Japanese handmade Hanafunda playing cards

An incomplete set of handmade Japanese Hanafunda playing cards. There are only 10 (40 cards) of the expected 12 (48 cards) suits of four cards each. Each suit consists of four identically marked cards hand-drawn in black, pink, yellow and purple ink motifs, which include flowers, insects, geometric shapes, birds and Mt Fuji. Every motif is contained within a purple-edged yellow border. The cardboard for the cards has been cut out from the backs of 'Coo-ee' brand cigarette packets.

This set of Japanese Hanafunda playing cards was found in a train at Central Station, Sydney. They had been left behind by one of the last group of Japanese prisoners of war to be repatriated from the prisoner of war camp at Cowra. The set is missing two of its normal twelve suits of four cards each. Coo-ee brand cigarettes were one of the cheapest brands in Australia at this time and were routinely issued to prisoners and internees.

A Hanafunda pack of cards consists of 48 cards divided into 12 suits of four cards, each representing a month of the year. The cards are not numbered but are illustrated with motifs such as plants, trees, mountains, animals or the moon. Some motifs are peculiar to particular regions of Japan. The cards in each suit may be identical or may be variations on the motif selected for a particular month.

Hanafunda was originally a simple card matching game but in the twentieth century became a serious gambling game. There are a number of variations of the game but it is usually played by two or four players and resembles the western game of 'Rummy'. The four cards in each suit may be assigned point values - 1,5,10 or 20 - but the aim is still to match cards to make pairs or runs, and to accumulate the maximum possible 88 points. Hanafunda is sometimes called '88' for this reason.

• Japanese handmade Hanafunda playing cards