This board game is inspired by Edo period travel and the idea of famous spaces. Today, as tourists we often travel to see the sights and have specific foods we want to try and places we want to explore. Major temples are placed on the board game like Ise Shrine and Mishima Taisha. Other iconic places are mentioned in the good luck and bad luck spaces regarding food famous to the lands. High status women in the Edo period would often travel to shrines and temples to receive blessings or to regain some sense of independence. This factor was inspiration for the premise of the trip, women travelling with attendants and trying to explore and see the places they perhaps read about in novels or in poems.
Rules
- You start at Nihonbashi in the top left and move down and up the board following the numbers in the top right corner of each square until you reach Sanjo Ohashi at the end.
- Roll a single dice to determine initial luck at the beginning of the game. You can re-roll your luck at the Fortune spaces at shrines marked on the board. 1-3 is Good Luck. 4-6 is Bad Luck.
- At REST spaces, you must stop.
Good Luck & Bad Luck
Good Luck
- Kawasaki: You receive a blessing at Heikenji and feel encouraged for the journey to come.
- Kanagawa: You stop at Sakuraya for tea. The tea stem floats upright, a sign of good luck.
- Fujisawa: You visit Enoshima Island.
- Hiratsuka: You pray for Okiku’s spirit from the ghost story “The Dish Mansion at Bancho” and she is finally at peace.
- Hakone: You take a break and enjoy the onsen.
- Mishima: You visit the abandoned Yamanaka Castle and reminisce in history.
- Numazu: You find extra coins in your pocket. How lucky.
- Hara: You gaze at Mt. Fuji and feel revitalized in its spiritual presence.
- Mariko: You make it in time to get a bowl of Mariko’s famous bowl of yam soup.
- Shimada: The weather is in your favour and low tide to cross the wading water.
- Kanaya: You pay someone to help you across the river.
- Fukuroi: You pass by the path to the 3 major temples are feeling content.
- Mitsuke: Your soba is just as delicious as expected. It was worth the trip.
- Arai: The winds are on your side as you sail. Move +1 move on next turn.
- Yoshida: You appreciate the sights over the bridge. It is one of very few thanks to the Tokugawa regime.
- Chiryu: You admire the pine trees growing along the Tokaido.
- Narumi: You buy one of Narumi’s famous tie-dye fabric.
Miya: You arrive in time to witness the Atsuta Festival and have a lovely time. - Ishiyakushi: You purchase some manjuu and are inspired to write a tanka.
- Seki: Ise Shrine, the home for Amaterasu, you receive a blessing, and the rest of your journey is filled with sunshine.
- Sakashita: The wind is behind you and you make it through the Suzuka Pass with ease.
- Minakuchi: You stop by Daitokuji and visit the rock that Tokugawa Ieyasu sat.
- Ishibe: You stay at the Kojima honjin and relax before the last stretch.
Bad Luck
- Kawasaki: You trip, and your sandal strap breaks. A worried feeling follows you.
- Kanagawa: You stop at Sakuraya, the tea house but the cup splits in half. A bad omen.
- Fujisawa: You’re refused access to Enoshima Island. What a shame.
- Hiratsuka: You are haunted by Okiku’s ghost from “The Dish Mansoin at Bancho” ghost story. Your shoulders feel a little heavier.
- Hakone: You stub your toe and are bleeding. Your trip to the onsen is cancelled now.
- Mishima: Your guide abandons you. You’re on your own now.
- Numazu: You see a tengu off in the distance. This could be trouble.
- Hara: The view of Mt. Fuji is blocked by grey foggy clouds.
- Mariko: The store runs out of yam soup right before you can get a bowl. How unfortunate.
- Shimada: The rains flood the river, and you have to wait at the inn for another night. Skip 1 turn.
- Kanaya: Your belongings are washed away in the river.
- Fukuroi: You reach the temple gates but are turned away.
- Mitsuke: Your soba is soggy and you’re disappointed.
- Arai: The winds are against you and the travel is slower than normal.
- Yoshida: Construction on the bridge makes you lose a day of travel. Skip 1 turn.
- Chiryu: You attend the horse market but do not have enough to buy one.
- Narumi: You spill tea and ruin the tie-dye fabrics you were hoping to bring home.
Miya: You’re pickpocketed during the Atsuta Festival and lose your spending money. - Ishiyakushi: Your stomach feels unsettled, perhaps the manju from the stall gave you food poisoning.
- Seki: You are stopped at the Ise Suzuka Barrier and your food supplies are taken from you by officers in an inspection.
- Sakashita: The weather in Suzuka Pass is too intense and your progress is slowed down.
- Minakuchi: You are stopped by soldiers on your way past Minakuchi Castle.
- Ishibe: The weight of the trip has tired you out and you rest an additional day at the honjin.
