Hwatu

Hwatu (화투) is the Korean version of the Japanese hanafuda flower-card deck, used especially in traditional Korean games like Go-Stop. It has 48 cards in 12 flower-themed monthly suits of four cards each. Introduced during the early 20th-century Japanese occupation, Hwatu has since evolved its own Korean style: decks are usually printed on thick plastic (often red-backed) with vivid colours, and include local markings (for example, a circled ‘光’ on certain high-value cards) that distinguish them from the Japanese originals.