karuta; traditional Japanese playing cards
Refers specifically to Japanese card games using small rectangular cards, especially competitive karuta based on classical poetry (hyakunin isshu) or proverb-matching (iroha karuta).
from Portuguese carta
We played karuta with the family during the New Year holidays.
彼女は競技カルタの選手です。
She is a competitive karuta player.
We played karuta with the family on New Year's Day.
As soon as the reader read the card, everyone rushed to grab the matching karuta card.
The children love playing with karuta cards.
playing cards are naturally counted with 枚 in everyday usage.
Rare kanji form; may also be read こっぱい in other contexts.