Welcome to the World of Koi-Koi!
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I fell in love with koi-koi for its excitement and depth, but I quickly realized that for many players — especially outside Japan — the traditional decks can be confusing to learn. That’s why I set out to design a custom hanafuda deck that:
Retains the beauty and symbolism of the original
Adds clear labels and number pips to support learning
Uses modern visual clarity without losing its cultural charm
Every illustration, icon, and layout decision was made to enhance both playability and aesthetic harmony.
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While the cards are manufactured by a trusted print partner, all of the creative work — from first sketch to final layout — happens right here. House of Layvee is not a mass production brand. It’s a craft-first, care-first studio that puts design at the heart of everything.
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This deck is just the beginning. I plan to expand House of Layvee into a boutique library of games, each designed with the same blend of craft, clarity, and love of play.
Thank you for being here — and welcome to the House.
Koi-Koi is a classic Japanese card game for two players that blends luck, memory, and strategy, where players race to form winning combinations using a hanafuda deck of beautifully illustrated cards.
About the game
In the 16th century, Portuguese traders introduced Western playing cards to Japan. These cards quickly became popular, and were often used for gambling. When the ruling Tokugawa shogunate cut off contact with the Western world, these foreign-style cards were banned, as well as similar gambling games.
To get around these bans, Japanese card makers began creating increasingly abstract and symbolic designs — eventually evolving into hanafuda, or "flower cards." Their floral and seasonal imagery helped them avoid association with traditional gambling cards, even though people still used them to play games. Among the games that use hanafuda, Koi-Koi is the most popular.
By the 18th century, hanafuda had emerged as a more culturally accepted format for traditional card games like Koi-Koi. In 1889, a fan of the game named Fusajiro Yamauchi decided to start his own business, hand-crafting and designing his own set of hanafuda. His decks turned out to be highly popular, and the small business he founded grew into the company you know today as Nintendo.
Hanafuda
Traditional hanafuda card design
House of Layvee’s card design