Pokémon Sleeves - Hanagasa Festival Pikachu (64 pcs, Japanese)

64 official Japanese Pokémon sleeves featuring Pikachu re-enacting the Hanagasa Festival, from the series the Pokémon Center released for the six great summer festivals of Tohoku.

Specifications

• Quantity: 64 sleeves
• Artwork: Pikachu dressed for the Hanagasa Festival
• Festival: Hanagasa Festival, Yamagata (August 5-7)
• Officially licensed, Pokémon Center Japan

Why 64 and not 65

Western sleeve packs contain 65, Japanese ones 64 — a difference that simply comes down to convention in the two markets. Either way, a deck holds 60 cards, so you always end up with a few spares. Keep in mind that Japanese sleeves are sized for Japanese cards, which are a fraction smaller than Western ones.

What the Hanagasa Festival is

A hanagasa is a straw hat decorated with artificial flowers, and at the Hanagasa Festival in Yamagata, thousands of people dance through the city carrying them, in rows, to a fixed rhythm. The flowers are safflowers — the crop that made Yamagata wealthy for centuries, because it was used to make red dye. It's the youngest of the six festivals and, at the same time, the most danceable.

The six festivals of Tohoku

Tohoku is the north of Japan, and its six prefectures each hold their own summer festival in the first week of August. Together they're known as the six great festivals of Tohoku, and since 2011 they've also come together in one place once a year. In 2025, for the reopening of the store in Sendai, the Pokémon Center released its own Pikachu for each of the six — and all six are here, complete.

What sleeves are for

Sleeves protect your cards from fingerprints, moisture and damaged edges, and they let a deck shuffle more smoothly. At tournaments they're effectively mandatory: every back in your deck has to look identical, so no one can tell which card you're holding from the back.

From the same series, you'll also find:

• Nebuta-Pikachu
• Kantō-Pikachu
• Sansa Odori-Pikachu
• Waraji-Pikachu
• Tanabata-Pikachu