28 Jun NFT ”HANAFUDA”ART

by Maho

What is Hanafuda?

Hanafuda (花札, “flower cards”) are traditional Japanese playing cards. A deck contains 48 cards, with four suits divided into 12 ranks representing months of the year. The decorative playing cards are based on pictures of flora such as pine, Japanese apricot tree, cherry blossom, wisteria, willow, and paulownia representing the four seasons.

This is a drawing based on the Japanese folk tale “The Crane Returns the Favor”. In this story, a crane, whose life was saved by a young man, comes to repay the favor by transforming herself into human form as a woman. The two become husband and wife and she continues to support the young man. She earned her living by weaving, using her own feathers in secret when she wove. Eventually, the young man discovered that she was a crane and she left him. Every day she struggled with the feelings of both wanting to stay close to him and having to leave him.

This card shows the last image of her leaving the young man. The language of the pine tree is “pity” and “sympathy”. The pine tree must have been watching them all along. This card depicts a pine tree that was quietly watching the scene. In Japan, the combination of a pine tree and a crane symbolizes matter for congratulation.

Immortalising the series in NFTs

Maho has created a set of beautiful NFTs on the Symbol blockchain which are currently at auction on Nember Art. They really are special so if you would like to own them then please visit the site and bid before it is too late.

NineLives

I’m a Symbol and NEM enthusiast and run this blog to try to grow awareness of the platform in the English-speaking world. If you have any Symbol news you would like me to report on or you have an article that you would like to publish then please let me know!