Ono, an inhabitant of Mino (says an ancient Japanese legend of A.D. 545), spent the seasons longing for his ideal of female beauty. He met her one evening on a vast moor and married her. Simultaneously with the birth of their son, Ono’s dog was delivered of a pup which as it grew up became more and more hostile to the lady of the moors. She begged her husband to kill it, but he refused. At last one day the dog attacked her so furiously that she lost courage, resumed vulpine shape, leaped over a fence and fled. “You may be a fox”, Ono called after her, “but you are the mother of my son and I love you. Come back when you please; you will always be welcome”. So every evening she stole back and slept in his arms.
Excerpt from Come and Sleep by the monk Kyoukai, 9th century AD
Sumi Playing Cards – Kitsune is Card Experiment's 2nd collaboration with ToKMR Graphics following our highly successful
In Kitsune, we continue to translate and transform the traditional Japanese tattoo art form of Wabori into playing card style, retaining as well as enhancing many of the interesting and delightful features we had in Sumi Playing Cards. The focus of Kitsune centers around the fox spirit, a staple in Japanese folklore. We scoured many different sources of folktales, stories and myths about fox spirits and selected a few well-known ones as sources of inspiration for the characters in the court cards. Kistune continues to serve as a homage to Wabori and faithfully represents the visual nuances and quality that is the hallmark of Japanese traditional tattoo once again, creating a visual playing card masterpiece like no other, a masterpiece that weaves fantastical stories of begone time with modern playing card aesthetics.
Illustrated by ToK, Illustrator & Graphic designer based in Japan and edited by Card Experiment based in Hong Kong.
Fully custom pips & courts.
Cards printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Made in USA.
Craft Edition Tuck cases made of Premium Cotton Gmund Paper from Germany.
Letterpressed ink/metallic foiled tuck cases for Craft Edition produced and assembled in Hong Kong.
Multilevel Embossed tuck cases.
KickStarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cardexperiment/sumi-playing-cards-kitsune
