Hanafuda "都の花" (Nintendo)

The flowers that bloom in the spring;
Tra la!

bring promise of merry sunshine...

( Gilbert and Sullivan- the Mikado )

Hanafuda, "都の花", Nintendo, 48c. +1 spare

The subject of the hanafuda, amongst card-collectors is a very famous one. To cut a long story short, After playing cards were introduced to Japan ( and their subsequent banning) , some smart players decided to change the 12  ranks of the card decks into 12 series ( "suits", ) of 4 subjects each , the subjects being 12 flowers , one for each of the 12 months. In spite of frequent bans, the cards survived to the present day, and still maintain their popularity.

Now, I have seperated the deck into 3 images. Image 1 contains all the "suits" form Jaunary to May, image 2, the flowers from june to october, and the last image, november and december.
Note the following:
1- note the "thunder" card on the november suit ( 3rd image, 1st row, 1st card on left). Under the large black blobs, note the stylized thunder-cloud
2- note the 3 cards of the "december" suit ( 3rd image, 2nd row, 1st 3 cards fr. left).
the maker's name is usualy put on them.