A Game of Two Worlds
In modern Japan, the word sugoroku (双六) evokes warm memories for millions: family gatherings around colorful board games during New Year celebrations, children rolling dice and racing tokens through whimsical illustrated tracks. It is, on the surface, Japan’s answer to Snakes and Ladders or the Game of Life — simple, cheerful, and gently educational.
But behind this friendly modern face lies one of the most fascinating game histories in Asia. Sugoroku is not one game but two entirely different games sharing the same name — a confusion that has persisted for over a thousand years and that reflects the remarkable cultural transformations Japan has undergone since the Nara period. One sugoroku is a descendant of ancient Middle Eastern race games closely related to backgammon. The other is a uniquely Japanese creation that evolved from Buddhist moral instruction into a beloved folk tradition.
Understanding both forms of sugoroku means tracing a thread from the Persian game of Nard through Tang Dynasty China to the imperial courts of ancient Japan — and then watching that thread split, transform, and ultimately produce something entirely new.
Ban-Sugoroku: The Backgammon of Japan
Arrival from China
The older of the two sugoroku traditions is ban-sugoroku (盤双六, literally “board sugoroku”), a two-player race game played on a board virtually identical to a backgammon board. Ban-sugoroku arrived in Japan from China during the 6th or 7th century CE, part of the enormous wave of Chinese cultural influence that shaped Japanese civilization during the Asuka and Nara periods.
In China, the game was known as shuanglu (双陸) — literally “double sixes,” referring to the dice. Chinese shuanglu was itself an import, having arrived via the Silk Road from Persia, where it was played as Nard. The chain of transmission is remarkably clear: Persia → China → Japan, with the game traveling alongside Buddhism, writing systems, political philosophy, and countless other cultural technologies.
The earliest Japanese reference to sugoroku appears in the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, completed 720 CE), which records that Emperor Tenmu was fond of the game. Archaeological evidence supports this early adoption — ban-sugoroku boards and pieces have been found at Nara-period sites dating to the 8th century, including the famous Shōsōin treasure repository in Nara, which contains exquisitely crafted game boards among its collection of courtly artifacts.
Rules and Gameplay
Ban-sugoroku was played on a board of 24 points divided into four quadrants, with each player controlling 15 stones (ishi). Two dice determined movement. The objective was to move all pieces around the board and bear them off — the same fundamental race that defines backgammon worldwide.
The specific rules of Japanese ban-sugoroku differed in some details from both Persian Nard and European backgammon. The starting position, direction of movement, and certain capture rules had distinctly East Asian characteristics, likely reflecting the Chinese shuanglu intermediary rather than direct Persian influence. However, the core mechanics — the interplay of dice luck and positional strategy, the tension between advancing quickly and maintaining safe formations — were entirely recognizable to any backgammon player.
Imperial Courts and Gambling Fever
Ban-sugoroku became enormously popular among the Japanese aristocracy during the Heian period (794-1185). The game appears repeatedly in The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu’s masterpiece of court literature, where it serves as a backdrop for romantic encounters, social maneuvering, and displays of character. Genji himself is described as an accomplished player — skill at sugoroku, like skill at music, poetry, and calligraphy, was a marker of the cultivated aristocrat.
The game was also associated with serious gambling. Heian-period court diaries record instances of nobles wagering substantial amounts on ban-sugoroku games, and the government issued periodic prohibitions against excessive gambling — prohibitions that, as with similar edicts in medieval Europe, were largely ignored.
“In the evening, the gentlemen gathered for sugoroku. The stakes grew larger as the night progressed, and voices rose with each roll of the dice.” — Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, c. 1000 CE
Decline and Disappearance
Ban-sugoroku’s popularity peaked during the Heian and Kamakura periods and gradually declined through the Muromachi period (1336-1573). By the Edo period (1603-1868), the backgammon-style game had been largely displaced by newer entertainments, including shogi (Japanese chess), Go, and the other form of sugoroku — e-sugoroku. Today, ban-sugoroku is virtually extinct as a living game in Japan, though scholars and game historians have reconstructed its rules from period sources.
The reasons for ban-sugoroku’s decline are debated. Some scholars point to the repeated government prohibitions against gambling, which targeted dice games more aggressively than skill-based games like Go and shogi. Others suggest that the rise of e-sugoroku simply offered a more appealing, more culturally resonant alternative. Whatever the cause, Japan’s version of backgammon faded in a way that its Middle Eastern and European counterparts did not.
E-Sugoroku: The Picture Board Game
A Uniquely Japanese Invention
The second and ultimately more enduring form of sugoroku is e-sugoroku (絵双六, “picture sugoroku”) — a completely different type of game that shares only the name and the use of dice with its backgammon-like predecessor. E-sugoroku is a single-track race game played on a flat board (or more commonly, a printed sheet) divided into illustrated squares. Players roll a single die and advance their token along the track, with various squares triggering special effects — advancement, regression, or other consequences.
