MHS students embrace culture through board games

Akshay Vadlamani | The Chronicle

The sound of stones clinking, cards shuffling and boards unfolding is garnering attention at Mason High School (MHS).

MHS has recently seen a rise in cultural games from various parts of the world. These games represent various experiences for students, from strategic battlefields to family game nights. They offer a way for students to connect to their cultural heritage in a fast, fun, and accessible way.

Sophomore Kai Tatano was raised playing Karuta, a Japanese game originally introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century. The game consists of a deck of cards divided in half. One half of the deck is called yomifuda, cards with written phrases, and the other half is called torifuda, cards with images. Each yomifuda has a corresponding torifuda, and players spread all the torifuda face up. Players are supposed to draw yomifuda, read the phrase on it, try to find the corresponding image associated with the phrase, and grab it, and whoever has the most cards wins. 

The two main types of Karuta are Uta-Garuta and Iroha Karuta. Uta-Garuta means “poem cards”, and it consists of 200 cards divided into two sets, containing 100 poems. One set of them is for reading, while the other one is for grabbing. Iroha Karuta consists of simple proverbs and phrases, created to educate children.

Tatano fell in love with the game, specifically Iroha Karuta throughout his childhood. Tatano appreciated the mental sharpness the game taught him as a result of the memorization necessary to succeed. Tatano believes Karuta is the perfect transgenerational game, as the images and words can change with the times and be adapted by any group of people.

“The game awards memorization because the player who grabs a card with the fastest reaction time wins,” Tatano said. “Karuta brings cultural traditions together from the old ages to the modern era, and it connects people in the past to people in modern days who are playing the same game, even with different lifestyles.”

Tatano said he noticed that Karuta has been getting progressively more popular outside of Japan due to the increased tourism of the country resulting in people bringing the game back to their homes and adapting it to various local poems and phrases, which breathes new life into the game.

“It is getting popular more outside Japan because Japan is a tourist country that has been getting more popular recently,” Tatano said. “So people tend to take back the more traditional part of Japan back with them, which is Karuta.”

Sophomore Alice Luo has been involved with the game of Go since she was six years old. Her connection to the game entails more than just playing – she has adopted a teaching role under the mentorship of her father, who is the local Go teacher. 

Go originated in China over 4,000 years ago as a strategy game that would allow people in power to prove their intelligence. Go is very similar to chess in the various complex strategies and moves that can be made. Played on a 19 by 19 lined board, each player has an unlimited amount of black and white pieces called stones. Players place their stones on a vacant point of the board at each turn, and the objective of the game is to use the colored stones to form territories by surrounding vacant areas of the board. Players capture opposing stones by surrounding them, ultimately keeping those stones off the board as prisoners.

Luo loves organizing tournaments and teaching the game more than playing it. She believes that helping others formulate strategies and creating an environment for those wishing to play is equally as important as playing the game itself.

“When we moved here, we had the opportunity to establish a Mason Chinese school, and through that, we eventually started the [Go] school,” Luo said. “The first American Go Congress was the first time that we had an association and our first professional Go player in America, and that was very significant. It felt like everybody was making progress together.”

Similar to Luo, Sophomore Isaac Zhang has dived headfirst into learning and mastering the art of Go, while also giving back to the community in his own way. Zhang said he believes that Go is more engaging than other games due to his ability to visualize a battle in his head. Zhang believes the strategy in Go is infinite, which makes each game unique from the previous one.

“I find it interesting because we have many pieces that do many different things, which is unique,” Zhang said. “[The board] is massive, and the games can develop into absolute battlefields, absolute astonishing colors that you can visualize if you know how to play the game.”

Zhang said he wanted others to experience his passion for Go so that they would embrace the competitive nature of the game. Zhang gave back to the community by starting a club at Mason Middle School, and he believes he has to pass it on to the next generation of students.

“I really wanted to start another community in the middle school,” Zhang said. “Go was close to my heart, and I hoped that if I started the club, then more people would join to play.”

Junior Emily Arriaga enjoys embracing her Mexican heritage through Lotería, a card game that made its way to Mexico from Spain. The game is very similar to Bingo in that an announcer, or El Gritón, yells out the names of Lotería cards with drawings on them. The drawings on these cards represent different recognizable images from Mexican heritage, such as El Gallo (The Rooster) or El Diablito (The Little Devil). El Gritón calls the card name by saying it in a confusing sentence or pun, distracting the players from marking it down on their tabla (board). The first to mark down all the names on their tabla, and yell out “Lotería!”, wins.

Arriaga said she loves how Lotería deviates from what games are usually used for because it has a different version to be played on various occasions. Each special occasion can have its version of Lotería with a unique spin on the images and phrases, and people can create their own versions of Lotería for any occasion they want, allowing it to be adopted by a variety of people and scenarios.

 “It makes me excited because you can have multiple versions of it,” Arriaga said. “There’s a different version of it in baby showers or birthdays, and like in baby showers, and you can make your own Lotería if you want to. And I think that’s a way to let your creativity cycle.”

To Arriaga, Lotería is a way to deepen her connection with her heritage while enjoying a special time set aside for her family to bond and have fun together. Arriaga said she hopes that these games continue to grow in popularity and connect students to their culture. 

“These days, we express our roots and culture less,” Arriaga said.  “Lotería really helps us learn about our past. It helps to bring the family together. We all play together, laugh together and we celebrate together. And we have a good time.”