How to Play the Genjiko Game

Prior to the start of this kumiko game of Genji Koh (源氏香), the host should have prepared 5 different kinds of incense woods and cut out 5 small pieces from each of them. These pieces have been individually placed inside small paper packets, so the host has 25 packets of incense in front of them. The host then takes 20 packets randomly to put them aside, so only 5 packets are left in front of the host. Each of these 5 packets is to be heated in separate censers which will be passed around among the players, one after another. The objective of the game is to determine which of the 5 censers are the same and which are different in fragrance.

There is a possibility that all 5 packets left are the same incense, or they could all be different, or any number of them could be the same, leading to many possibilities of combinations. In fact, it can be shown mathematically that there are exactly 52 such possible combinations. Each of these 52 combinations are associated with the 52 inner chapters of The Tale of Genji, meaning that each combination is named after each of the chapters, excluding the first and the last.

After all 5 censers have been passed around, the player searches for the emblem that represents their answer on the chart of emblems. The logic behind the shapes of the emblems is as follows. Let 5 vertical lines stand for the 5 censers, counting from right to left.

The vertical lines that have their tops connected by horizontal lines represent the censers that had the same fragrance. Therefore, if the player thinks that censers 1 and 3 were the same, 2 and 4 were the same, and 5 was different from any other, i.e. there were 3 different kinds of incense in all, then the emblem that represents the answer will be the following, with its corresponding chapter name from The Tale of Genji:

Hanachirusato (No.11 in the sequence of chapters)

After all the censers have been passed around, the correct order of the censers is announced. A point is given to each correct answer, and the record sheet is awarded to the highest scoring player sitting closest to the seat of honor.

*The Tale of Genji

A novel consisting of 54 chapters written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1000 A.D. portraying the aspects of the aristocratic society of her times through the life of the main character, Hikaru Genji. By far the most well-known of all the Japanese classics, it has been translated into more than 20 languages and has gained worldwide fame and popularity. This literary masterpiece has had an immense impact on Japanese classics, and many academic interpretations, modern translations, and works in related fields like drama and poetry have spun off over the years.