refers to two different forms of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

, one similar to western backgammon

Backgammon

Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...

 and the other similar to western Snakes and ladders

Snakes and ladders

Snakes and Ladders is an ancient Indian board game regarded today as a worldwide classic. It is played between two or more players on a game board having numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares...

.

Sugoroku plays identically to backgammon (it even has the same starting position), except for the following differences:

• Doubles are not special. If a player rolls doubles, each die still counts only once.
• There is no "bearing off". The goal is to move all of one's men to within the last six spaces of the board.
• There is no doubling cube.
• It is not permitted to form a prime of six contiguous points to obstruct one's opponent.

History

The game is thought to have been introduced from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (where it was known as Shuanglu) into Japan in the sixth century. There are pictures and a cursory description of the rules at http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/11Kaleidoscope2118.html

It is known that in the centuries following the game's introduction into Japan it was made illegal several times, most prominently in 689 and 754. This is because the simple and luck-based nature of sugoroku made it an ideal gambling game. This version of sugoroku and records of playing for gambling continuously appeared until early Edo era. In early Edo-era, a new and quick gambling game called Chō-han (丁半) appeared and using sugoroku for gambling quickly dwindled.

This variant of the backgammon family has died out in most other countries, but it is still popular in Japan, partially due to a boost caused by the inclusion of a free Sugoroku board with the first issue of the newspaper Kingu (in 1925) which sold 740,000 copies.

A simpler sugoroku, with rules similar to snakes and ladders

Snakes and ladders

Snakes and Ladders is an ancient Indian board game regarded today as a worldwide classic. It is played between two or more players on a game board having numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares...

, appeared as early as late 13th century and was made popular due to the cheap and elaborate wooden block printing technology of the Edo period. Thousands of variations of boards were made with pictures and themes from religion, political, actors, and even adult material. In the Meiji and later periods, this variation of the game remained popular and was often included in child-oriented magazines.

In 1968, Takara

Takara

Takara Co., Ltd. was a Japanese toy company founded in 1955, that merged with another prominent Japanese toy company, Tomy Co., Ltd., on March 1, 2006 to form Takara Tomy, also known in English as TOMY Company Ltd....

 introduced Jinsei Game

Jinsei Game

is the Japanese version of the board game that is called The Game of Life in North America. Unlike The Game of Life, the player starts in his toddler years and has to go to elementary school, junior high school, and high school before being allowed to either go to university or start his career....

 (人生ゲーム Jinsei Gēmu) as a Japanese version of The Game of Life

The Game of Life

The Game of Life, also known simply as LIFE, is a board game originally created in 1860 by Milton Bradley, as The Checkered Game of Life . The Game of Life was America's first popular parlor game...

 and this became an instant hit by using a roulette instead of dice and by offering alternative goals beside quickly reaching the goal. This game was periodically updated introducing many timely topics and sold over 10 million sets to date. In the electric gaming genre, Momotaro Dentetsu series is the most popular computer sugoroku game in Japan.

Other Sugoroku Games

The video game Samurai Warriors 2

Samurai Warriors 2

is a sequel to the original Samurai Warriors, created by Koei and Omega Force. The game was released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360, and received a port to Microsoft Windows in 2008....

 features a mini-game named Sugoroku, but it bears very little resemblance to the above described games. Instead, it plays very much like Itadaki Street

Itadaki Street

is a computer board game series originally created by Dragon Quest designer Yuji Horii. The first game was released in Japan on Nintendo's Famicom in 1991. Since then, sequels have been released for the Super Famicom and Sony's PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS...

, Wily & Right no RockBoard: That's Paradise, or a simplified version of Monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

: players take turns in moving around a board, the spaces of which are designated as different territories of Japan. By landing on an unoccupied space, the player is able to buy that space for a set amount of money. If one player lands on a space purchased by another, they must pay a fee to that player, or else can choose to challenge the player for control of that space (utilising the main Samurai Warriors 2 game engine for special challenge games). Also present on the board are "Shrine" spaces, which are roughly analogious to Monopolys Chance and Community Chest spaces.