Wikipedia [ja|en|de] Games that fall under the category 歌がるた use cards that are based on poems. Most commonly used is the 小倉百人一首, an anthology of 100 短歌. For each poem there is one 読み札 and a matching 取り札. - 読み札 usually contain a depiction of the poet, his name and the whole poem - 取り札 usually contain only the 下の句 (written in ひらがな and w/o any 濁点) There are many ways to play with 歌がるた cards. Some of those are described in more detail further down. Features that several ways of playing have in common will be explained here and referred to where applicable: - 決まり字 The first syllable that uniquely identifies a poem. There are, for example, two poems in the 百人一首 that start with 「う」 65: 「 うら みわび・・・」 74: 「 うか りける・・・」 but have different second syllables. Therefore 「ら」 and 「か」 respectively are 決まり字 for those poems. - 出札 The 取り札 that currently has to be identified. - 自陣 and 敵陣 Refer to the own and oponent's portion of the playing field in games where 2 parties compete.

- 送り札 In games where players are assigned a set of 取り札 which they have to empty, a 送り札 is a card being sent to the 敵陣. 送り札 occur when a player takes a card form the 敵陣 (shown in the illustration on the right) or in case of お手つき (see below). - お手つき Refers to a playing mistake — usually due to misidentifying the 出札; usually resulting in a 送り札. - 読み手 Most 歌がるた games require a designated reader to recite the poems written on the 読み札. This person is called 読み手. - Reading & card taking The usual progression in most 歌がるた games is as follows: (1) the reader randomly picks a 読み札 and recites the poem (2) one of the players takes the matching 取り札 (–) repeat until a player has won