Kabufuda

Kabufuda (株札（かぶふだ）) are Japanese playing cards used for gambling games such as Oicho-Kabu mainly used in the Kansai region.

Like the related hanafuda (lit. 'flower cards'), kabufuda is a descendant of mekuri karuta, which ultimately descends from 16th century Portuguese playing cards. Since suits are irrelevant in kabu games, decks used for those games became single-suited during the 18th-century. Like in baccarat, the object of most kabu games is to get a total closest to nine. Early kabufuda decks had three ranks of face cards but since they have no value, only the knaves were kept in most variants.

The word kabu is believed to derive from the Portuguese slang cavo meaning a stake, bet, or wager. Closely related are the gabo games played with Korean tujeon cards and the Indian Ganjapa game of komi.

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