Hanami Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • 39 Celebration Tokens
  • Two-Sided Game Board
  • 4 Player Screens
  • 12 Ability Cards
  • 88 Player Tiles (22 in Each Color)
  • 3 Large Victory Points
• Game Setup
  • Board Setup
  • Park Spaces
  • Player Setup
• Overview
• Playing a Turn
  • 1. Place a Tile
  • 2. Award Celebration Tokens
  • 3. Draw Back Up to 5 Tiles
  • *Fast Icon
  • Map Spaces
• Player Tiles
  • Basic Tiles
  • Wild Tiles
  • Action Tiles
  • Special Action Tiles
• Awarding Celebration Tokens
  • Ties
  • Turn Example 1
  • Turn Example 2
  • Multiple Tokens Example
• Ability Cards
• Ending the Game
• Scoring
  • Victory Point Ties
  • No Victory Points
  • Scoring Example
• Advanced Setup
  • Start Strong (Recommended)
  • Token Draft (Hard Mode)
• Game Credits

Components

39 Celebration Tokens

• 13 Sakura (Cherry Blossom)
• 13 Chochin (Paper Lantern)
• 13 Onigiri (Rice Ball)

Two-Sided Game Board

• Side 1 - Nihon (Japan)
• Side 2 - Tokyo (Tokyo City)

4 Player Screens

12 Ability Cards

• 4 Standard Ability Cards
• 8 Special Ability Cards

88 Player Tiles (22 in Each Color)

• Blue: Waves
• Red: Cups
• Yellow: Circles
• Green: Stars

3 Large Victory Points

• Sakura Point
• Chochin Point
• Onigiri Point

Game Setup

Welcome to Hanami! You can play on either side of the board — enjoying the full bloom of spring across the Japanese countryside or the night life of parks in Tokyo.

Board Setup

1. Place the game board in the center of the table with the Nihon (Japan) or Tokyo side face up. For your first game, play on the Nihon side.
2. Place the Large Victory Points on the board spaces matching their icons.
3. Based on the player count below, create a supply of Celebration Tokens. Return leftover tokens to the box.

Players	Celebration Tokens
2	7 of each type
3	10 of each type
4	13 of each type

Example: For a 3-player game, 10 tokens of each Celebration type are used. No Celebration Tokens will be placed on the rightmost island, called Hokkaido, at this player count.

4. It's time to place Celebration Tokens on the board. Refer to the Map Legend on the bottom right of the board to see what islands are open to play at your player count.

Players	Open Islands
2	Middle Island
3	Middle + Left Islands
4	All Islands

Park Spaces

These spaces feature 1-3 tree icons. A Celebration Token will be placed on each tree icon in a Park space.

5. First, place Sakura, Chochin, and Onigiri in the Park space with 3 trees near the center of the board.

Then, place two random Celebration Tokens on Park spaces with 2 trees. Note: The two random tokens must be different types.

Finally, using the remaining tokens, place one random Celebration Token on each remaining Park space.

Player Setup

1. Give each player a Player Screen and a full set of matching color Player Tiles. For your first game, remove the three Special Action Tiles from each set, denoted by the "special" marking on the right. Place them back in the box.
2. Place your Player Tiles face down and mix them up to form a draw pile. Draw five at random, placing them face up behind your Player Screen. This creates your starting "hand." Keep your hand secret from others, and keep your draw pile outside of your screen so players may see how many tiles you have left.
3. For your first game, use Standard Ability Cards. Give each player a Torii card matching their color. Place it face up outside your Player Screen.

For future games, try the Special Ability Cards. Deal two cards to each player. Each player will choose one, placing it face up outside their Player Screen. Return all unused cards to the box.

Overview

In Hanami, you'll picnic across Nihon (Japan) by placing Player Tiles around Parks spaces and winning Celebration Tokens.

