Bozu Mekuri (Hyakunin Isshu Card Game)

Rules and how to play

The details of the rules of Bozu Mekuri differ by region and by family. This page uses the rules below. The rules you can change in the menu are explained in “House rules for Semimaru, emperors, and ladies” below.^[2][3]

The game is for 2–4 players. Shuffle the 100 reading cards of the Hyakunin Isshu (the cards with pictures of the poets) well and stack them face down in a single deck. No one needs to read the poems aloud.^[1][3]

Starting with Red, players take turns clockwise, turning over 1 card at a time from the deck. What happens next depends on the poet on the card, as follows.^[2][3]

• Noble (a male poet): The player who turned it over places it face up in front of them. It becomes part of their pile.
• Monk (a poet who was a monk): The player who turned it over puts all the cards in their pile, together with the monk card, into the center (the middle of the table).
• Lady (a female poet): The player who turned it over takes all the cards in the center, together with the lady card.
• Semimaru and the emperors: By default, Semimaru counts as a monk, and emperors and retired emperors count as nobles.

The game ends when the deck runs out. The player with the most cards in their pile wins. If players tie for first place with the same number of cards, the game is a draw. Cards left in the center at the end belong to no one.^[2][3]

House rules for Semimaru, emperors, and ladies

Depending on the card set, Semimaru is drawn either wearing a hood or as a monk, and people differ on whether he counts as a monk. On this page, you can choose from the 4 options below under “When you turn over Semimaru” in the menu. The default is “Same as a monk”.^[1][3][4]

• Same as a monk: Put your whole pile and the Semimaru card into the center.
• Same as a noble: Keep the Semimaru card in front of you.
• Skip a turn: Keep the Semimaru card in front of you, and skip your next turn.
• Other players’ piles to the center: Keep the Semimaru card in front of you, and all the other players put their whole piles into the center.

For emperor and retired emperor cards, there are rules such as turning over 1 more card, or taking every player’s pile and the cards in the center. On this page, you can choose “Same as a noble” (the default) or “Keep it and turn over another card” under “When you turn over an emperor” in the menu. The cards treated as emperors are the 7 poets whose names include the title of emperor or retired emperor. Empress Jito, who was a woman, is treated as a lady.^[2][4]

There is also a rule that lets you turn over another card with a lady card. On this page, you can turn on “If the center is empty, turn over another card” under “When you turn over a lady” in the menu.^[2][3][4]

Other ways of playing include splitting the deck into 2 or 3 stacks and turning over a card from whichever stack you like, taking the pile of the player next to you when you turn over a military officer holding a bow and arrows, and putting the player who turns over Semimaru in last place on the spot. This page does not include them.^[3][4]

Card categories (100 cards)

The cards on this page are 66 nobles (including the 7 emperors and retired emperors, and 2 poets whose names include the title Nyudo, for a noble who became a monk), 21 ladies, 12 monks, and 1 Semimaru. The monks are the 12 poets whose names include the title Hoshi or Sojo (titles of Buddhist monks).^[1]

The number of monks differs depending on the pictures on the cards. In card sets that draw Semimaru as a monk, there are 13, and in card sets that also draw the 2 Nyudo poets (poems 76 and 96) as monks, there are 15. The cards on this page use pictures made for this site, and the 2 Nyudo poets are drawn as nobles.^[1]

Poets in each category (the numbers are poem numbers):

• Monks (12 cards): 8 Kisen Hōshi, 12 Sōjō Henjō, 21 Sosei Hōshi, 47 Egyō Hōshi, 66 Saki no Daisōjō Gyōson, 69 Nōin Hōshi, 70 Ryōzen Hōshi, 82 Dōin Hōshi, 85 Shun'e Hōshi, 86 Saigyō Hōshi, 87 Jakuren Hōshi, 95 Saki no Daisōjō Jien
• Ladies (21 cards): 2 Jitō Tennō, 9 Ono no Komachi, 19 Ise, 38 Ukon, 53 Udaishō Michitsuna no Haha, 54 Gidō Sanshi no Haha, 56 Izumi Shikibu, 57 Murasaki Shikibu, 58 Daini no Sanmi, 59 Akazome Emon, 60 Koshikibu no Naishi, 61 Ise no Taifu, 62 Sei Shōnagon, 65 Sagami, 67 Suō no Naishi, 72 Yūshi Naishinnō-ke no Kii, 80 Taikenmon'in no Horikawa, 88 Kōkamon'in no Bettō, 89 Shokushi Naishinnō, 90 Inpumon'in no Taifu, 92 Nijō-in no Sanuki
• Emperors and retired emperors (7 cards, treated as Nobles): 1 Tenji Tennō, 13 Yōzei-in, 15 Kōkō Tennō, 68 Sanjō-in, 77 Sutoku-in, 99 Gotoba-in, 100 Juntoku-in
• Semimaru and the two Nyūdō poets: 10 Semimaru (same as a Monk by default); 76 Hosshōji Nyūdō Saki no Kanpaku Daijō-daijin, 96 Nyūdō Saki no Daijō-daijin (both treated as Nobles)

Controls on this page

In the menu, choose the number of players (2, 3, or 4) and how Semimaru, emperor, and lady cards work, then press a mode button. With “Easy”, “Medium”, or “Hard” under “Play vs computer”, you are Red and the computer turns over cards for the other seats. The cards you turn over are decided by chance, so the level makes no difference. With “4 players on this device” (the number is the one you chose), players take turns on one device.

