Publication Facts and Rating (0 to 5 stars) "At-a-Glance"

Publisher: Jitsugyono Nihonsha (Japan)
Publication Year: 1991, 1999
Number of cards: 78
Quality of artwork -- 4 stars
Usefulness for meditation/pathworking -- 2 stars
Readability (Divination) -- 2 stars
Symbology -- 2 stars
Value to Collectors -- 3 1/2 stars

General Commentary
Being an unrepentant "color snob," I am always quite surprised when a black-and-white deck grabs my interest and finds a special place among my favorite tarots. One such deck to elicit that kind of reaction from me is the recently-reprinted David's Tarot; another is an untitled self-published tarot that managed to find its way into my collection several years ago. Since then, there's been nothing else in the "monochromatic category" that's managed to keep my attention for very long until my recent acquisition of the Derakkusu ban Hihou tarot.

To be strictly accurate, this deck should be classified as "ivory-and-white," rather than black-and-white. The illustrations are comprised of black ink drawings, but they have been printed on an unusually-heavy cream-colored card stock. The off-white tinge gives the entire deck a sort of interesting "antique" feel, although the imagery itself isn't imbued with any sort of ancient or historical flavor.

The biggest disappointment of the Derakkusu tarot is that the "pip" cards are merely patterned repetitions of their suit symbols, and as such are wholly uninteresting. But the major arcana and court cards more than make up for the lack of originality of the numbered cards. The graceful figures and delicate, flowing lines easily catch the eye, drawing the viewer in to take a closer look. The characters' detailed costumes are fascinating and flamboyant; in many cases, the garb is strangely reminiscent of Folchi's Erte tarot, although the illustrations themselves actually predate Folchi's deck. In fact, to my "Western" eyes, the people in most of the illustrations have a rather "feminine" appearance, although I don't believe that it was the conscious intention of the artist to "feminize" the male figures. It may be the "delicateness " of artist Kazumi Niikura's style that blurs the distinction between male and female -- the men exhibit a "softness" in their faces, and rather long-ish flowing hair (although typically not as long as that of the female characters). Compare any two "gender opposite" cards, such as The Magician and Justice, and you may see what I mean.

The Derrakusu ban Hihou tarot is packaged as a deck-and-book set, and includes a fold-out reading reference sheet for the major arcana cards. Although the titles printed on the cards are given in English, the text of the book and the fold-out sheet is, not surprisingly, in Japanese. The entire boxed set is of the highest quality. The softcover book actually includes a glossy dust jacket, and is in fact more "colorful" than the deck itself, with much of the text (and, oddly enough, the backgrounds of the card illustrations) printed in a strong lavendar ink. The deck is housed in a very nice foam-lined fold-over cover. As stated before, the laminated cards are printed on extremely heavy card stock -- a stock that it almost too heavy to make it work well for readings, as it probably wouldn't "rifle-shuffle" well, while the type of lamination used tends to make the cards stick a bit too much for a good overhand shuffle. Nevertheless, the illustrations are fascinating enough to make the prospect of using the Derakkusu tarot for a majors-only reading very tempting.

For collectors who aren't put off by the excessively boring pip cards, the Derrakusu is definitely worth consideration . Interestingly enough, although the publication date in the Derrakusu book lists 1991 as the first printing, samples of the cards appear in Kaplan's 1990 Encyclopedia of Tarot (vol. III), under the title "M. Oki and M. Unasaka Tarot (page 403). In his encyclopedia, Kaplan lists the publication date of the Oki / Unasaka deck as 1982. The apparent incongruity could possibly be explained as a being due to a repackaging and reissue of the cards. In such a case, the 1991 "first printing" date could refer to the book itself. Oddly enough, however, "M. Unasaka" is not listed as being a contributor to the reprint, while Kaplan fails to mention the name Kazumi Niikura in his text, although Niikura is clearly credited as being the deck's illustrator on the cover of the deck casing.

As of this writing (2/19/01), the Derrakusu is listed as being available for purchase on-line from Sasuga Books.

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Guest review copyright 2001 by Jeannette Roth
Used with permission