Educational · Mythology

Joudo-Sugoroku

User summary:

1–8 players—ages 5light difficulty

About the game

What is Joudo-Sugoroku

User summary:

浄土双六 (Joudo-Sugoroku) is a traditional Japanese game originally produced during the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573) and later developed into Tobi-Sugoroku in the Edo Period (1603 to 1868). As with the later Tobi-Sugoroku (and Mawari-Sugoroku), the original designers' and illustrators' names are lost to history.

Joudo-Sugoroku is themed on the Buddhist tradition of re-incarnation. Joudo means 'The Pure Land', that is the celestial realm or pure abode of a Buddha. The players are human souls, wandering through the many Hells, gradually gaining enlightenment through training and meditation, to finally ascend to the Pure Land.

Game-play is based upon the text in the squares on the scroll. The players roll dice (labelled in Chinese text for the numbers 1 to 6) and move as instructed, so a player does not move from one square to an adjacent one, but instead jumps across the network. (Sugoroku means literally 'double-six').

Specs