Competitive Karuta
Kimariji
Flash Training

Card-flow practice is a competitive karuta training method where you look at the lower-verse card and instantly recall the kimariji of the upper verse. Sharpening your reaction speed for kimariji improves both the speed and accuracy with which you grab cards.
On this page, lower-verse cards flash on screen for a set number of cards and a set display time. You can practice by five-color Hyakunin Isshu group.

Choose which color group to practice

What is Kimariji?

Kimariji are the decisive syllables — the shortest beginning of a poem that uniquely identifies which card to take.

For example, only one poem starts with "mu." As soon as you hear "mu," you know the card is "Murasame no / Tsuyu mo mada hinu / Maki no ha ni / Kiri tachi noboru / Aki no yugure." In this case the kimariji is just 1 syllable, but some can be up to 6 syllables long.

Competitive karuta is a game of speed, so memorizing kimariji gives you a major advantage in matches.