Sugoroku: board play and journeys on paper

Board sugoroku

Ban-sugoroku is played by two people with black and white counters and dice. In the hon-sugoroku rules described by Tokushima Prefectural Museum, each player has fifteen counters and moves according to two dice, racing to bring all their counters into their own finishing area. A space occupied by two or more opposing counters is blocked. Landing on a lone opponent sends it to the middle of the board to await re-entry. The throw gives the distance; the counters determine the available moves.

Picture sugoroku

E-sugoroku instead arranges pictures, places or stories on paper. Board sugoroku has several rule variants, while picture sheets carry their own instructions: identify the particular game before deciding how to move and win.

Routes and jumps

In mawari-sugoroku, players generally move in sequence by the number thrown. In tobi-sugoroku, instructions in each space send players to another space according to the dice result. Waiting, retreat and jumps can alter the route, and finishing conditions vary. An Edo seasonal-sights sheet discussed by the National Diet Library includes both waiting and jumping instructions.

Rules on one flying-sugoroku sheet

Shinpan Nihon Meisho Meibutsu Tobimawari Sugoroku gives a precise example. Its finish depicts shellfish gathering at Sumiyoshi Shrine. From the space before it, throwing one reaches the finish, while six sends the player back to the Kyoto space on the outside of the sheet. A higher number is not necessarily better: the local instruction determines its effect.

Edo picture games depict the Tokaido, Edo sights, people, occupations and moral lessons. Their pictures can be enjoyed as well as played. A Kamakura, Enoshima and Oyama sheet drawn by Hokusai returns travellers to Nihonbashi, illustrating a route different from a simple race from Edo to Kyoto.

The Nihon Shoki records a prohibition on sugoroku in 689, an early Japanese reference to board play. A prohibition establishes that it was being played, not when it first arrived. A diary entry from 1474 mentions Jōdo sugoroku, a picture game with Buddhist themes. Picture games later spread through Edo-period woodblock printing, with religious, instructive and recreational subjects. Machine printing in the later Meiji period and New Year magazine supplements in the Taishō and early Shōwa periods widened their circulation. These picture games and the older board game share a name but have different histories and rules.