Players will focus on three types of celebrations in Hanami:

• Sakura: Flower-viewing
• Chochin: Night Festivities and Viewing
• Onigiri: Food

Celebration Tokens are awarded to the player with the highest strength on their tiles around the corresponding Celebration. At the end of the game, the player who has the most tokens from one type of Celebration will earn its matching Large Victory Point. The player who has the most Victory Points will win Hanami!

After playing on Nihon, try the Tokyo side of the board. The map is inspired by the gardens of the Imperial Palace and canals found around Tokyo City.

Playing a Turn

On a turn, players will place Player Tiles on available Land or Water spaces to try and win Celebration Tokens. Starting with the player who most recently saw a flower:

1. Place a Tile

Choose a tile from your hand and place it on an available space on the board. In addition to this, you may place any number of tiles with the Fast Icon*.

2. Award Celebration Tokens

If all Land spaces surrounding a Park space have been filled with Player Tiles, award its Celebration Token(s).

3. Draw Back Up to 5 Tiles

Draw back up to 5 Player Tiles to fill your hand from your draw pile. If your draw pile is empty, you do not draw tiles.

Activate Your Ability Card (Optional) — Once per game. At the start of your turn, you may flip your Ability Card to activate its effect (more on ability cards below).

The next player clockwise now takes a turn. Players will continue taking turns placing tiles and winning tokens until an endgame condition has been met.

*Fast Icon

Some Player Tiles feature a Shinkansen — the bullet train — at the top. These Player Tiles are FAST, meaning they may be placed in addition to your one Player Tile. You may place as many of these on your turn as you want, and they may be placed before or after your one Player Tile. You may even place one of these as your one Player Tile for the turn.

Map Spaces

Both sides of the board feature the following space types.

1. Land Spaces — All Player Tiles, except for Boats, may be placed on available Land spaces on islands open at your player count.
2. Water Spaces — Boat Tiles may be placed on any of the lighter Water spaces bordering the islands.
3. Park Spaces — These spaces are only for Celebration Tokens. Player Tiles can never be placed on Park spaces.

Player Tiles

Different types of Celebrations are depicted across Player Tiles and their pips indicate the strength of your celebration. There are three types of Player Tiles: Basic Tiles, Wild Tiles, and Action Tiles.

Basic Tiles

Basic Tiles show an illustration matching a specific Celebration Token. Their pips only count toward your strength at the depicted Celebration.

Each Basic Tile shows a Celebration Type (Sakura, Chochin, or Onigiri) and Pips indicating Player Strength.

Wild Tiles

Maneki-Neko and Boat Player Tiles are considered Wild and count toward all three Celebration types. Boats are unique in that they are the only tiles that cannot be placed on Land spaces, they must be placed on Water spaces. When adding up your total strength to award Celebration Tokens, remember these tiles count toward each Celebration Type.

Action Tiles

Move Tile — Choose one of your previously placed tiles that does not have a Fast Icon. Move it to an available Land space. Then, place the Move Tile on the space where the tile was taken from.

Special Action Tiles

Developed by Keymaster

After your first game, feel free to shuffle these Special Action Player Tiles into the mix, denoted by the "special" marking on the right.

Draw Tile — When you place this tile, immediately draw a Player Tile from your draw pile to your hand.

Cover Tile — Place this tile on top of any of your previously placed tiles (including Boats and Action Tiles). This tile is now a 3 strength Wild Tile.

Copy Tile — Copy the strength and Celebration type of any Player Tile the arrow is pointing toward as if it was your tile. You may point this in any direction to copy your own Player Tile, another player's Player Tile, or an empty space. When the empty space is filled, the Copy Tile will gain the strength and Celebration type of that tile. The Copy Tile cannot become a Fast Tile, nor copy the effects of other Action Tiles.

Awarding Celebration Tokens

When a player finishes placing tiles and all the Land spaces surrounding a Park space are filled, the Celebration Token(s) on that Park space are awarded. To award a token:

1. Each player adds up the number of pips on their Player Tiles adjacent to the Celebration Token to determine who has the highest strength. Count pips on tiles matching the Celebration type plus any pips on Wild Tiles.
2. The player with the highest strength takes the Celebration Token and places it behind their Player Screen.
3. Repeat these steps if there is more than one Celebration Token on a Park space, or if multiple Park spaces were surrounded this turn.

