A game of cards (karuta='carta'). A traditional card game called karuta-tori (grabbing the cards) widely played in homes at New Year is based on the early Kamakura period Hyakunin isshu 'Hundred Poems by a Hundred Poets' anthology compiled by Teika, Kyo some time in the thirteenth century. The poems have to be matched to their composers. It is ritually-re-enacted in Heian costume at a ceremony called karuta-hajime (first card-game) at the Yasaka (Gion) jinja in Kyoto on January 3rd.
A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Brian Bocking.