Hokusai Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Preparation
• Turns and Actions
• Main Actions
  • 1. Move the Apprentice
  • 2. Mix Pigments
  • 3. Expose a Kakemono
  • 4. Discard Pigments
• Extra Actions
  • I. Activate Artisan Cards
  • II. Partially Paint Kakemonos
• End of Turn
• End of Game
• Score
• Cards of Artisans
• Cards of Objectives Public
• Cards of Objectives Individual
• Cards of Masters
• Action Tokens

Components

• (A) 1 rondel of pigments
• (B) 1 board (main)
• (C) 6 signature tokens per player [6x beige, 6x white, 6x brown, 6x pink, 6x grey]
• (D) 5 apprentice meeples [1x beige, 1x white, 1x brown, 1x pink, 1x gray]
• (E) 32 kakemono cards
• (F) 25 artisan/craftsman cards
• (G) 17 objective cards (9 public and 8 individual)
• (H) 6 master cards
• (I) 110 drops of pigment [20x blue, 20x red, 20x yellow, 10x purple, 10x green, 10x orange, 20x black]
• (J) 50 tool tokens
• (K) 5 workshops/player studios
• (L) 5 action tokens
• (M) 5 help cards
• (N) 6 bags
• (O) 1 rulebook
• (P) 1 block of scoresheets
• (Q) 1 card (2 point)

Preparation

1. Distribute to each player:

• 1 studio (K);
• 6 drops of pigment (I) of primary colors (2 blue, 2 red, 2 yellow) and 4 drops black inside a bag (N);
• 1 random value 3 kakemono (E) card, (see in the image where it should be placed);
• 6 one-color signature markers (C).
• 1 apprentice meeple of the player's color (D).
• 1 random individual objective card (G).

Note: if playing with less than 5 players, remove the drops of pigments that would be delivered to other players and leave it in the game box along with player kits that will not be used.

2. Place the rondel (A) and the board (B) within reach of the players in the center of the table.

3. Place a signature marker from each player on level 10 of the track on the right side of the board.

4. To fill the rondel, separate pigments of each primary color (red, blue, yellow) according to the number of players in the match:

no. players	pigments	total
2	5 pigments of each primary color	15
3	6 pigments of each primary color + 2 pigments random also primary color	20
4	7 pigments of each primary color + 4 pigments random also primary color	25
5	10 pigments of each primary color	30

5. Set aside a bag not used by players and put the above pigments in it. Draw pigments from the bag one by one and placing them in each internal space of the pigment rondel. When complete the quantity of pigments referring to the table above, each interior space must have an equal number of pigments. If drops of primary colors remain, they must return to the game box. The pigments of secondary colors (green, orange and purple) must be left in the designated spaces on the board (see in the image).

6. Shuffle the artisan cards (F) and open 5 in the designated spaces around the rondel, so that are alternated with empty spaces (these now empty spaces will receive other cards in step 8). Make a pile with the rest of the cards. Artisans, back side up, and place it on the intended place on the board (see picture).

7. Separate the kakemono cards (E) of value 3 that are left after step 1. Open 1 in any of the four central spaces in the board (see image) and return the rest to the game box.

8. Shuffle the other kakemono cards (5, 7 and 9 points) and deal 5 in the empty spaces around the rondel, with the face monochrome up. Then form a pile with the rest of the cards and place it in the designated place on the board (see image) with the monochrome face up.

9. Place the tool markers (J) in the bag not used by players, then place 2 tool markers on each kakemono(5) on the rondel. Also place 2 on the top pile of kakemono cards on the board. The rest of the tool markers must remain in that bag.

10. Take the action token labeled 1 and place it in any of the rondel's hollow rectangular spaces. Take the remaining action tokens (L), shuffle and place in every empty hollow space that is left. The remaining action tokens must return to the box.

11. Shuffle the public objective cards (G) and place 2 in the designated area on the board (see picture). See the explanation of each objective at the end of the manual.

12. Determine the starting player however you like. reveal cards of master (H) equal to the number of players in the game and an extra. The last player in turn order will start choosing its master, and so on until reaching to the first player, counterclockwise. Return the master cards left over to the game box. See the skills of masters at the end of the manual.

Turns and Actions

Hokusai is played in turns. In your turn, the player must take a main action and can take an extra action, in any order you wish. Like all main actions (except the action 4) affect are carried out in the rondel, let's meet the rondel first:

• Oval cutout: in the internal spaces will be primary color pigments (red, blue, yellow).
• In these spaces will be placed 5 of the 7 action tokens.
• In these spaces will be players' apprentices and is that's where they move.
• There will always be a letter of artisan and one of kakemono alternating on each side of the pentagon.

