Kei

Jennifer Prugh's Kei Tarot is a self-published modern deck of the maker's own vision, contemporary in register and complete at seventy-eight cards. The name's Japanese resonance, kei carrying senses of respect and blessing, suits the minimal-modern naming of its moment, a single syllable doing the work a subtitle usually does. Full-structure self-published decks represent the tradition's serious amateurs in the word's root sense, makers who complete the whole apprenticeship for love, and Prugh's entry stands among the Isabel's and the Jolanda's kin: made completely, marketed barely. The modern register distinguishes it from the mystical mainstream, contemporary vision over inherited atmosphere. It suits collectors of the self-published complete decks, modern-aesthetic readers, and anyone who understands that the tradition's depth is measured in exactly such entries. Readers who want a deck with a following to read alongside them should choose one of the famous ones.