Hawaiian playing cards

This pack was published via Kickstarter in 2015 through the collaborative effort of the Home Run Artists of Hawaii, and was designed to capture the days of Hawaiian royalty before Captain James Cook arrived on the shores of Kauai in 1778. The cards were printed by the United States Playing Card Company. See the box►

These playing cards were carefully researched by Scott Mijares (designer) and drawn by Scott Westmoreland, a retired Disney illustrator, and are in the art style of classic Hawaiian wood carvings. The court cards feature Hawaiian royalty, chieftains and historical warriors from the past. Kamehameha I, the first king to unite the Hawaiian Islands, is portrayed on the ace of spades and the card backs.

The pack is completed by a pair of diptych jokers portraying the seal or emblem of the State of Hawaii with the phrase “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono” -- most commonly translated as "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness". A separate joker depicting Menehune (a mythological race of dwarf people in Hawaiian tradition) is also included.

Above: Hawaiian playing cards published through the collaborative effort of the Home Run Artists of Hawaii, USA, and printed by the United States Playing Card Company, 2015.

Three versions of this pack were published: a standard edition with normal tuck box; a limited edition of 1,000 packs, in a long-tongue tuck box, with a real stamp seal, and wrapped in a lava lava sleeve; and a Bicycle edition (limited to 2,000 copies). The pack shown here is no. 59 of the limited edition of 1,000.

NOTE: Lava lava, is an article of daily clothing traditionally worn by Polynesians and other Oceanic peoples. It consists of a single rectangular cloth worn similarly to a wraparound skirt or kilt.