When it is your turn, press “Turn over” below the board or press the top card of the deck. The card you turned over is shown large in the middle of the table. After the poet’s name and category (such as “Noble”, “Monk”, or “Lady”) are shown, the card moves to a pile or to the center.

In the “Button controls” panel to the right of the 3D view (below it on narrow screens), you can also turn over a card with “Turn over a card”. The panel shows the last card turned over and what happened, the number of cards in each color’s pile, the number of cards in the center and in the deck, and how many monks and ladies are left in the deck. With this panel, you can play on devices where the 3D view is not available, or with the keyboard alone.

Drag to rotate the view, and use the mouse wheel or pinch to zoom in and out. Switch views with “Angled” and “Top-down” at the top right of the 3D view. A card you have turned over cannot be taken back, so “Undo move” is not available.

To play with friends, press “Play a friend (send a link)” and send the link shown to the people who will join. The host is Red, and each person who opens the link and presses “Join” takes an open seat. If you press “Fill empty seats with the computer” before everyone has joined, the computer plays the empty seats. In games with 3 or more players, “Leave (the computer takes over)” replaces “Resign”, and the computer takes over the seat of a player who leaves. When a player is disconnected, the computer turns over cards for them once 45 seconds have passed since the disconnection.

Strategy tips

• The cards you turn over are decided by chance, and the turn order gives almost no advantage or disadvantage. In a calculation of 200,000 games with 4 players and the default rules, every seat finished in first place in 24.5–25.0% of the games.
• The player in first place finishes with about 65 of the 100 cards on average (same calculation). Cards move in large groups every time a monk or a lady comes up, so the ranking keeps changing until the last few cards in the deck.
• There are 12 monks and 21 ladies. When few cards are left in the deck, check how many monks and ladies are still in the deck in the “Button controls” panel. This tells you how likely the piles are to move before the end.
• Choosing “Keep it and turn over another card” for emperors or turning on “If the center is empty, turn over another card” for ladies barely changes the difference between seats (24.4–25.0% in the same calculation). With “Keep it and move everyone else’s pile to the center” for Semimaru, a single card can change the ranking a lot.

Origin and history of Bozu Mekuri

It is not known who came up with Bozu Mekuri or when. No records showing that it was played in the Edo period (1603–1868) have been found, and one view holds that it was devised in the Meiji era (1868–1912) or later.^[1]

The oldest known example in writing is “bozu okoshi” (“turning up monks”), which appears in Tsubouchi Shoyo’s novel “Imo to Se Kagami” [A Mirror of Husband and Wife] (1886). Its illustration shows a row of reading cards with pictures of poets, not grabbing cards. Miyagawa Shuntei’s picture “Kodomo Fuzoku” [Children’s Customs] (1896) shows “bozu okoshi” as a children’s game.^[1]

The Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is a collection of waka poems by 100 poets, one poem each, said to have been selected by Fujiwara no Teika. Each reading card shows a poem and a picture of its poet, and Bozu Mekuri uses only these reading cards. You can play without knowing the poems, so small children can play too.^[1][5]

Sources

1. Naoto Yoshikai, “「坊主めくり」の謎” [The mystery of Bozu Mekuri] (column by a faculty member, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, 2015; in Japanese) (opens in a new tab)
2. Hamajima Shoten, “遊び方の種類 - 坊主めくり” [Ways to play: Bozu Mekuri] (Seito no Hiroba, Hyakunin Isshu; in Japanese) (opens in a new tab)
3. Oishi Tengudo, “百人一首の「坊主めくり」って、何？って話” [What is Hyakunin Isshu Bozu Mekuri?] (Karuta News; in Japanese) (opens in a new tab)
4. PolygonDrill, “百人一首かるた 坊主めくりの遊び方” [How to play Bozu Mekuri with Hyakunin Isshu karuta] (in Japanese) (opens in a new tab)
5. Wikipedia (Japanese), “小倉百人一首” [Ogura Hyakunin Isshu] (opens in a new tab)

Frequently asked questions

How many players can play Bozu Mekuri?

On this page, 2–4 players can play. The default is 4. You can play the computer, take turns on one device, or send friends a link. With real cards, more players can play.

How many monk cards are there?

There are 12 in the cards on this page. The 12 poets whose names include the title Hoshi or Sojo are monks. If you count Semimaru as a monk, there are 13, and in card sets that also draw the 2 poets with Nyudo in their names as monks, there are 15.

What happens when you turn over Semimaru?

There’s no fixed rule. He’s most often treated the same as a monk, and that’s also the default on this page. In the menu, you can also choose to treat him as a noble, to skip a turn, or to move the other players’ piles to the center.

How many lady cards are there, and what happens when you turn one over?

There are 21. The player who turns over a lady takes all the cards in the center, together with the lady card. There’s also a rule where you turn over another card when the center is empty, and you can turn it on in the menu on this page.

What rules are there for emperor cards?

Usually they’re treated the same as nobles. There are also rules where you turn over another card, or take every player’s pile and the cards in the center. On this page, you can choose “Same as a noble” or “Keep it and turn over another card”. The cards treated as emperors are the 7 poets whose names include the title of emperor or retired emperor. Empress Jito, who was a woman, is treated as a lady.

What happens to the cards left in the center at the end?

They belong to no one. The winner is decided by the number of cards in each pile when the deck runs out. If players tie for first place with the same number, it’s a draw.

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