If this sounds familiar, it should. E-sugoroku is structurally identical to the Western games of Snakes and Ladders, the Game of the Goose, and the Game of Life. But e-sugoroku’s origins are distinctly Japanese and deeply intertwined with Buddhist religious culture.
Buddhist Origins: The Path to Enlightenment
The earliest known e-sugoroku boards date to the late Heian or early Kamakura period (12th-13th centuries) and were created as Buddhist devotional tools. These boards depicted the journey of the soul through the various realms of Buddhist cosmology — from the lowest hells through the realms of hungry ghosts, animals, and humans, up to the paradises of bodhisattvas and full Buddhahood.
The most important early form was the Jōdo sugoroku (浄土双六, “Pure Land sugoroku”), which mapped the player’s progress toward rebirth in Amida Buddha’s Western Pure Land. Landing on virtuous squares advanced the player toward salvation; landing on sinful squares sent them backward toward lower rebirths. The dice represented karma — the unpredictable consequences of one’s actions across lifetimes.
This was not merely a game with a religious theme; it was conceived as a genuine teaching instrument. Buddhist monks created and distributed jōdo sugoroku boards as a way to communicate complex doctrinal concepts to illiterate laypeople. The visceral experience of advancing toward paradise, falling back toward hell, and ultimately (one hoped) achieving salvation made abstract theological ideas tangible and emotionally resonant.
From Temple to Town: Secular Evolution
As e-sugoroku spread beyond the temples and into popular culture during the Muromachi and Edo periods, its themes diversified dramatically. While Buddhist moral boards continued to be produced, secular variants proliferated:
- Tōkaidō sugoroku (東海道双六): Based on the famous Tōkaidō road between Edo and Kyoto, with squares representing the 53 stations of the route. Players “traveled” the road, encountering famous landmarks, local specialties, and travel hazards. These were among the most popular e-sugoroku of the Edo period.
- Yoshiwara sugoroku: Set in Edo’s licensed pleasure quarter, these adult-oriented boards depicted the hierarchy of courtesans, with the highest-ranking oiran as the goal. They were popular novelty items among townsmen.
- Shusse sugoroku (出世双六): “Career advancement” boards depicting the steps from humble origins to high official rank, reflecting the Confucian ideal of social mobility through merit and education.
- Martial arts sugoroku: Depicting training progressions in kendo, judo, or other martial arts, with mastery as the ultimate goal.
Ukiyo-e Masters and the Art of the Board
During the Edo period, e-sugoroku boards became vehicles for extraordinary artistic achievement. The same ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artists who created the iconic landscapes, portraits, and scenes of urban life that define Japanese visual culture also designed sugoroku boards. Artists including Utagawa Hiroshige, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Keisai Eisen created boards of remarkable beauty and wit.
Hiroshige’s Tōkaidō sugoroku boards are particularly celebrated. Drawing on the same stations and landscapes that inspired his famous Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō print series, Hiroshige created game boards that were simultaneously playable games, art prints, and travel guides. These boards were sold alongside his regular prints and were collected as eagerly.
The production of e-sugoroku was a significant sector of the Edo publishing industry. New boards were released for the New Year season — the traditional time for sugoroku play — and publishers competed to offer the most attractive, topical, and entertaining designs. The boards functioned as a form of popular media, communicating news, trends, and cultural references through their themes and illustrations.
The Social World of Sugoroku
New Year Traditions
Sugoroku became inextricably linked with Japanese New Year (Oshōgatsu) celebrations. Playing e-sugoroku was one of the traditional indoor pastimes of the holiday period, alongside card games (karuta), shuttlecock (hanetsuki), and kite-flying. Families would gather around a sugoroku board, and the game served as a vehicle for multigenerational socializing — young children, parents, and grandparents could all participate in the same simple race game.
This New Year association persists to the present day. Modern Japanese department stores and publishers continue to release special New Year sugoroku boards, often featuring popular anime characters, celebrities, or topical themes. The game has evolved from a Buddhist teaching tool through an Edo-period art form to a modern seasonal tradition, but its social function — bringing families together during the holiday — has remained remarkably constant.
Education and Socialization
E-sugoroku’s educational potential, first exploited by Buddhist monks, was rediscovered in the Meiji period (1868-1912) when Japan modernized its educational system. Sugoroku boards were created to teach children geography, history, science, and modern civic values. During the early 20th century, militaristic sugoroku appeared, depicting the progress of soldiers through campaigns and battles — a reflection of Japan’s growing imperialism.