Nihonbashi as a starting place felt to be key as it was seen as the center of Edo. Nihonbashi was positioned at a central crossroad for those entering and exciting the city. Its presence as a popular urban space grew in the late Tokugawa period and images of the bridge came to include people crossing and also the movement of goods into the city (Yonemoto, 1999). I thought this would be fitting to the start of this journey. Mount Fuji has been a point of cultural focus and seen as a sacred mountain for Japanese people. Climbing the mountain for religious enlightenment became popular during the Edo period (Sugimoto & Koike, 2015). It had been a place of worship from a distance and very revered by people in the city of Edo. Rather than going themselves, people would pay others to go in their stead and climb the mountain for their blessings. This religious pilgrimage is suggested as the roots for the modern travel to visit Mount Fuji (Matsui & Uda, 2015). Mitsuke-juku was a place known for its lodgings and restaurants. People would come from far away to have soba in Mitsuke before taking the ferry across the water. Atsuta Shrine close to Miya-juku is another important shrine for Japanese mythology. The shrine houses the sword of Susanoo no Mikoto, Amaterasu’s brother who is the god of storms. Atsuta Shrine is a cannot miss stop for those who wish to reminisce about Japan’s mythology, and it is an important stop right before Ise Shrine. Ise Shrine has been a very important religious place in Japanese history. Seki-juku is very close to the shrine and as this game’s main focus is to visit shrines along the Tokaido, I thought it would be a must-see place to visit for any traveler. The pilgrimage to Ise has been taken for centuries with poems written on the subject such as A Journey to Ise (1686). The Ise shrine is dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu among others. There were bustling tea stores, inns, and shops around the shrine in the Edo period that were thanks to the high pilgrimage culture at the time. Ise mandalas were placed at the shrine to show how to perform prayers for pilgrims and depict maps of the shrine area (Hardace, 2017). Sanjo Ohashi, like Nihonbashi in Edo, is another centre of cultural importance. Bridges as a symbol of connecting spaces and connecting people felt like the ideal end point for the journey. It was built in 1590, over the Kamo River which divides Kyoto in two. It held significance to Tokugawa Hideyoshi who had it built with stone pillars to replace the old, unreliable timber bridges (Stravos, 2014). It is an important landmark in Kyoto and a point of crossing to get to the other places of interest like the imperial palace or Nijo Castle.
References
Hardacre, H. (2017). Edo-period shrine life and shrine pilgrimage. Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press.
Matsui K., & Uda, T. (2015). Tourism and religion in the mount fuji area in the pre-modern era. Chigaku Zasshi, 124(6), 895-915.
Sugimoto, K., & Koike, T. (2015). Tourist behaviors in the region at the foot of mt. fuji: An analysis focusing on the effect of travel distance. Chigaku Zasshi, 124(6), 1015-1031
Stavros, M. G. (2014). Kyoto: An urban history of japan’s premodern capital. University of Hawaiʻi Press.
Yonemoto, M. (1999). Nihonbashi, edo’s contested center [ie centre]. East Asian History (Canberra), 17(17-18), 49-70.
TEMPTATIONS AND TEMPLES: Sugoroku Review
By Onigiri (Andy, Anh, Hiroshi, Shoni)
Anh:
Overall, the game was highly enjoyable. This Sugoroku is for 2-4 people and we played it with four people total. I think that it was the most fun with 4 people since it allowed us to get a glimpse at what each of our paths were like with a chance of having more varied outcomes. Players are able to get a sense of the Edo period travel and the sights and stops they would be able to see. We really enjoyed that we got to visit the shrines and temples, food places, and restful sights. I liked that I got to learn about what the journey would have been like and the distances people would travel for a pilgrimage or to visit Mitsuke-juku for the lodging and restaurants. I especially like how I got to have soba in Mitsuke and that I was fortunate enough to have a delicious serving (or imagine I had one at least). The aspect of the “fortune” of good and bad luck adds an extra element that elevates the gameplay and mimics how travellers will never know if they will encounter some good luck or a bad omen, especially on a long journey! Despite reaching the end at Sanjo Ohashi last, I still felt thoroughly satisfied by my journey through “Temptations and Temples” because I had for the most part rolled good luck spaces consistently. Also, it was quite entertaining that Andy had landed many bad luck rolls and had to skip so many turns and we could poke fun at that. I can see there was a lot of thought and detail put into each stop with each of their individual descriptions and connections to references. This really added to the player experience because it helps us imagine our own story and journey. Though it is just a board game, when I read that I’ve received a “blessing at Heikenji and feel encouraged for the journey to come”, I actually do feel encouraged and excited for what path I will land on next in the game. The feeling of religious importance towards the shrines and temples was emphasized, because when one of us landed on those stops it felt that they were especially blessed and have gotten the fortune of landing in a grand spot on the board.
