As far as I can tell, tarot cards originated in Italy in the 1400s, playing cards in China in the 800s, the modern suits in France in the 1500s, though there were still decks with different suts (or five suits) for a while after that -- and nobody seems to agree on which details of each were inspired by the others.

Hooray for google and wikipedia, sources of so much information that you generally wind up knowing less than when you started.

Anyway, come to the party. :)