Kanagawa

1.Setup

• 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up.
• The School board goes in the middle; the 72 Lesson cards, shuffled, make a face-down deck beside it.
• The 19 Diploma tiles are sorted by colour, face up, above the board: Print diplomas on top, Studio diplomas below, each colour arranged by increasing value.
• Each player gets a random Starting tile, the beginning of their Print and their Studio, and places two Brush pawns in front of them.
• The first player, chosen however you like, takes the Grand Master pawn and the Assistant pawn.

2.How to play

• At the start of a round, the holder of the Grand Master draws as many cards as there are players and places them on the first row of the School, face up or face down as each space shows.
• Starting with them, each player still at school chooses: stay to wait for more cards, or leave by taking a whole column.
• If players remain at school, the Grand Master adds a row, as many cards as players remaining, and they choose again. Once the third row is laid out, everyone must leave; a player left alone at school must leave too.
• The cards taken are placed at once, in any order: in the Studio, turned over under the Starting tile, or in the Print, after the cards already painted. A card once placed never moves.
• The Studio accepts any card. It provides Landscapes for your Brushes, immediate effects (an extra Brush, the Assistant pawn) and know-how for the whole game: an Arrow to move a Brush, or the right to keep a card in hand from one round to the next.
• To paint a card into your Print, you need a Brush on each of the Landscapes it requires. A new Brush can be placed freely on an empty Landscape; moving one costs an Arrow, each Arrow being usable once per round.
• A Landscape holds only one Brush, and a Brush paints only one Landscape per round, before or after being moved.
• As soon as your Print or Studio meets the condition of a Diploma still available, decide at once: take it, giving up the others of its colour, or leave it to aim higher, with no way back.
• When everyone has left school, whoever holds the Assistant pawn takes the Grand Master pawn and opens the next round.

3.Scoring

• Before scoring, each Storm token goes on a card of your Print, replacing its Season with the one you want.
• 1 point per card in your Print, Starting tile included.
• 1 point per card in your longest run of neighbouring cards with the same Season, Starting tile included.
• The Harmony symbols printed on the cards of your Print and Studio: +1 each, −1 if crossed out.
• The points of the Diplomas you took, and 2 points for the player holding the Grand Master pawn.
• Tree Diplomas: 3 points for 3 Trees in your Print, 4 points and a Storm for 4, 7 points and the Assistant for 5.
• Building Diplomas, all different: 3 points for 2, 4 points and a Storm for 3, 7 points and the Assistant for 4.
• Character Diplomas: 3 points for 2 different, 4 points and a Storm for 3 different, 9 points for 3 identical.
• Animal Diplomas: 3 points and a Brush for a Boar and a Stag, 4 points and a Brush for a Crane and a Butterfly, 7 points and the Assistant for a Boar, a Butterfly and a Stag.
• Studio Diplomas: Brushes, 1 point and the Assistant for 3, 3 points for 4; Arrows, 1 point and the Assistant for 2, 3 points for 3; identical Landscapes, 2 points for 2, 3 points and a Brush for 3, 5 points and the Assistant for 4.
• In Marquoir, enter the number of cards in your Print and in your longest run of Seasons, the points from Harmony symbols and Diplomas, and 1 for the Grand Master holder: the counter turns it into 2 points.

4.End of the game

• The end is triggered when the last card of the deck reaches the School: the players still at school each take a whole column, even an incomplete one, and the game ends at the end of that round.
• It also ends at the end of a complete round in which at least one player has 11 or more cards in their Print.
• The most Harmony points wins; on a tie, the victory is shared.

House rules and pitfalls

• The back of each card announces the subject of the print: green, one to three Trees; red, a Character; yellow, a Building; blue, an Animal. You may look at the backs of the cards in the deck at any time.
• Some cards show a Wild Landscape, which stands for any Landscape, or a Storm Season, which counts as any Season.
• The Assistant pawn may change hands several times in a round; the Grand Master only passes at the end of the round, to whoever holds the Assistant.
• Each keep-a-card know-how lets you hold one more card in hand from one round to the next, to place it later.
• Being first player matters at the end of the game, when the last columns are short of cards.

Frequently asked questions

The box

Released

2016

Age

Ages 10+

Designers

Bruno Cathala, Charles Chevallier

Artwork

Jade Mosch

Publisher

IELLO

Mechanics

Open DraftingPush Your LuckSet CollectionPattern Building

Contents

• 1 School board
• 72 Lesson cards, 18 per back colour
• 19 Diploma tiles
• 4 Starting tiles
• 15 Brush pawns
• 3 Storm tokens
• 1 Grand Master pawn and 1 Assistant pawn

Expansions

• Kanagawa: Yokai · 2019

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