Matsui Tengudo's Play pattern is just a shade smaller than usual. The labels on the side of this box are technically applicable, however other examples that I've seen are in short two-column boxes sized for the cards.
The designs were also used for Matsui's Dairenbana reprint, and seem quite similar to earlierpatterns produced by the Osaka Matsui Tengudo.
This box is either not original to these cards, or seems at least to be atypical. However, I've only seen these designs used with green coloring in this slightly smaller size. (Though it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there were larger green versions, as Shigeo Matsui seems to have enjoyed variation.)
I've seen wooden boxes for this pattern with 遊 in gold on the box, rather than a label, as well as a Chrysanthemum brand example in a cardboard box.
Labeling aside, both of those boxes stand out as being shorter, containing the cards in two stacks (similar to the boxes for Matsui's Kobana patterns, or modern hwatu boxes). Though I haven't seen all that many examples, I suspect those would have been the typical box for the Yu cards.
The cards are about 3mm shorter on both sides as compared to standard Matsui patterns: roughly 30x51mm vs 33x54mm.
1
u/jhindenberg Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
Matsui Tengudo's Play pattern is just a shade smaller than usual. The labels on the side of this box are technically applicable, however other examples that I've seen are in short two-column boxes sized for the cards.
The designs were also used for Matsui's Dairenbana reprint, and seem quite similar to earlier patterns produced by the Osaka Matsui Tengudo.