Okiya

In Okiya, also known as Niya, each player tries to arrange their tiles to win the favor of the emperor. Alternatively, you can prevent your opponent from placing a tile in the imperial garden, showing that you have more control than your opponent.

To set up the game, shuffle all 16 tiles and place them in a 4x4 square; each mosaic 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 a token on the edge of the square, sets this token aside, and then places one of his tokens on this space. The opponent must then do the same, but may choose only those tiles that represent the same type of vegetation or poetic symbol as shown on the first reserved tile. Play continues and each reserved tile determines where the next player can go until:

A player forms a line with four of their tiles in any direction,
A player forms a 2x2 square with four of their his checkers, or
A player chooses a checker that does not allow his opponent to place a checker.

In either of these cases, the player has won the game. A match can be a single game, a "best-of-three" series, or a points-based match, with the winner of a game earning as many points as the number of tiles left on the grid when they win; in this case, the player who first accumulates ten points wins the match.