Likewise, all the time players will be interacting with your studio. Its structure is this:

• Space for card individual goal.
• Active area: this is where the pigments will be that can be used on your turn.
• Discard area: this is where you will put your discarded pigments. These pigments only come back to the bag when you need to buy new pigments (at the end of your turn) and the bag does not have the enough amount.
• Spaces for the tool tokens: that's where you put the tool tokens you have used. That is, that you have already removed from the kakemonos.
• Space for Master card.
• Spaces for kakemonos (monochrome side face up).
• Spaces for artisans.

Main Actions

Choose one from 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2, 3 or 4.

1. Move the Apprentice

To move your apprentice in the rondel, you must move black pigments from the active area of your studio to your discard area of your studio. Each black pigment represents a learner's step. The apprentice can move in any direction in a single direction (player's choice) on the rondel's movement spaces.

When moving the apprentice on the rondel, you can choose to perform option a, b, c, or d (or none of them, if you performed the movement only to approach a specific space for a move in a future turn):

a) Activate an action token: The token next to a space of where the player's apprentice moved to can be activated. See the effect of each at the end of this manual.

Example: the green player uses 1 black pigment to move. He can go right and activate the token action 1, or go left and activate the token action 2.

b) Acquire a kakemono card: The player may acquire the kakemono card (and the tool tokens on it) referring to the movement space where your apprentice has been moved, if you have room in your studio. As a general rule, there is room for 2 kakemonos in the studio and they can never be exchanged or discarded. After performing this action, a new kakemono card must be placed on the rondel with 2 tool tokens on it.

Example: the green player uses 1 black pigment to move. He can go right and acquire card 1, or go left and acquire card 2. The kakemono card with the tool tokens must be replaced from the board to the rondel.

Kakemono cards have the following information:

• Front of the card (monochrome): the icon indicates which collection this kakemono belongs to; the necessary pigments to paint the kakemono; and the score that the card will yield to the player at the end of the game if completed.
• Back of the card: the "bonus of fit" icons placed around the frame, the icon collection, and the score.

All collections have a card with each of these scores: 3, 5, 7, 9 points.

c) Acquire an artisan card: The ukiyo-e technique requires mastery of a few specific skills that only artisans possess. All artisan cards feature 1 to 2 icons of tools.

Each kakemono you purchase comes with two tool tokens on it. For what can start painting it, you must first remove these tokens (see how to do this later in EXTRA ACTIONS - I. ACTIVATE ARTISAN CARDS). Thus, you should look to acquire artisans whose tool icons match the tool tokens over your kakemono(s). As the game progresses, you will probably need other icons, for this is important to keep artisans circulating in your studio.

With this action, the player can acquire the relevant artisan card to the movement space your apprentice was moved to. As a rule, there is room for 3 artisans in the player's studio. When a player is at the limit, with this action the player can discard an artisan, placing it at the bottom of the artisan pile on the board, and placing the new artisan acquired in the space of the discarded artisan in his studio. After performing this action, a new artisan card must be placed in the rondel.

Example: the green player uses 2 black pigments to move. He can go right and acquire card 1, or go left and acquire card 2. The artisan card must be returned from the board to the rondel.

The tokens represent the tools needed to work on a kakemono and can earn points to the player at the end of the game. See "Score" for details. The five tool types are: stiletto, chisel, basket, hammer and brush.

d) Acquire pigment: The player can acquire primary color pigments that are in the position where your apprentice was moved. The new pigments must be placed in the disposal area of your studio. The amount of pigments to receive will be according to the position of your marker on the track on the main board. This track is used to control the amount of pigments that each player has. The verification of this quantity must always be done at the end of each player's turn, but before replenishing their active area, and must consider the totality of pigments (active area + discard + bag + pigments on kakemonos in your studio). Here's what each tag indicates:

• Penalty if the player reaches this level: he must get rid of 8 pigments anywhere in your studio (primaries for the rondel*, secondaries for the board; black pigments cannot be discarded), so he must place his marker on the level 8 after taking the penalty.
• Quantity of pigments that the player has at the end of the turn.
• Quantity of pigments that the player collects in the rondel when he is at this level (action 1d).
• Quantity of pigments that the player resets to the active area at the end of the turn.
• Bonuses that the player earns when at this level.

*Whenever pigments enter the rondel, the active player must place the first pigment in the inner space of the rondel that is in the direction of your apprentice and then place the other pigments one by one in the subsequent spaces, in the desired direction.