Andy:
Regardless of my consistently bad luck, the game was very straightforward in its mechanics and very enjoyable to play. The visual layout was also very aesthetically pleasing, and there was a lot of thought put into each and every square.
I particularly enjoyed how the game was simple in a way that allows the players to enjoy the descriptions of the scenery and events of each square. I thought it was clever how the players would be assigned good luck or bad luck at the start of the game depending on whether one rolled 1-3 (good) or 4-6(bad), with a chance to either lose their good luck, or win good luck on each “fortune” square. Depending on the players’ luck assignments, their experience at each square is subtly altered. Luckily, most of the squares do not interrupt your gameplay and encourage more reflection on the squares’ other attributes, rather than just on the succeeding action. Unluckily for me, I caught myself on every “skip 1 turn” square available in the game. Interestingly, due to the experience-centred nature of the game, this did not hinder my playing experience, and rather served as a point of humor. Speaking of humor, the comparison of fortunate and unfortunate events was quite hilarious and witty (e.g. “Hiratsuka: You are haunted by Okiku’s ghost from “The Dish Mansion at Bancho” ghost story. Your shoulders feel a little heavier”).
Overall, I think that we as a group thoroughly enjoyed playing this game as a break from other assignments and deadlines. The consideration of gameplay, aesthetics and accurate, but humorous cultural elements made for a clever twist on the traditional Sugoroku game that gave the players a feeling of traveling rather than trying to win. The only very minor criticism I can offer is that the numbering on the top right corners of the images in the squares were a bit confusing at first, since we were under the impression that we were to follow a number sequence. However, once we noticed that the numbers were just parts of the images used, the game went on.
Shoni:
The game was enjoyable due to the comprehensive game rules and visually aesthetically stimulating design. Each stop along the board corresponds to a provided commentary that adds to the experience of playing the game. While the game is deceptively simple, it adds humour to its commentary and through the use of a good and bad luck function, brings an exciting and unpredictable element to the game. The good and bad luck function of the game, while it mostly only affected the commentary that the players received on each space they landed on, also in some cases affected the players movements, such as adding an additional move to their next turn or preventing the player from moving. These aspects made the game more unpredictable and created a more indepth playing experience for the players. The commentary for each space was the highlight of the game as it created more interest for the game and the spaces. It was particularly enjoyable to land on the same spaces as other players, only to read the opposite fortune for that space, adding an element of humour to the game. Rolling bad luck in the game does not necessarily hinder the player and rolling good luck does not necessarily benefit the player in terms of reaching the goal, which makes the game lighthearted and fun rather than promoting competitiveness. I think it is because of this that I felt like the game was relatively reflective of real life, wherein you may not always be guaranteed the same experience as other people wherever you go, but you will still eventually reach your destination regardless. This is also reflective in particular of what traveling would probably have been like for travellers in Japan before the modern era. While many different people travelled, they all encountered varying different experiences, whether they were bad ones or good ones.
Hiroshi:
All in all the game emphasizes the notion of “it is not the destination but the journey that matters” which creates an atmosphere of enjoyability rather than competition between the players. Where players can enjoy laughing at each other misfortunes while reading witty comments depending on the space that they land on.
Despite the simplicity of the game layout and mechanics, there is a lot of thought put into the outcomes of the “good luck” and “bad luck” spaces. Each comment reflects what an individual on a cultural pilgrimage would experience on their journey such as having your belongings washed away in a river or being pick-pocketed while enjoying a festival, even instances such as having soggy soba noodles express down to earth yet commercial elements of someone’s daily life on a journey. Furthermore, it is precisely these down-to-earth elements that create an immersive experience reflective of the era, adding to the overall enjoyability.
Mechanically, the game is of adequate complexity and is a good modern analog of Sugoroku in the past; gameplay-wise, it is easy to follow but still maintains enough elements to ensure player engagement. Ultimately what matters when it comes to a game is enjoyment and I believe this game achieves that quite comedically.
Aesthetically, I think that this sugoroku makes good use of available space by having each space directly besides each other to minimize blank space between squares. This also maintains the traditional sugoroku aesthetic of a more cluttered appearance usually found in zig-zag or spiral format games. The use of woodblock print ukiyo-e to represent each location is an ideal method as it is simple yet still aesthetically pleasing although I do believe including some original artwork of any type would have added to the beauty which is found in many traditional sugoroku.
I believe the strength of this particular sugoroku is its enjoyability. Its lighthearted nature makes for a simple game to pick up and play and not having to worry about setting up a complicated apparatus. Although not having a high degree of replayability, as each player experiences the events on their respective paths while others laugh at their negative or positive outcomes/luck, this sugoroku maybe the most optimal one to play along with friends.