Remember — If a Park space has more than one Celebration Token, pips on Wild Tiles count toward each of its Celebration Token types.

Note: Adjacent Water spaces do not need to be filled for a Park space to be surrounded.

Ties

If two or more players are tied for the most strength for a Celebration Token, the token is not awarded. Instead, place the Celebration Token into the next open slot in the Ties area of the board. If all four slots in the Ties area are filled at the end of a player's turn, the game ends immediately (see endgame conditions below).

Turn Example 1

RED places a 2 strength Sakura Tile. RED is hoping to win that matching Celebration Token in the adjacent Park space. No Park spaces are surrounded, so no tokens are awarded. RED draws one Player Tile to bring their hand back to five total tiles. The next player in clockwise order takes a turn.

Turn Example 2

GREEN is eyeing the Onigiri token, so they place a 4 strength Onigiri Tile. Additionally, they place a 1 strength Maneki-Neko tile because it has the Fast Icon. No Park spaces are surrounded, so no tokens are awarded. They draw two Player Tiles to bring their hand back up to five tiles. The next player in clockwise order takes a turn.

BLUE places a Boat Tile with a Fast Icon on a Water space and then places a Maneki-Neko Tile to surround the Sakura token. Since all Land spaces surrounding this Park space are filled, its token will be awarded.

GREEN has an adjacent tile, but it is Onigiri so it does not count toward winning the Sakura token. RED has a 2 strength Sakura Tile, matching the Celebration type. BLUE has a 2 strength Maneki-Neko Tile and a 2 strength Boat Tile. These are Wild Tiles so their strength counts toward all Celebration types. With 4 total strength, BLUE wins the Sakura token and places it behind their Player Screen. BLUE draws back up to five tiles. The next player in clockwise order takes a turn.

Multiple Tokens Example

Sakura Token — RED has 5 total strength toward the Sakura token from their two Sakura tiles, and BLUE has 3 total strength from their two Wild Tiles. RED wins the Sakura token and places it behind their screen.

Chochin Token — BLUE has 3 total strength toward the Chochin token from their two Wild Tiles, and GREEN has 2 total strength from their matching Chochin Tile. BLUE wins the Chochin token and places it behind their screen.

Onigiri Token — GREEN has 3 total strength toward the Onigiri token from their matching Onigiri Tile, and BLUE has 3 total strength from their two Wild Tiles. Neither player wins the Onigiri token, so it is placed into the next open slot in the Ties area of the board.

Ability Cards

Ability Cards give players ways to shake up their strategy with a big once-per-game effect. With Standard Ability Cards, all players use the same effect. With Special Ability Cards, each player will get a unique card and effect.

Ability Cards must be activated at the start of your turn — before placing any Player Tiles. When activating the card, announce its effect, complete the effect entirely, then flip the card face down to show you have used it. Card effects often mention "any Player Tile" — this includes tiles that belong to other players.

Each Ability Card is labeled with a Card Name, its Name in Japanese, a Card Effect, and Reminder Icons. Example Standard Ability Cards include Torii, Takoyaki, Rainy Day, and Taiyaki. An example Special Ability Card is Bicycle: "Move any PLAYER TILE on Land to an available adjacent Land space."

Ending the Game

The game ends when one of the following occurs:

A. All Celebration Tokens of one type have been removed from all Park spaces

OR

B. The Ties area is filled with four Celebration Tokens of any type

Complete the current player's turn, then move to Scoring.

Scoring

It is time to award the Large Victory Points. Players reveal the Celebration Tokens hidden behind their Player Screens, then count and compare them to other players.

• The player with the most Sakura tokens wins the Sakura Point.
• The player with the most Chochin tokens wins the Chochin Point.
• The player with the most Onigiri tokens wins the Onigiri Point.