After World War II, educational sugoroku shifted to peaceful themes: career paths, environmental awareness, cultural heritage, and international understanding. The format proved endlessly adaptable, and its combination of chance-based gameplay with informational content made it an effective and enjoyable educational medium.
Sugoroku and the Global Race Game Family
Connections to Western Traditions
E-sugoroku’s structural similarity to European race games like the Game of the Goose (first documented in Italy in the 16th century) raises fascinating questions about cultural transmission. Both games feature a single track of illustrated squares, dice-driven movement, and squares that trigger advancement or regression. Both have moral and educational variants.
Whether this similarity reflects independent invention, shared ancestry, or direct influence is debated. The Game of the Goose appeared in Europe roughly contemporaneously with the proliferation of e-sugoroku in Japan, and no clear transmission route has been established. The most likely explanation is convergent evolution — the race game format is so natural and intuitive that multiple cultures arrived at essentially the same design independently.
The Backgammon Connection
The two forms of sugoroku — ban-sugoroku and e-sugoroku — represent two fundamentally different branches of the global race game family. Ban-sugoroku belongs to the backgammon branch: two-player, competitive, strategically deep, played on a board with reversible piece movement. E-sugoroku belongs to the simple track branch: multiplayer, luck-driven, thematically rich, played on a unidirectional track.
That both branches coexisted under the same name in Japan for centuries is a reminder that the category of “race game” encompasses an enormous range of complexity and purpose. The same basic concept — roll dice, move forward, reach the end — can produce both a game of profound strategic depth (backgammon) and a game of pure chance (Snakes and Ladders), depending on what additional mechanics are layered onto the core.
Modern Sugoroku
Commercial Board Games
In contemporary Japan, the sugoroku tradition lives on primarily through commercial board games that use the e-sugoroku format. The most famous is the Jinsei Game (人生ゲーム), Takara Tomy’s Japanese version of the Game of Life, which has been a bestseller since its introduction in 1968. The Jinsei Game follows the e-sugoroku template precisely — a track of life events from birth to retirement, with dice determining progression and random events creating drama.
Beyond commercial products, handmade sugoroku boards remain a popular craft activity in Japanese elementary schools. Children create their own boards on large sheets of paper, designing squares, writing rules, and illustrating themes. This activity preserves the e-sugoroku tradition while encouraging creativity, writing, and game design skills.
Digital Sugoroku
The sugoroku format has proven remarkably well-suited to video game adaptation. The Mario Party franchise (Nintendo, 1998-present), one of the bestselling party game series in history, is essentially a digital e-sugoroku with mini-games inserted at each square. The Japanese board game RPG genre — including the Dragon Quest and Itadaki Street series — similarly draws on sugoroku mechanics.
These digital adaptations demonstrate the format’s enduring appeal. The combination of luck-based progression, thematic variety, and social interaction that made e-sugoroku popular in the Edo period translates naturally to the multiplayer video game context.
Revival of Ban-Sugoroku
While ban-sugoroku disappeared from mainstream Japanese culture centuries ago, there are modest revival efforts underway. Game historians and traditional culture enthusiasts have reconstructed the rules from period sources and organized demonstration games at cultural events. The global popularity of backgammon — and the growing awareness that Japan once had its own version — has sparked interest in this forgotten aspect of Japanese gaming heritage.
What Sugoroku Teaches Us
The dual history of sugoroku offers several insights into how games function in human culture:
Names outlive games. The word “sugoroku” survived even as the game it originally described — ban-sugoroku — vanished from Japanese life. The name was simply transferred to a completely different game that happened to share the use of dice. This phenomenon is not unique to Japan — the word “checkers” similarly covers very different games in different cultures.
Religious games become secular games. The journey from Buddhist jōdo sugoroku to Tōkaidō travel boards to modern anime-themed New Year games mirrors the secularization of Snakes and Ladders (originally a Hindu moral teaching game called Moksha Patam) and the Game of the Goose (which has been linked to Templar symbolism). Games that begin as spiritual instruction reliably evolve into entertainment.
Simplicity enables cultural adaptation. E-sugoroku’s extreme simplicity — roll, move, read the square — makes it infinitely re-skinnable. Any theme, any educational content, any cultural moment can be mapped onto the format. This adaptability explains why the basic race game format has survived in virtually every culture on earth, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern mobile apps.
From the imperial courts of Nara to the living rooms of modern Tokyo, from Buddhist temples to Nintendo consoles, sugoroku in its many forms has accompanied the Japanese people through over thirteen centuries of history. It is a game that has been sacred and profane, aristocratic and popular, educational and entertaining — sometimes all at once. In its remarkable adaptability and endurance, sugoroku stands as a testament to the power of the simplest of game mechanics: pick up the dice, roll, and see where fate takes you.
