__Height:__ 160 cm
__Favourite Song:__ Poem #40 Though I would hide it, In my face it still appears-- My fond, secret love. And now he questions me: "Is something bothering you?"

Shinobu Wakamiya is the current Queen of Karuta, she is also the youngest Queen in history. She is left-handed. Shinobu has been described as someone who is cute, but having the fashion sense of a rock. She often feels as if her opponents are vigorous and active at the beginning of match, but when on verge of losing, it feels as if she was back to playing karuta alone again. Arata and Shinobu know each other very well, she has never beat him in a karuta match. Shinobu started playing karuta when she and her divorced mother moved to her Grandma's house and found the box of karuta cards, which she fell in love with. Shinobu became a Class A karuta player when she was in fourth grade. 

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player who recognizes Chihaya's potential to become a great player herself. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends, Taichi Mashima and Arata Wataya, as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again. 
 
(Source: Chihayafuru Wikia)

Now in their second year of high school, Chihaya and her friends share all the fun and worries that come with welcoming underclassmen to the team as they face tough rival schools. The passion of the Mizusawa Karuta Club burns hotter than ever, but with the same refreshing, youthful mood carrying over from the first season. 
(Source: Crunchyroll)

Chihaya is a girl in the sixth grade, still not old enough to even know the meaning of the word zeal. But one day, she meets Arata, a transfer student from rural Fukui prefecture. Though docile and quiet, he has an unexpected skill: his ability to play competitive karuta, a traditional Japanese card game.
 
Chihaya is struck by his obsession with the game, along with his ability to pick out the right card and swipe it away before any of his opponents. However, Arata is transfixed by her as well, all because of her unbelievable natural talent for the game. Don't miss this story of adolescent lives and emotions playing out in the most dramatic of ways!
 
(Source: Kodansha USA)
 
Notes: 
- It won the 2nd Manga Taisho Award and the 35th annual Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shoujo. 
- It was nominated for the 20th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2016.

The manga adapts Yui Tokiumi's spinoff novel series for Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga. 
 
The novels feature a series of stories detailing various characters' lives in middle school. (The original manga begins when they are in elementary school and skips to high school.) 
 
(Source: Anime News Network & Be-Love issue 21)

They may have just won their most coveted karuta tournament, but members of the Mizusawa karuta team still have a long way to go. Each member chases their dreams, and with a win under their collective belt, those dreams are closer in reach than ever. Chihaya Ayase is determined to challenge Wakamiya Shinobu and win the title of Queen, and Taichi Mashima is ready to take on Arata Wataya now that he’s made it into the most elite of karuta players — but an unexpected revelation will deal these karuta players a hand none of them saw coming. (Source: Sentai Filmworks)