Example: the green player uses 1 black pigment to move. He can go right and acquire 2 pigments from space 1, or go left and acquire 2 pigments from space 2.

He must update his position on the track on the main board.

Note: Black pigments are used to perform move actions. The colors are used to paint the kakemonos and are separated into two categories: primary and secondary colors. To form the secondary colors, it is necessary to make a mixture (see how to Mix pigments).

2. Mix Pigments

The player must follow these steps in this order:

• Take, from the active area of your studio, the primary color pigments needed for mixing and place them in the rondel (the return to the rondel is done as explained in action 1 d) Acquire pigment);
• It is mandatory to rotate the rondel, but in the direction you want and as many spaces as you want (only returning to the origin is not allowed) and, if you wish, perform the effect of the card with which the oval cutout is aligned;
• Take the pigment resulting from the mixture from the central tray and place it in its discard area;
• Update your position on the track on the central board according to the amount of pigments you have in total.

Note: it is possible to perform more than one mix with a single action, but in this case, the rondel will only be rotated once.

Example: the green player wants to get an orange and a purple pigment. He uses yellow + red pigments to make 1 orange, and the blue + red pigments to make 1 purple. He places the 4 primary color pigments in the rondel starting from the 1, where your apprentice is, clockwise or counterclockwise (one pigment in each space). Then the player spins the rondel and can perform the action with which the oval cutout is aligned. Then he takes the secondary color pigments from the central board and places them in their discard area.

Finally, he updates the amount of pigments he has in total on the main board.

3. Expose a Kakemono

The player must take, from his active area, the pigments needed to complete a kakemono and place them on top of him. Then he must follow these steps:

• Place the primary color pigments that were used in the painting in the rondel (the return to the rondel is carried out as explained in action 1 d) Acquire pigment);
• Place the secondary color pigments that may have been used in the painting on the central tray;
• It is mandatory to rotate the rondel, but in the direction you want and as many spaces as you want (only returning to the origin is not allowed) and, if you wish, perform the effect of the card with which the oval cutout is aligned;
• Place the kakemono on the board, with the painted side facing up, fitting it orthogonally, in any orientation, on one of the edges of another card that is already there;
• Place a signature marker of your color on the exposed kakemono;
• See if the fit earned you any bonuses. See an example:

In this example, the green player would receive for the fit of this letter two purple pigments taken from the reserve, and would take from any position on the rondel a new kakemono, a new artisan and a blue pigment.

Update your position on the track on the central board according to the amount of pigments you have in total.

4. Discard Pigments

The player must place in the discard area of his studio all the pigments that are in his active area. Then he must take from his bag the same number of discarded pigments to replace his active area. He can still take an extra action if he wants to.

Extra Actions

Choose I or II if you like.

I. Activate Artisan Cards

The player can activate all artisan cards he has in his studio. This activation is for:

• Removing tool tokens, which is necessary to do before starting to paint a kakemono. Each symbol(s) on an artisan card(s) removes a tool token from the kakemono card once per turn. Tokens removed through this action must be placed at the top of the player's studio to score at the end of the game (see image).

Example: the pink player has a kakemono card containing 2 markers with the icon (hammer). In his studio, he has only 1 in artisan cards. So he will need two turns to pull out the 2 kakemono card tokens.

If the player needs to remove a token and does not have the corresponding artisan card, he can optionally discard any artisan (returning it to the bottom of the artisan pile) and removing the tool marker you want.

II. Partially Paint Kakemonos

The player takes one or more pigments from their active area and puts it on one or more kakemonos in his studio, so that there is correspondence with the pigment(s) printed on the kakemono card(s). Remember that, for this, it is necessary that there are no more tool tokens on the kakemonos.

EXAMPLE: the green player, after removing the tool tokens from the card, performed the action of painting partially with the pigments available in your active area.

End of Turn

At the end of a turn, you should check how many pigments you have in total (in all areas). Adjust your marker on the track, if necessary, then do the replacement in your active area, taking pigments from your bag. If there is not enough inside the bag, it will be necessary to take all the pigments present in the discard area and place them in the bag. Then buy from your bag the amount of pigments according to your position on the track and place them in your active area to end your turn.

EXAMPLE: the green player ends his turn with 3 pigments in his active area and with the marker at position 10 on the track. In this way, the player must replace his active area with 3 more pigments that must be taken from his bag. The green player takes 2 pigments from the bag and finds that 1 pigment is missing to replace in its active area (according to the track it must replace up to 6 pigments). The player then takes all the pigments from the discard area, puts them in their bag and takes the missing pigment and places it in its active area, ending its turn.

