fascination with classifying monsters and creating new ones. The game is one of the earliest attempts by Japanese companies to categorize legendary creatures, label them, define them, and subsequently market them. As such, it is a precursor to the Godzilla films of the 1950s and later. Even more closely, obake karuta resembles the Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon Trading Card Game, which also involves collecting cards that represent fabulous creatures. In fact, many Pokémon were designed specifically after creatures from Japanese mythology. Jomo karuta Jomo karuta (上毛かるた, じょうもうかるた) is a regional variation of the popular Japanese card game karuta and contains 44 cards featuring famous people, places, and history from Japan's Gunma Prefecture. 'Jomo' is an old name for Gunma. The first edition of Jomo karuta was printed in 1947. Overview Every year Gunma Prefecture holds a Jomo karuta competition. Preliminaries take place in January, encouraging local children to take advantage of winter vacation to practice. Then the final competition is held in February. It is not uncommon for people who spent their childhoods in Gunma to have all the cards memorized by heart. In fact, as adults they often realize that Gunma citizens are the only ones who know so much about their own birthplace. Among the 44 cards, only the "chi" card changes slightly depending on the era. That is because it is representative of the population of Gunma, so as the number of people living in the prefecture changes, so does the number shown on the card. As of the 1947 census, the population stood at 1,570,027 people compared to 1,600,000 recorded in the very first edition of Jomo karuta. In 1993 the population grew to over 2 million people. Fans of Jomo karuta are able to guess one's approximate age based on the version of the "chi" card one has memorized. In 1998, the Gunma Culture Association released an official English edition. However, on October 28, 2013, the rights to English Jomo karuta were handed over to Gunma Prefecture. Nowadays there are several events that utilize the game; in February 2013 the first national King of JMK tournament was established, giving adults the opportunity to participate in a Jomo karuta competition as well. History Masahiko Urano, a native of Gunma, returned to his hometown from what is present day Mongolia after Japan's defeat in World War 2. Urano felt compelled to help the many orphans and widows affected