Card game culture has led to the near-universal popularity and availability of French-suited playing cards even in areas with their own regional card art. In Japan, a distinct 48-card hanafuda deck is popular. It is derived from 16th-century Portuguese decks, after undergoing a long evolution driven by laws enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate attempting to ban the use of playing cards The best-known deck internationally is the 52-card Anglo-American deck used for such games as poker and contract bridge. It contains one card for each unique combination of thirteen "ranks" and the four French "suits" "spades", "hearts", "diamonds", and "clubs". The ranks
Barbu (card game) plastic swords, and Milton Bradley's fantasy-themed "Dragonmaster" (1981) that keeps score with colored plastic jewels, Barbu (card game) Barbu or Le Barbu, also known as Tafferan, is a trick-taking, compendium, card game similar to hearts where four players take turns leading seven different sub-games (known as contracts) over the course of 28 deals. Barbu originated in France in the early 20th century where it was especially popular with university students, and became a prominent game among French Bridge-players in the 1960s. The French version of the game was originally played with a stripped deck of 32 cards ranked seven to