216 Women at Coal Pits (Yama) in the Old Days #22: Gambling (Hanafuda Games)

Main Text
There were no amusement facilities at the coal pit. Some women enjoyed gambling whenever they were free. They did not play dice games, such as Chohan or Mitsuzu (nor a hanafuda card game called Yamasuke), but played card games using hanafuda cards (koppai) which are still used today. In a popular hanafuda game, 48 cards composed of four suits of 12 cards representing each month were usually used by three players, and the game was called Beta-bana or Nakatsu-bana.
They also played card games using 40 mamefuda (gajifuda) cards. Since one suit was of cards composed of 10 cards representing 1 to 10, women miners also enjoyed a game called Mekuri [gathering pairs of cards with the same number, which was played by pairing off faced cards on the board with those in their hands or those piled and placed faced down]. This game was called Bote when it was played by three people, which was also called Gaji as a game mainly played by men when it was done by two people.
There was a playhouse called Yorokan in Nishimachi in Iizuka Town a few kilometers away from the pit, and was the only amusement facility around there at that time. However, theaters and pit workers were strangers in a very real sense.

Text at the Bottom Left
There were high-scoring hands of one of the hanafuda card games, such as Ino-shika-cho [a three-card set on each of which a figure of a wild boar, a deer, or a butterfly is printed], Akatan [a three-card set with a red oblong card printed on each], Aotan [a three-card set with a blue oblong card printed on each], Ippai [a pair of cards consisting of the card of a sake cup and either the card of cherry blossoms behind a curtain or the card of the moon on Japanese pampas grass], Kozanko [a three-card set of a Japanese apricot, pine tree, and cherry blossoms with a red oblong card on each], etc. If a player was dealt seven pointless cards, the player could reveal them and make them a hand (shirayaku).