tanzaku

The term "tanzaku" refers to a picture of a sheet of paper for poetry writing that appears on one of the cards in a hanafuda deck. Hanafuda are Japanese playing cards, with 48 cards divided into 12 suits, each representing a month and its associated flower.1

The cards themselves are small, measuring about 2¹/₈ by 1¹/₄ inches, and are thicker than Western playing cards. Unlike Western cards, hanafuda cards do not have numbers or symbols, relying solely on the flower pictures to indicate suit and rank. The "tanzaku" card is the third-ranking card in each suit and is worth five points.1

It is important to distinguish this from "tanka," which is a Japanese verse form consisting of five lines with a syllable structure of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7.2