Meanings
- uncountableusuallycard gamesSmall, rigid Japanese playing cards, a single deck consisting of 40 cards with values ranging from 1 to 10, used for playing hand-comparing betting games such as oicho-kabu.
Nowhere do these cards survive in more interesting form than in Japan, where, as Mekuri-fuda or Kabu-fuda, they are used for gambling games.
1975, Harold Osborne, editor, The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 6292 more examples
The top features two playing cards: the topmost card is the sakura curtain card for March from a hanafuda deck, as found on the Shōwa Neon Takamura Kanban Museum example, and the other is the roppō, or number six card, taken from a kabufuda gambling deck.
2017, Alan Scott Pate, Kanban: Traditional Shop Signs of Japan, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 158As hanafuda became more common, they were often used in place of kabufuda decks, with November and December removed and the rest of the months serving as pips, January for the ones, February for the twos, etc.
2025, Tim Clare, Across the Board: How Games Make Us Human, Abrams Press, →ISBN
Origin
- Portuguesecabo“end”
- Englishkabufuda
From Japanese 株(かぶ)札(ふだ) (kabufuda), a compound of カブ (kabu, “the 9 card in kabufuda”) + 札 (fuda, “card”). The former is borrowed from Portuguese cabo (“end”, for being the highest non-face card).
More words from Portuguese
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 株札
- 株札 (zhūzhá)Translations
Japanese 株札
- 株札Translations
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with kabufuda
All rhymes →Cite this entry
kabufuda. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kabufuda
“kabufuda.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kabufuda. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kabufuda,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kabufuda.
Source: kabufuda on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.