In Okiya, a.k.a. Niya,, each player tries to arrange her tokens to gain the favor of the emperor. Alternatively, you can prevent your rival from placing a token in the Imperial garden, showing that you have more control than your opponent.

To set up the game, shuffle the 16 tiles and arrange them in a 4x4 square; each tile shows one of four types of vegetation (maple, cherry, pine or iris) and one of four types of poetic symbols (rising sun, bird, rain or tanzaku - the small pieces of paper on which people sometimes write wishes).

The starting player removes one tile on the b ...