The annual New Year's event, "Karuta Hajime," or the first Karuta card game of the year, was held on January 3 at Yasaka Shrine in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto. Women attired as noble court ladies of the Heian Period performed Karuta card games, adding a gorgeous touch to the mood in the shrine crowded with people making their first visit of the year.

With the goal of passing the culture of Karuta to future generations, the event is organized by Nihon Karuta-in Hon-in in Shimogyo Ward in relation to the legend of Waka poems being first created by Susano-no-Mikoto, the deity enshrined at Yasaka Shrine. This year was the 40th anniversary of the event.

Dressed in colorful "Suikan" or other costumes for court ladies, 22 female Hon-in members, including their children, lined up sitting face-to-face in pairs on the Noh stage of the shrine. When the first half of a Waka poem from "Hyakunin-isshu," or a set of one hundred poems by one hundred poets, was read aloud, they then quickly picked up the matching cards showing the latter half, shouting "Hai."