I found this Sugoroku very fun and enjoyable to play. The rules were simple enough to start playing right away yet the game was very enjoyable due to the detailed descriptions on each of the places. I think it was a good idea to limit the game to only one dice since there are not too many stations in total. I also think it was a good idea to force the players to stop at each rest space so that it would limit the speed a player can reach the end. What I found most enjoyable about this game were the events that would happen at each place. I found it really funny especially when the same player landed in the same spot as another player but with a different luck and how the outcome would be different for each player.
However, one thing we noticed when we played this game was that since a player can only change their fortune if they land specifically in the places where it says fortune, it is possible for a player to never land in them and to complete their journey with the same fortune they started with. This results in some players being heavily disadvantaged and others to be able to complete the journey in just a few turns. Another issue with the game is with the placement of the fortune places since they are located mostly at the beginning of the board and at the end which enhances the previously mentioned problem. I understand since the board is based on actual temples there is not much that can be done but it did affect the gameplay.
The description of the events on each place are short yet very well written. They really show that a lot of effort was put in to researching each place and it really gives you the feeling of travelling when reading them out loud while playing. Unfortunately, it seems that only some places actually have an impact on the actual game play. While the descriptions are very entertaining by themselves I think it would have really make it more fun if all the places had some kind of effect on the players. Out of all the 25 places only Arai has an effect on a player with Good luck while Shimada, Yoshida, and Ishibe have an effect for a player with Bad luck. This also exacerbates the problem mentioned in the previous paragraph. As a result the game feels too punitive for players with bad luck while at the same time not really giving any incentive for players to “visit” certain locations since they don’t provide any advantage or disadvantage in the gameplay. Perhaps some kind of score system where each location would give or deduct different score points would have been beneficial for the gameplay.
Despite all the above criticisms, this Sugoroku was really fun to play with other people. One can truly feel the effort and research that went into creating this game. We played this game via zoom while listening to traditional Japanese music and we had such a great time I can only imagine how fun it would be to play it in person.
I thought the game board was quite nice looking—colourful and full. It was also relatively well labelled. Though I did have some issues reading some of the smaller writing.
I enjoyed reading the short, but interesting descriptions that happened along the journey.
However, I did find some of the instructions for the rules of the game to be a bit too vague. For example, it doesn’t explain who is to go first. It also doesn’t explicitly tell you how/when you are to move spaces.
Furthermore, I think that the rule where you can “re-roll your luck at the Fortune spaces at shrines” is a bit problematic. As, when you get a good roll initially, why would you want to roll again?
My Highlight:
I played this game with a relative. I don’t think we have laughed this hard together in a long time. Thanks for creating something, that has given me such a fond memory!
Thank you for creating this game! The name is so interesting and the images are so colourful and captivating. I invited my young sister to play the game with me. I notice that the images follow a very distinctive style. I am very curious about your image choices and would love to know more about them.
One of the many things I enjoy about this game is that it incorporates an opportunity to travel and experience the Japanese culture. This Sugoroku is an excellent way for us to know the wonderful destinations in Japan. It remind my sister and I of our family’s shared travel experience and the beautiful past memories in Japan. I love the emotional aspect about this game.
I integrated travel vlogs on YouTube while playing your Sugoroku game. When one of us land on a new destination, we search the name of the place and watched people visiting these destinations. This game and the destination names gave me an opportunity to explore.
I love the good luck and bad luck instruction associated with each stop. It gives another personal layer to the otherwise foreign location names. We got to imagine ourselves doing the instructed things. I was afraid to land on the “Bad Luck” spots until I found out how entertaining they were. I wish there are more instructions for each of the stops. Maybe there could be actions players can undertake or collaborative initiatives player can work on.
My sister and I love looking at the written instruction for each stop. I wish you will consider providing more background information about each destination. I would love to know more about them. For example, when I landed on Mishima, the instruction was to “visit the abandoned Yamanaka Castle.” This makes us wonder what Yamanaka Castle is about. After some googling, I was surprised to find out that the castle sites resemble shrubs and green plantations nowadays
Some of the words in the instruction document require people with a certain level of Japanese knowledge to fully understand. Maybe you could consider including English translation for some of the romanized Japanese terms.
I also hope the displayed instructions and numbers on the game could have a bigger and thicker font. We played our game on the iPad and zoom into the Sugoroku image to fully see the number on the top right corner as well as the names of each destination. The name of the destination has dissimilar location within each picture frame. Maybe you could consider writing the name of each place on the same spot for each stop so it is easier to find the names for the players. It was a bit of work to find the instructions associated with each stop. Maybe you could write the numbers next to the name of the place.
The rules of your game are open-ended. On one hand, I appreciate the flexibility. At the same time, I also wish there is specific instructions on what to do. For example, rule number 3 says we would stop at the “REST spaces”. I wonder what do we do during the rest.
Thank you for reading my comments. It is a engaging game. As soon as we finish one round, we wanted to play another round of it!