Chihayafuru

[Ryllharu]

I shall try and hopefully you'll try and answer the one question I've asked you twice already. Why would she feel guilty over contending for cards when we saw that the only two cards we've seen her contend for were rightfully hers? Again I don't understand why she should feel guilty about it other than holding up other peoples games, this is of course assuming she only does it when she's right.

I fail to see why you believe I've dodged the question. As mentioned, she stopped the practice when she became Queen. Motivation for doing so aside (which I've also stated can only be speculation), whatever the reason, she must have felt it was wrong. She felt guilty about doing it. If she wasn't, she would never have stopped.

Shinta also answered it as well, and it deserves reiterating. Nishida didn't say she argues over cards she's won, she argues over EVERY contested card, and doesn't stop until she gets it. She argues with such confidence, that only the most self-assured opponent would continue the fight until an official would be forced to step in. While there isn't really that much doubt that she had a legitimate case against Chihaya, her karuta society is well aware that she argues in other circumstances where it is far murkier. Her "skill" is getting her opponent to concede the card, whether they had it or not. She makes her swipes for cards weakly, so these instances are far more common. That's why she is a far weaker player when she's not doing it.

There's little point in quibbling over possibilities. If Nishida says she argues every instance where a card is contested, then that's what she does, whether she actually touched the card first, or her opponent just brushed her fingers when they took the card first.

Karuta as we know it through the show is based on poetry and as Kana said in episode 6 at 20:32-20:35 on the history of these poems "only members of the imperial court dabble in poetry" and that's what karuta has it's roots in. Is it ok if I draw the line imperial court = refined people? And this is a game based upon these people. Does that clear up how it has anything to do with Yumi dropping her usual playing style? It has nothing to do with her behavior or strategy as you say as it's nothing more than a theory on why it would be unfit for the queen to contend for cards and be so loud about it. But you are right Kana is fixated on elegance and refinement far beyond karuta as a game but that doesn't make the historical facts she mentioned are false. How much weight each player places on those roots will obviously be different some will care a little, some not at all and other will care greatly.

Not at all. Competitive karuta just happens to be about poetry. It could be nursery rhymes, lines from Enka songs, or even pictures of farm animals, and it wouldn't change the game for the overwhelming majority of its practitioners. In fact, that is exactly the reality of the game in Japan. Characters in Chihayafuru play Uta-garuta. There's also mythological monster karuta, and a nursery rhyme one.

The basis of the Uta-garuta is a fundamental part of it for Kana, but that does not extend it to that level for anyone else that we are aware of. Kana is an admitted Imperial Court Era otaku. Certainly not the previous Queen. Or any title holder. Arata's grandfather appreciated the poems greatly, but he did not live his life that way. Does Shinobu care about them at all? She seems far more the type that is Queen simply because she's good at this particular game.

Kana has gotten a bit disgusted at competitive karuta. No one that high ranking listens to the poems, except perhaps Arata's grandfather. Yumi made zero mention of it, unlike many of the other powerful opponents we've seen. It's clear she views karuta as a practiced skill or talent as she lamented over only having the title for a single year while working so hard. That's why Kana, who still wants to be involved, has set her sights on becoming a distinguished reader rather than playing.