Global Karuta

Screen Shot of the poster for the first "Competitive Karuta World Tournament" from Biwako Otsu Travel Guide

A Brief History of International Karuta Events

    The Kyōgi Karuta (Competitive Karuta) community has been growing steadily outside of Japan as well, thanks in no small part to the global popularity of the manga and anime, Chihayafuru. However, even prior to the manga's debut, Karuta players and groups had started appearing around the globe. One person who (in my opinion) deserves endless credit for the growth and spread of Karuta, is Mutsumi Stone. Stone-san is an A-class Karuta player currently working as the Vice Director of Division of Promotion and Instruction for the All Japan Karuta Association. For over 20 years, she has done a tremendous amount of work to cultivate new Karuta players and coordinate Karuta events around the world. You can learn more by visiting her websites here (older) and here (newer), and you can read more about her story from an interview she did with Brazil's Meguriai-kai Karuta club.

    Stone-san was one of the organizers of the first large-scale international team tournament, おおつ光ルくん杯  競技かるた世界大会(Otsu Hikaru-kun hai Kyōgi Karuta Sekai Taikai, "Otsu Hikaru-kun Cup: Competitive Karuta World Tournament" ), which was held at Ōmi-Jingū shrine in 2018. In the team tournament, 10 teams representing at least 9 different countries competed. The winner of the tournament was Karuta France, who won the final round against a Japanese team from Nara prefecture. 

(Pictures from the event)
2018 Participating Teams: France, Thailand, Italy, Hungary, Brazil, USA, China, Japan (2 teams), "Study Abroad" (included representatives from multiple countries)

In 2019, the winning team from the year before (France), along with Karuta clubs from across Asia and Europe participated in the second "Competitive Karuta World Tournament". Again, 10 teams played and this time, the winner was the team from Aichi Prefecture, with France placing second overall.
(link: teams) (link: results)

Picture from the 2019 event in Otsu. Picture downloaded from the PR TIMES website

2019 Participating Teams: France, China, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Europe (various countries), Japan (2 teams), Special team (team comprised of Japanese players who started learning/ playing the game abroad)

Another international Karuta event scheduled for 2020 was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and eventually was moved online. The online tournament was hosted in 2021 over Zoom, and 16 teams competed in a team-tournament style event using the "Competitive Karuta ONLINE" phone/tablet app. The US team was the overall winner.

A screen cap of the final round match-ups and results of the online tournament. Screen cap from Otsu Akinota-kai's website

To date, these tournaments likely represent the largest gatherings of international Karuta teams that have ever been held. However, these are by no means the only Karuta tournaments which have involved foreign players, and the expansion of Karuta groups worldwide has led to tournaments being hosted in foreign countries as well. Though the pandemic is still impeding international travel, it is my sincere hope that such international Karuta events will continue to become more common-place, and that international Karuta groups will continue to grow and connect even more in the future. 

Karuta Teams around the World
This list was largely compiled thanks to the blog run by Brazil's Meguriai-kai. You can read their list of teams here. Their list includes teams not officially listed on the All Japan Karuta Association's (全日本カルタ協会, zen nihon karuta kyoukai）website. However, on AJKA's website, you can still find a shorter list of overseas Karuta groups as well as all registered Japanese Karuta groups. Additional Karuta groups were found listed on the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu FESTIVAL 2020 website. 

This list is ordered alphabetically by country (last updated Feb 2022). If there are any Karuta clubs that you think should be added to the list, feel free to send me a message!

Brazil 
    Rio de Janeiro: Rio Karuta (Facebook) (Instagram)
    São Paulo: Meguriai-kai (Blog) (Facebook) (Instagram)
    (Additional groups can be found on Brazil's website) 

Canada
    Toronto: Taki no Oto-kai (Website) (Facebook)

China
    Beijing: Karuta PICA (Facebook)
    Shanghai (No website found)

France
    Paris: Karuta France (Facebook) (Instagram)
    Aix Karuta (Facebook)

Germany
    Munich: Karuta Club München (Website) (Facebook) (Instagram)

Hungary
    Budapest: ELTE Karuta (Facebook) (Instagram)

Indonesia
    Jakarta: Ogura Karuta Club (Facebook) (Instagram) 

Italy
    Bergamo: AKI Karuta Italia (Blog) (Facebook) (Instagram)

Korea
    Seoul: Korea Karuta Club (Youtube) (Twitter)

Mexico
    Monterrey: Karuta Club Monterrey (Facebook) (Instagram)

Mongolia
    Ulaanbaatar: Mongolia Karuta Club (Facebook)

Philippines
    Karuta Philipinas (Facebook*private group for members) (Facebook*public group) (Youtube)

Russia
    Moscow: Moscow Karuta Club (Website) (Instagram)
    St. Petersburg: Asa no Tsuyu (VK) (Instagram)    

Singapore
    Singapore Okinoishi Karuta Club (No website found)
    The Japanese Association: Singapore Karuta Community (Website)
    Waseda Shibuya Senior High School in Singapore Caruta Club (Website)

Thailand
    Krungtheep Karuta (Facebook)   

Taiwan
    Taiwan Karuta Club (Facebook) (Instagram)

UK
    London: Karuta London (Website)

United States
    Boston: Nakamaro-kai (Website) (Facebook)
    New York: Karuta NYC (Facebook) (Meetup)
    Washington DC: DC Inishie KARUTA CLUB (Website) (Facebook)

(Other)
    Online Karuta Club (open to anyone!) (Facebook)