Haiku

About this board game

Haiku is a 2025 board game for 2–5 players, with games lasting about 25 minutes. Each round, six ukiyo-e painting cards are placed on display, creating a selection of illustrations for players to consider.

Every player secretly chooses one of the six cards. They then use three of their eight double-sided haiku phrase tiles to create a haiku verse. The verse serves as a poetic guide, helping teammates identify the illustration the player selected.

The challenge lies in expressing an image through a limited set of phrases. Players must consider how their haiku will direct their teammates toward the correct card while the paintings remain part of the shared visual puzzle.

• For 2–5 players
• Approximately 25 minutes per game
• Six ukiyo-e painting cards on display each round
• Three of eight double-sided phrase tiles used to create each haiku
• Successes and failures determine the game’s progress

If the group identifies the correct card, it moves one step closer to victory. If the choice is incorrect, the group moves one step closer to defeat. The number of successes or failures needed to trigger the end of the game depends on the number of players.

With its combination of secret choices, constrained wordplay, and visual interpretation, Haiku turns each round into a compact exercise in poetic communication. Build a verse, read the clues, and see whether the group can connect the words to the right ukiyo-e illustration.