WHO ARE YOU AND WHY SHOULD I SUPPORT THIS PROJECT?

Hello, 

My name is Andrew and I've been collecting and creating card and board games for a long time and am particularly interested in Eastern games.  The level of art and symbolism found in Hanafuda Cards especially, inspired me to play with some designs. I was pleased enough with them to see if others were as well. If you are unfamiliar with what Hanafuda Cards are...

Hanafuda Cards are Japanese playing cards arranged into 12 suits, four cards in each, with each suit corresponding to a month of the year. They use no numbers or symbols, only pictures, and are matched and sorted in a variety of ways to play a variety of games. The cards contain ribbons, animals, and mostly flowers, for which they are named (Handafuda translating to "Flower card").

Why the cost? 

I'm primarily interested in getting the cards out there so plan on giving at least one deck to almost every backer. I'd also like to use really nice materials (quality coating and 14pt card), include bonus cards and some prints of several pages of the below instructions to be included in the case/box.

ALSO, thanks to Kickstarter, if the project doesn't work out, NOBODY IS CHARGED A CENT! 

So why MY cards?

I've had a few problems with traditional Hanafuda sets, that I hope to correct with the following solutions:

• For cards that focus so much on beauty, nature, and flowers they are relatively un-coloful and simple. I've tried to make the cards color-thematic for easy recognition as well as, in my opinion, prettier.
• The Brights are sometimes animals and the Animals are sometimes a bridge. (If you are familiar with Hanafuda Cards you will know that certain classes of cards are represented by certain things that are not always consistent and this can be confusing) I have made a few stylistic changes to make all Bright Cards contain a white circle and all Animal/Kinds Cards contain animal imagery. 
• The four cards in a suit do not always line up to create a panoramic view which I always thought was a neat idea. I've made each suit's cards connect.
• All cards will be printed on sturdy card (14pt), will be slightly shorter than a playing card and covered in a similar coating as a playing card. They will not have rounded corners. They will arrive shrink wrapped in a box with basic instructions and bonus cards. 

Hopefully the below examples illustrate this (All examples are in progress):

(Also see the project image for a few more examples)

For those of you interested, you may also receive an instructional (and artistically thematic) PDF (also in progress):

(I will include several printed pages of this PDF with the cards while certain backers will receive an electronic copy of the entire document

Please feel free to write me or comment!

Thank you very much! Spread the word!