The game described by Dr. Hyde agrees in some respects with the Japanese game of sugoroku, as illustrated in a native encyclopedia. In Figure 11, reproduced from the Kum mō dzu e tais ci,¹ the board is represented as being divided into 12 parts by longitudinal lines, which are broken in the middle by an open space similar to the ho kái, or "dividing river," of the Chinese chessboard.

According to the same work the 12 compartments, called in Japanese me, or "eyes," symbolize the 12 months, and the black and white stones, with which the game is played, "day and night."

[Page 503] The moves are made according to the throws of the dice, the name being derived from that of the highest throw, sugoroku (Chinese. shèung luk), or "double sixes."²

Sugoroku appears to be of great antiquity in Japan. The Wa Kan san sai states that it is recorded in the Japanese Annals that sugoroku was forbidden in the time of Jitō Tenno (AD 687-692), and that it is probable that it was played in Japan before the game of go³ was brought to that country. The same encyclopedia, in the careful manner usual in such works, makes a number of citations from Chinese authors with reference to the origin of the game. It says it is recorded in the Suh sz' ch'i ⁴ that Tao Chih⁵ of Wei invented sugoroku, and used 2 dice for it, but at the end of the Tang dynasty (AD 618-913), the number of dice was increased to 6.

It is written in the Wú tsáh tsú that sugoroku is a game that was originally played in Hú (Japanese, Ko), the country of the Tartars. It originally relates that the King of Hú had a brother who was put to death for a crime. While in prison he made the game of sugoroku and sent it to his father, writing with it a few words in order to make known how men are oppressed by others when they are single and weak.

The Ngán lui yáu states that sugoroku came from the Tien Chuh, "India".

The name of sugoroku is applied at the present day in Japan to various games played upon boards or diagrams, in which the moves are made by throwing dice.⁶ Of these there are many kinds, among (strong>Page 504) which the most popular is called dó chin, or "traveling" sugoroku. It is played upon a large sheet of paper, on which are represented the various stopping places upon a journey; as, for example, the 53 post stations between Tokyo and Kyoto, and resembles the games of "snake" and "steeplechase," familiar to English and American children.⁷ Such games are much played by the Japanese at the season of the New Year, when new ones are usually published. In 1889, Japanese newspapers reported that two new games of sugoroku found much favor in Tokyo.

Notes:

1. Very Complete Collection of Pictures to Teach the Unenlightened, Kiyoto, 1789, vol. 4, part 8, fol. 5.
2. Sugoroku is also called rokusai, as will be seen from the names appended to Figure 11.
3. Chess, by which the game of 360 men, half black and half white, called by the Chinese wai k'í is meant.
4. I am unable to identify either this or the two following works quoted in the Wa Kan san sai.
5. Ts'ao Chih (AD 192-232) was the third son of the great usurper, Ts'au Ts'au, who overthrew the Han dynasty. He was distinguished by precocious talent and poetical genius, and devoted himself wholly to literary diversions. (The Chinese Reader's Manual, No. 759.)
6. The name is also applied to at least one simple dice game in which no board or diagram is used. Mr. Kajiwara informs me that in the Province of Aomori, a common game with 2 dice is called ichi-san sugoroku; so called from the name of the highest throw, ichi san, "one, three." Japanese dice at the present day usually have their 6 faces marked with black dots. Those used by gamblers are said to be larger than the kind employed in popular amusements. The dice games are said to vary in different parts of the Empire. Japanese sailors in New York City play a game with dice called chō han, "even and odd." They throw 2 dice under a cup. The even throws are called chō and the odd han. The players, two or more in number, bet on the even or odd by calling out and laying their wagers before them while the cup remains inverted over the dice. They use foreign playing cards cut lengthwise in strips and tied in bundles of 10 as counters, instead of money; a custom that they say has its origin in the use of the narrow Japanese playing cards, or bamboo tallies at home for this purpose. The same game, under the same name, called by the Chinese chèung pun, is known to the Cantonese laborers in the United States as a common game in China.
7. A paper diagram for a game of sugoroku is entitled, according to the characters on the sheet, Hokkaidô shin dó ichi ran sugoroku or "A glance at the Hokkaidô new road sugoroku." This game was published in 1873 on the occasion of the opening of a new road through the southern part of the island of Yesso, from Hakodate to Sapporo, the capital. The diagram consists of an impression in colors, 321 by 20 inches, and is divided into 38 parts, exclusive of the goal and starting place. These contain pictures of the scenery at the different stations on the road, each division having a tablet beside it on which the name of the place is written, with the distance to the next stopping place. The game is played with 1 die, the players throwing in turn, and advancing from the lower right-hand corner to the goal at the center. Each spot of the throw counts as one station on the diagram. If a player's move leaves him upon a division having the character tomare, "stop over," he loses his next throw. When a player near the goal makes a higher throw than is just necessary to take him to the central space, be is sent back; if he has an excess of 1, to the fifth place from the goal; 2, to the fourth place, and so on.