The History of Sugoroku

■Origin of the name Sugoroku

There are 2 types of Sugoroku, board Sugoroku and pictured Sugoroku, but they are in fact quite different games each other except that both use dice(s) and make forward of pieces. Nonetheless, we call them Sugoroku both. Then, what is the origin of the name Sugoroku?

Sugoroku of the board one was written 須古呂久 in ancient days, and now 双六 after the tone of Chinese suang-lu where Sugoroku came from. There are 12 blocks, a pair of six, in an array, so 6 pairs, thus leads to the name of suang (pair) lu (six). However it's a great riddle why we call pictured one Sugoroku whereas there are no generally acceptable explanations for it.

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