If there is a tie for the most of a Celebration Token type, then no one gets its corresponding Victory Point.

If a player has more Victory Points than the other players, they win Hanami!

Victory Point Ties

If there is a tie for Victory Points, then each player with one Victory Point will:

1. Count all Celebration Tokens of the types that do not match their Large Victory Point. The player with the most Celebration Tokens of their other types combined wins!
2. If there is still a tie, the tied players count ALL of their Celebration Tokens. The player with the most Celebration Tokens overall wins! If there is still a tie, the tied players share the victory.

No Victory Points

In the rare event that no player earns a Large Victory Point, then all players count their Celebration Tokens. The player with the most Celebration Tokens overall wins! If there is a tie, the tied players share the victory.

Scoring Example

BLUE did not have the most of any one type of Celebration Token, so they did not win any Victory Points. GREEN had the most Onigiri tokens, so they won the Large Onigiri Victory Point. RED had the most Sakura tokens, so they won the Large Sakura Victory Point.

GREEN and RED were tied for the most Chochin tokens so its Large Chochin Victory Point was not awarded to any player.

GREEN and RED are tied for the win because they each won one Victory Point. To break the tie, GREEN counts their tokens that do not match their Large Victory Point: 3 Chochin and 1 Sakura, giving them a total of 4. RED counts their tokens that do not match their Large Victory Point: 3 Chochin and 2 Onigiri, giving them a total of 5. RED has the higher score and wins the game!

Advanced Setup

Once you're familiar with Hanami, try one or both of the following variants to give you more control over the setup.

Start Strong (Recommended)

During Step 2 of Player Setup, rather than starting with five random Player Tiles, secretly choose five Player Tiles from your full set of tiles to be your starting hand. Mix all the unselected tiles face down to create your draw pile as usual.

Token Draft (Hard Mode)

During Step 5 of Board Setup, rather than randomly placing Celebration Tokens, have players choose where to place them. After placing one of each type of token in the Park space with 3 trees, choose a player to start. They'll select any Celebration Token from the supply and place it on the board. Continuing clockwise, each player chooses and places a Celebration Token until the supply is empty. Fill all the Park spaces with 2 trees first, then move to single-tree Park spaces.

Game Credits

• Game Design: Reiner Knizia
• Game Development: Darren Reckner
• Creative Direction: Mattox Shuler
• Art: Lisk Feng & Ichiraku Studio
• Producers: Estefania Rodriguez & Jennifer Graham-Macht
• Graphic Design: Estefania Rodriguez & Mattox Shuler
• Copywriting & Editing: Nathan Thornton
• Cultural Consultant: Saigo
• Playtesters for Keymaster: Aggy Hery, Andy Kress, Ben Heyen, Brian Rucker, Bryan Yan, Caleb Schnathorst, Cameron Art, Chad Butler, Connor Radkey, Dan Super, Erich Williams, Heather Schnathorst, James Abele, Jon Ericson, Jun Xiang Yak, Kevin Mercer, Mateusz Haruza, Matthew Watson, Nilu Rajendran, Phil Lesiak, Robert Parry-Cruwys, Ryan Gillespie, Tom Spindle, Winand Tremmel, Ying-Shuo Peng, Zack Lovaas
• Original Playtesters: Iain Adams, Ludwig Berger, Chris Bowyer, Gunthart von Chiari, Chris Dawe, David Farquhar, Jon Gilbert, Martin Higham, Ross Inglis, Kevin Jacklin, Tina and Georg, Chris Lawson, Alex Martell, Werner Mueller, Andreas and Karen Seyfarth, Jo Weigand, Clemens Wildemann, Hannes Wildner, Dieter Hornung

© 2026 Keymaster Games, LLC. Atlanta, GA 30350, USA. All rights reserved. © Dr. Reiner Knizia, 2026, All rights reserved. Samurai is a trademark of Dr. Reiner Knizia. Keymaster Games is a registered trademark of Keymaster Games, LLC.