In Zensō, players compete to create the most harmonious Japanese garden, inspired by the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi.

Players expand their gardens by overlapping Terrain cards, creating parcels of different Landscapes, placing Stones and Lanterns, and fulfilling conditions to play Harmony cards.

The player with the most Harmony Points at the end of the game wins.

Game Overview

Players take turns clockwise, expanding their gardens and earning Harmony Points.

Each Terrain card contains 4 spaces, which may represent Sand or one of 5 Landscape types:

• Pond
• Bamboo
• Cherry tree
• Maple
• Grass

Orthogonally connected spaces of the same Landscape type form a parcel.

The game continues until a player places their fifth Harmony card or all Terrain cards have been played.

Turn Structure

Each turn consists of five phases, performed in order:

1. Combine Stones (optional).
2. Choose a Plan (mandatory).
3. Enlarge your Garden (mandatory).
4. Bring Harmony (optional).
5. End of the Turn (mandatory).

1. Combine Stones

At the beginning of your turn, you may remove one or more Stone tokens from Sand spaces in your garden and stack them on an available green space of your Zen board.

Gain 1 Ensō token for each Stone placed in the stack.

Each Zen board has only 3 green spaces, so this action can be performed at most 3 times during the game.

2. Choose a Plan

Choose 1 of the 6 available Terrain cards below the Inspiration board.

Depending on its position, the card costs:

• 0 Ensō tokens.
• 1 Ensō token.
• 2 Ensō tokens.

Pay the required cost and immediately receive the bonus shown on the card.

Possible bonuses include:

• Stones: Gain the indicated number of Stone tokens, to be placed in your garden during the next phase.
• Ensō: Gain the indicated number of Ensō tokens.
• Harmony card: Take 1 of the 6 visible Harmony cards or draw the top card of the Harmony deck. Keep it hidden in your hand.
• Lantern: Gain Lantern tokens that must be placed on the indicated Landscape types during the next phase.
• Combined or alternative bonuses: Some cards provide two bonuses or let you choose between two rewards.

3. Enlarge Your Garden

Flip the chosen Terrain card to its Garden side and add it to your garden by overlapping existing Terrain spaces.

The following placement rules apply:

• The new card must cover at least 1 existing Terrain space.
• You cannot cover a Stone token, Lantern token, or Harmony card.
• Landscape spaces may only cover Landscape spaces of the same type.
• Sand spaces may be covered by any Terrain type, including Sand.

After placing the Terrain card, place the Stone and Lantern tokens gained during the previous phase.

Stones:

• Must be placed on Sand spaces without Stones.
• Any Stone that cannot be placed is returned to the supply.

Lanterns:

• Must be placed on empty spaces of the Landscape types specified by the acquired card.
• Normally, only 1 Lantern can occupy a space.
• Certain Terrain cards specifically allow multiple Lanterns on the same space.

4. Bring Harmony

During this phase, you may play as many Harmony cards from your hand as you can validate.

Harmony cards may be obtained through Terrain bonuses or purchased at any time during your turn for 2 Ensō tokens each.

When purchasing, choose either a visible Harmony card or the top card of the Harmony deck.

There are two categories of Harmony cards:

• Plants and Buildings: Provide Harmony Points when their conditions are fulfilled.
• Jizō: Provide Harmony Points and permanent abilities once placed in the garden.

Validation Conditions

Harmony cards can require one of three types of conditions:

• Parcel size: Have parcels containing at least the indicated number of spaces, sometimes of specific Landscape types.
• Geometric shape: Have a parcel containing the indicated pattern, which may be rotated or mirrored.
• Stone arrangement: Have 3 or 4 orthogonally connected Stone tokens.

Placing Harmony Cards

To validate a Harmony card:

1. Fulfil its indicated condition.
2. Place the card so that it covers at least 1 empty Terrain space, without a Stone or Lantern token.
3. The card must touch at least one of the elements used to validate its condition, such as a qualifying parcel or Stone.
4. Pay any indicated cost in Ensō or Stone tokens.

For Jizō cards requiring Stones, the validating Stone tokens must be discarded, starting with the Stone adjacent to the card and continuing through the connected group.

Once placed, a Harmony card remains in the garden and contributes points at the end of the game.

Any immediate benefits are resolved when the card is placed.

Jizō Abilities

Jizō cards provide permanent effects, including:

• Gain additional Stone or Ensō tokens when receiving these as bonuses.
• Reduce the Stone or Ensō cost of validating Harmony cards.
• Cover Landscape spaces with Landscape spaces of different types.
• Gain Ensō tokens when covering Landscape spaces with matching types.
• Exchange Harmony cards from your hand with visible cards.
• Gain additional Ensō tokens when combining Stones.
• Receive both rewards from Terrain cards that normally require choosing one.
• Move Lantern tokens by spending Ensō.
• Draw 3 Harmony cards and keep 1 when taking a card from the Harmony deck.
• Reduce the cost of acquiring Terrain or Harmony cards.

These abilities become active immediately after the corresponding Jizō card is placed.

5. End of the Turn

Slide the remaining Terrain cards below the Inspiration board to the left, filling the empty position.

Reveal a new Terrain card from the draw pile and place it in the rightmost available position.

Refill the visible Harmony display to 6 cards, if necessary.

The next player then begins their turn.

End of the Game

The game ends in either of two ways:

• Fifth Harmony card: When a player places their fifth Harmony card, finish the current round so that every player has taken the same number of turns.
• Terrain depletion: When both the Terrain draw pile and the available Terrain row are empty, the game ends immediately.

Players may have more than 5 Harmony cards if they validate multiple cards during their final turn.

Final Scoring

Each player scores Harmony Points from three sources:

Harmony Cards

Score the points indicated on every Harmony card placed in your garden.

Some cards provide a fixed number of points, while others score according to elements in your garden, such as:

• The size of your largest parcel of a specified Landscape type.
• The number of parcels of a specified Landscape type.
• The number of Sand parcels.
• The number of Stone tokens on Sand spaces.
• The number of Lantern tokens.
• The number of Harmony cards in your garden.

Unplayed Harmony Cards

Each Harmony card remaining in your hand is worth 1 point.

Lanterns

Score each parcel separately according to the number of Lantern tokens it contains:

Only the number of Lantern tokens matters, not the size of the parcel.

Winning

The player with the highest total of Harmony Points wins.

In case of a tie, the tied player with the most remaining Ensō tokens wins.

If the tie persists, the players share the victory.