In Hanamikoji, two players compete to earn the favors of the seven geisha masters by collecting the performance items with which they excel. With careful speculation and sometimes a few bold moves, you may earn the essential items by giving away the less critical ones. Can you outsmart your opponent and win the most favors of the geisha?

Overview

The aim is to win 4 (or more) Geishas or 11 (or more) Charm Points. Each Geisha has a number of Charm Points printed on her card. This number is also printed on each matching Item Card, as a reminder.

You and your opponent take turns to perform actions to get different kinds of Item Cards. For each Geisha, if you have more Item Cards of the corresponding type than your opponent, then you win the Geisha’s favor, and thus her Charm Points at the end of the round.

The game will continue until either player has reached the winning goal in the Scoring phase.

Round Structure

At the beginning of a round, each player receives 6 cards, 1 card is removed for this round and the remaining 8 cards form a draw pile.

Players then alternate to take one turn until both players have taken 4 turns.

In your turn, you draw a card from the Item deck, and then perform an action between the ones still available. After resolving an action, the corresponding token is flipped, meaning you won't be able to use this action during the rest of the round.

You start the round with 4 available actions, which can be played in any order.

Once both players have played 4 turns each, the game proceeds to a scoring phase.

Here are the 4 actions:

Secret: You reserve 1 card from your hand, which will be revealed and scored at the end of the round.

Trade-off: You discard 2 cards from your hand, face-down. These cards will not be scored.

Gift: You reveal 3 cards from your hand. Your opponent chooses 1 card from them, and places this card on their side next to the corresponding Geisha. Then, you place the 2 remaining cards on your side next to the corresponding Geishas.

Competition: You reveal 4 cards from your hand, and divide them into two sets, each containing 2 cards. Your opponent chooses 1 set, and places these 2 cards on their side next to the corresponding Geishas. Then, you place the 2 remaining cards on your side next to the corresponding Geishas.

Scoring phase

Both players reveal their reserved card and add it to their side of the corresponding Geisha.

Then, the number of Item Cards on both sides of each Geisha is compared:

- If one side has more cards than the other: The side with more Item Cards wins this Geisha. The corresponding Victory Marker is moved to the winning side.

- Two sides are draw or no cards: The Victory Marker does not move.

If any player reaches the winning goal, the game ends immediately (See: End of the Game).

If neither players reach the winning goal,

- Victory Markers remain in place. (Note: They don’t move back to the center of each Geisha Card.)

- Action tokens are flipped face-up.

- The second player becomes the new starting player.

- ALL Items cards are shuffled back.

The next round then begins.

End of the game

If any player wins 4 (or more) Geishas or 11 (or more) Charm Points, the game ends immediately. Each Geisha whose Victory Marker is on your side grants you her Charm Points, but these are lost if the other player steals the Geisha away in a future round.

If only one player reaches the winning goal, they are the winner.

If one player wins 4 Geishas and the other wins 11 (or more) Charm Points, the one with the Charm Points wins the tie.