Sugoroku

Sugoroku (1925)

Sugoroku (双六) refers to two different forms of Japanese board game, one similar to western backgammon and the other similar to western Snakes and ladders. Sugoroku plays identically to backgammon (it even has the same starting position), except for the following differences:

• Doubles are not special. If a player rolls doubles, each die still counts only once.
• There is no "bearing off". The goal is to move all of one's men to within the last six spaces of the board.
• There is no doubling cube.
• It is not permitted to form a prime of six contiguous points to obstruct one's opponent.

History

The game is thought to have been introduced from China (where it was known as Shuanglu) into Japan in the sixth century. There are pictures and a cursory description of the rules at http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/11Kaleidoscope2118.html

It is known that in the centuries following the game's introduction into Japan it was made illegal several times, most prominently in 689 and 754. This is because the simple and luck-based nature of sugoroku made it an ideal gambling game. This version of sugoroku and records of playing for gambling continuously appeared until early Edo era. In early Edo-era, a new and quick gambling game called Chō-Han (丁半) appeared and using sugoroku for gambling quickly dwindled.

This variant of the backgammon family has died out in most other countries, but it is still popular in Japan, partially due to a boost caused by the inclusion of a free Sugoroku board with the first issue of the newspaper Kingu (in 1925) which sold 740,000 copies.

A simpler sugoroku, with rules similar to snakes and ladders, appeared as early as late 13th century and was made popular due to the cheap and elaborate wooden block printing technology of the Edo period. Thousands of variations of boards were made with pictures and themes from religion, political, actors, and even adult material. In the Meiji and later periods, this variation of the game remained popular and was often included in child-oriented magazines.

In 1968, Takara introduced Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム Jinsei Gēmu) as a Japanese version of The Game of Life and this became an instant hit by using a roulette instead of dice and by offering alternative goals beside quickly reaching the goal. This game was periodically updated introducing many timely topics and sold over 10 million sets to date. In the electric gaming genre, Momotaro Dentetsu series is the most popular computer sugoroku game in Japan.

Other Sugoroku Games

The video game Samurai Warriors 2 features a mini-game named Sugoroku, but it bears very little resemblance to the above described games. Instead, it plays very much like Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise, or a simplified version of Monopoly: players take turns in moving around a board, the spaces of which are designated as different territories of Japan. By landing on an unoccupied space, the player is able to buy that space for a set amount of money. If one player lands on a space purchased by another, they must pay a fee to that player, or else can choose to challenge the player for control of that space (utilising the main Samurai Warriors 2 game engine for special challenge games). Also present on the board are "Shrine" spaces, which are roughly analogious to Monopoly's Chance and Community Chest spaces.

References

• Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3/4. (November 1936), p. 434.
• Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 43, No. 4. (Winter, 1988), pp. 468.

External links

• Sugoroku Net