Description

User summary:
???? (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').

An edition has been produced by ???? (Satoshi Mochizuki) for Plenluno (??????) and uses the classic artwork and language of the "Sugoroku Ruiju" game held in the collection of the National Museum of Japan in Tokyo, but also updated into modern language. The game is produced as a large sheet poster, with additional playing pieces, and is available at Spiel 2016.

The game is played by 1 to 8 players, aged from 5+ years and takes around 20 minutes to finish. It's a roll-and-move racing game using dice, with mythological and educational themes.

Game description from the publisher:
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