End of Game

Game over can be triggered if one of the following conditions is met:

1. When a player runs out of signature markers.
2. When there are the following amount of kakemonos on the board:

no. players	2	3	4	5
kakemonos	11	12	13	14

NOTE: for this count, the initial kakemono is also considered. The player who triggered the end of the game receives the 2-point card and no longer plays. Regardless of what triggered the end of the game, the remaining players take one last turn and the game ends.

Note: If the game ends by the amount of kakemonos on the board, it is possible that there is no more space available to fit it. In that case, leave any completed kakemonos from there next to the board with the respective signature markers of the players. It should be noted that players in this situation will not earn slot bonuses, they will only earn card points.

Score

The final score is given by the sum of the following elements:

• Completed kakemonos: the sum of the points of the kakemono cards where the player has a signature marker of his color.
• Individual goal score.
• Scoring of public goals.
• Score from tools icon collection (markers + artisan cards), as the table below:

Icons different	2	3	4	5
Points	1	2	4	8

The player can score more than one collection.

• Score from the predominant tool icon collection: the player checks which icon he has the most. Each such icon is worth 1 point.
• Artisan cards score with dot symbol.
• Score of partially painted kakemono cards: each pigment on the card is worth 1 point.
• 2 point card: only for the player who triggered the end of the game.

Example of icons score: the player has 8 + 4 + 2 + 0 = 14 points.

Use the scoresheet block to help count the points.

Cards of Artisans

• Artisan card (3 points): Removes 1 tool token from the type indicated on the card. 3 points at the end of the game.
• Artisan card (yellow as red): Removes 1 tool token from the type indicated on the card. Additionally, the player can use yellow pigments as if they were red (but the reverse is not valid). There are other cards of the same style, with other color combinations, other tool icons and other characters.
• Artisan card (two tools): Removes, with a single activation, up to 2 type tool tokens indicated on the card. There are other cards of the same style, only with other tools.

Some cards of artisan also give a passive skill during the game. See at the end of the manual.

Cards of Objectives Public

• Positions objective (1x): The kakemonos in the positions indicated in card are worth 2 additional points for the player who placed it. There are other cards of this type, with positions in other locations.
• Tool tokens objective (> =): The players with the most tool tokens of the same type gain the points indicated on this card: 5 points for the player with the most equal tokens, 3 points for the second and 1 point for the third. Tied players win the same score. For example, if two players tie for 1st place, both earn 5 points, however, the player who placed 3rd would continue earning 1 point.
• Pigments objective (< bag): Players with less pigments (bag + workshop) score (1st, 2nd and 3rd place). If there is a tie, all tied score in that position.

Cards of Objectives Individual

2 points per kakemono exhibited with its signature marker containing one of the indicated icons. There are other cards of this type, just varying the combination of icons of collection.

Cards of Masters

• Hiroshige: Whenever the opposing player to your left moves the rondel, you can take 1 pigment from the position of your apprentice and place in your area of discard.
• Hokusai: Extra Special Action: You can buy pigments from your bag until it appears 1 secondary color pigment. Put it in your active area and all other pigments in your discard area. If there are no pigments in the bag, when using this effect, the pigments discarded must be returned to the bag for the purchase to be made.
• Kuniyoshi: You can have up to 4 artisan cards simultaneously in your studio. The fourth artisan card you may have must be kept close to other artisans. If you have 4 artisan cards at the end of the game, you must remove one of them before the final score.
• Masanobu: Once per turn, you can discard any pigment to buy another pigment from the bag. If there are no pigments in the bag, when using this effect, the pigments discarded (including the one just discarded with this effect) must return to the bag for the purchase to be then carried out.
• Oi: When you complete a kakemono, you can keep 1 primary color pigment used in painting and put on your discard.
• Utamaro: Once per turn, you can buy 1 black pigment from your bag and place in your active area. If there are no black pigments in the bag, you will not be able to perform this action.

Note: the printed surnames of the masters Masanobu and Utamaro are partly illegible in the source image; the given names are transcribed as printed. The Utamaro text on the source page is garbled in its last sentence; the wording above is the reading that best matches the card.

Action Tokens

The five action tokens are:

1. Discard all artisans from the rondel, reset and choose one of any position. All discarded artisans must be placed at the bottom of the respective pile.
2. Move 2 pigments from the discard area to the active area.
3. Choose 2 pigments from the bag and place in the active area. In case there is not enough pigments in the bag, this action has no effect.
4. Collect 3 pigments from the rondel in position of your apprentice and place it in the discard.
5. Collect 1 pigment from the rondel in position of your apprentice and place it in the active area.