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Sugoroku Library

History and culture of Sugoroku

Professor XYang's Special!
Come together, Sugorokian!
A to Z of Sugoroku, its sources and origins
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TSUKIJI SUGOROKUKAN
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Sugoruku: Its History and Culture

A human being is therefore a human being because he/she has the playing mind.
Johan Huizinga indicates that this very playing mind has created the history of mankind and defines human being as animal of play = "Homo Ludens". We Japanese also praised free minds of children, pliable playing minds as sung in the old poem "A child is only born for the purpose of playing".

The playing mind has made human be human being, stimulated the creativity of mankind.
It was fire and tools that distinguished mankind from ape about 1.5 million years ago, and then tools has developed themselves into playing instruments. Let's make a roundabout to first look up the history of playing instruments in the world history, then look for the roots of board Sugoroku, and finally make approach the origin of Japanese Pictured Sugoroku.

It makes fun also to loiter in the field of "saikoro (dice)" or allays of "e-monogatari (pictorial stories)".

■World History of Sugoroku■

Game board of Ur 3200 BC
Tutankhamun and Senet
Origin of Dice
Rise and Fall of Backgammon
Board Game in China

■History of Japanese Sugoroku■

Origin of Japanese Sugoroku
Separation of Dice and Board
Origin of the name "Sugoroku"
Birth of Pictured Sugoroku
Sort of Sugoroku

■Sugoroku and Literature■

Scenery where Sugoroku is
Sugoroku in Haiku
Sugoroku in Tanka
Classics and Sugoroku