaya   
   covers him and becomes a friend afterwards. The school has an   
   annual event of Karuta game and Chihaya has some experiences   
   of it. Arata invites her to play Karuta but Chihaya loses the   
   game and gets only one of 50 cards. Arata is a grandson of a   
   Karuta master and Arata himself is a class champion of the   
   National Karuta competition. So, Arata is quite impressed by   
   Chihaya's getting one card from him and says her, "I think   
   you have talent for Karuta". Chihaya is very pleased and wants   
   to be a better player. Her friend Taichi becomes their company   
   because of his rivalry to Arata. But soon they are separated   
   by their circumstances.   
      
   Four years later, Chihaya becomes a student of a hischool.   
   As her elder sister becomes a fashion model, Chihaya also becomes   
   a tall beautiful girl but she talks and behaves like a boy and   
   is called a "useless beauty". Chihaya has been trained for Karuta   
   ever since then, and now is a quite competitive player. She   
   establishes Karuta club in the hischool with four members   
   including Taichi and is dreaming of playing a match with Arata   
   before long. She also wants to be a queen of the National   
   Karuta competition as Arata once suggested her. When she confronts   
   the current queen who is as young as Chihaya the first time,   
   however, she can do almost nothing but give a serious impact   
   to the opponent that the queen will never forget.   
      
   [ Karuta : the game ]   
      
   Karuta [carta: Portuguese] was invented in the Edo period and   
   was a popular game during the period. As a play for New Year's   
   vacation, it was still popular half century ago. Now, at least   
   in Tokyo, it's almost forgot and I only watched the Queen match   
   in NHK BS as a New Year's event.   
      
   There are 100 cards in a set of which every card has a bottom   
   part of a tanka [Japanese short poem] from Hyakunin Isshu   
   (see below for further details). Pick 50 of them at random and   
   each of two players takes half of the picks. Sit against the   
   opponent on tatami. Align the cards in front of them. A reader   
   sings a top part of a randomly picked tanka from a complete set   
   and the players try to take the card of the bottom part of it   
   faster than the opponent. A game ends when one of the players   
   clear up his/her cards from own side.   
      
   There are cards that can be determined by the first sound/syllable.   
   For example, sa, su, se etc. And needs six sounds at maximum.   
   For examle: asaborakea, asaborakeu. If a player picks a correct   
   card from own side, the player's total amount of cards decreases   
   by one. If a player picks a correct card from opponent side, the   
   player sends a card from own side to the opponent side and own   
   total decreases by one. If a player picks a wrong card, the   
   opponent sends a card to the player. Thus the player's total   
   increases by one and the opponent of it decreases by one making   
   two cards penalty to the player. There are 50 "kara uta" that   
   has no match at the begining. So the possibility of finding a match   
   in the players' cards is 50:50. It can be true throughout a game.   
   The number of sounds needed to determine a correct card is ever   
   changing as the tanka are ever spending. The players must keep   
   track of the changes in mind.   
      
   Before the reader begins to read the first waka, players are given   
   15 minutes to memorize all the positions of 50 cards spread in   
   own sides and the opponent's side. A player can rearrange cards   
   in own side anytime for any reason. It may confuse the opponent.   
   But it can also confuse the player him/herself. So, be careful.   
      
   There are many tactics to win a game. For example, to have a rigid   
   arrangement schema of cards that reduces the cost of memorizing   
   the position of a lot of cards. Some arm movements to guard your   
   cards and/or attack opponent's cards.   
      
   Actual matches seen on TV looked more like Kendo than a card   
   game. Players move too fast to follow by our naked eyes.   
   A sharp sound bursts everytime players hit a card and tatami.   
   A game needs about an hour to finish. A player must be an athlete   
   to fight for several games a day.   
      
   [ Hakama: Japanese Clothes]   
      
   Japanese traditional sports and games have discliplines players   
   to follow. Hakama is the formal Japanese clothes for them. Although   
   Karuta isn't an exception, players wear more casual outfit when   
   it's allowed because Hakama disturbs the action of the play. In   
   the manga, members of the Team Chihayafuru sometimes wear Hakama   
   because Kana-chan's mother runs a Japanese Clothes shop. Chihaya   
   and Kana-chan look gorgeous when they are in Kosode and Hakama.   
      
   [ Oumi Jingu : the Jinja ]   
      
   Because Oumi Jingu enshrines Tenji Tennou who wrote the first   
   waka of Karuta, it's been the center of Karuta competition for   
   a long time. Oumi Jingu is located about 8km east of Kyoto and   
   near the south end of Lake Biwa that is the largest lake in Japan.   
   Kangakukan building near by the jinja is used as the hall of   
   the competition.   
      
   [ Waka : Japanese Song/Poetry ]   
      
   The oldest book of waka, the Japanese song/poetry, remained til   
   today is "Man-you shuu" that consists of 4,516 waka written in the   
   mid 7th to mid 8th century. Man-you means ten thousand leaves.   
   It's still a rich source of basis of Japanese mentality and sympathy   
   for the beauty of the wild nature. In the Pacific war, soldiers   
   sometimes carried a Man-you shuu along the battle fields. The book   
   might remember them the homeland and the origin of their existence.   
      
   The Karuta uses 100 complete collections of waka of Ogura Hyakunin   
   Isshu (Hyakunin Isshu for short) that compiled by Fujiwara-no-Teika   
   in the 13th century. Teika personally selected one for one poet from   
   the fortune of waka of 600 years of accumulation.   
      
   Teika also wrote a thick diary in which he described the super nova   
   of 1054 that is now the Crab Nebula. According to the diary, it shined   
   brighter than Venus, can be seen in a daylight and stayed in the sky   
   for six months. As he was born in 1161, the article must be hear-say,   
   though.   
      
   There are several fixed formats for waka. Hyakunin Isshu has only   
   tanka that has fixed number of sounds or syllables in the format of:   
      
   5-7-5 (top part) 7-7 (bottom part)   
      
   In the manga, Chihaya finds her name in the following tanka:   
      
     by Ariwara-no-Narihira (mid 9 ct.)   
      
     Chihayaburu   
     Kamiyo mo kikazu   
     Tatsuta-gawa   
     Karakurenai ni   
     Mizu kukuru towa   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)