The board game in ancient Japan

Written by Chrys .

Today we deviate from the news to speak instead of much older and more distant games. ^ __ ^

I had wanted to write an article about board games from ancient Japan for a while ... partly because I am passionate about the Japanese world, partly because I find it interesting to see how the playful history of a people so distant from us, both culturally and geographically.

I therefore gladly took the offer made to participate in the Blogzuola blog by writing an article on the theme "Rising Sun" ... taking two birds with one stone. ;)

Hoping not to get bored, today we will talk about Shogi , Go , Mahjong , Hanafuda and Menko , and we will close the article with a small overview on the modern board game in Japan . 

The most attentive of you will have noticed that some of these titles are games born in China, even if historically absorbed and made their own by Japan over many centuries: one might think that the Japanese have little inventiveness (after all it was not said that they were good at copying?) but in reality this is a very common thing in the world. In fact, in the ancient period, even if there were board games, they were very few and reserved for the upper classes of society ... when they worked it was easy that they spread thanks to merchants and travelers, also because new games were rarely released (Essen 1205 they could organize it in a travel trunk), especially of the elaborate type.

HANAFUDA

The word literally means " flower cards " and indicates a traditional game of Japanese cards, characterized precisely by floral designs. Hanafuda cards are also used in Hawaii and South Korea, where they are used to play a game called go-stop . 

It all seems very clear to me ... O__O

With the hanafuda deck of cards you can make different games: Koi-koi, Hachi-hachi, Hana Awase Mushi, popular in Kansai, Sudaoshi, Tensho, Hachi

The deck includes twelve seeds corresponding to the twelve months of the year. Within each suit there can be regular cards, ribbon cards, animal cards and powerful cards. For a total of 48 cards. They are used for many games such as our playing cards, and in fact they could have a common origin: it is thought that they arrived in Japan with the Portuguese sailors around 1550. 

However, they are even smaller than our trump cards: according to some they were reduced in size to adapt to the minute Japanese hands but more realistically the thing depends on the fact that the original model was a worn western deck and repeatedly trimmed on the margins, to avoid the cards were recognized by the folds in the corners. 

The current standard format of the Hanafuda cards, in addition to being reduced compared to the western ones, has similar characteristics to the dominoes, in that the Hanafuda cards are usually much thicker than the western playing cards.

As you can see from the diagram and the photo, unlike our playing cards, these are extremely graphic and difficult to read cards (at least for us Westerners), above all because they have 12 suits (against ours 4). Objectively they seem to me practically all different. O__O

GO

It is perhaps the most important and representative game of Japanese culture ... irony of the sort also in this case it was born in China with the name of Wei-qi ... it was then imported in Korea with the name of Baduk and then in Japan with the name of go during the seventh century AD

In this case, however, the game that had little success "at home" in the country of the rising sun acquired an incredible popularity demonstrated by the fact that most of the terms used internationally to designate the various moves are in Japanese.

Legend has it that the game of go was created by a legendary Chinese emperor named Yao to teach his son Danzhu 4000 years ago, but in reality the origins of this game are unknown; the oldest treatise on the game of go was written between 1049 and 1054.

It was introduced to Japan by an ambassador around 625 and was (as often happens) initially played only by a restricted elite made up of court men and samurai who they considered it a refined strategy game similar to

Centuries passed and already in the 16th century it gained such fame in Japan that the strategy of the game of go became a compulsory subject in military academies.

A little girl struggling with the fundamentals ... for us adults it
is obviously very clear (cof cof) the best place
to put the white stone ....: /

In the seventeenth century a great go player, Honinbo Sansa, founded the homonymous academy in which the first go player classification system based on the same levels of martial arts was introduced: the dan. The complexity is such that it should normally be learned from an early age.

From the 1800s it was also known in the West but only in recent decades has it gained great popularity in America, Oceania and Europe and 56 nations participated in the 2001 go world championship so much that it was decided to make it an Olympic sport. The best and most numerous go players, however, always remain the Orientals in particular Chinese and Japanese.  

It is a very complex game strategically despite its simple rules; a Korean proverb says that no Go game has ever been played twice (which is likely if you think that there are about 4.63 × 10 raised to 170 ^ different possible positions). A go game requires a 360 ° perception of events and a very high threshold of attention and concentration.

Materials

The game of go is played on a board called goban 45 cm wide and 42 cm long and equipped with four detachable feet of about 8 cm. Its white-yellow surface is divided by 19 black lines on each side which form 361 intersections of which 9 are marked by dots or circles called hoshi which means stars in which the handicap stones are laid (based on the difference of dan il less skilled player starts with starting stones). But beginners use a goban divided by 9 lines by 9 or 13 lines by 13.

The stones of the go, also called stones, generally white and black are 361 of which 180 black and 181 white ... small curiosity: the black stones are slightly larger because the white ones appear larger for an optical effect. These pawns are placed by the two players in bowls called go-ke whose lids are used to store the captured stones.

How to play
The go is played by two opponents who alternately place black and white pawns (called stones) on the empty intersections of a "chessboard" (called a goban) equipped with a 19 × 19 grid. 

The aim of the game is to control an area of ​​the goban greater than that controlled by the opponent; for this purpose the players try to arrange their stones so that they cannot be captured, while carving out territories that the opponent cannot invade without being captured. It is in fact possible to capture a stone or a group of opposing stones by completely surrounding them with their own stones, so that they do not have free adjacent intersections. Arranging the stones close together allows you to reinforce each other and avoid capturing them; on the other hand, placing them far apart allows you to create influence on the whole goban. 

Part of the game's strategic difficulty is finding a balance between these opposing needs. Players try to meet offensive and defensive needs simultaneously and choose between tactical priorities and their strategic plans. The game ends when the two players pass consecutively, indicating that neither of them can increase their territory or decrease their opponent's territory.

Aside from the size of the goban and the starting positions, the rules have been maintained over the centuries, so that it can be considered one of the oldest games still played with the original rules.

A Goban reduced from training.

Victory conditions

After both players have passed consecutively, the stones still on the goban but which could not avoid capture, the so-called dead stones, are removed. As a rule, experienced players agree on stones that have died (but the assessment is more complex than it appears).

Dead stones at the end of the game are then added to the captured stones. The final score is equal to the number of empty intersections surrounded by the player's stones (the controlled territory) plus the number of captured stones (the enemy victims).

Hikaru no Go

On the game of Go there is a splendid comic titled Hikaru no Go, of which an anime has also been made. The Japanese are famous for being able to create compelling stories about any sport or activity (it has an incredible .... O__O). This comic has the incredible ability to make you want to play and at the same time to teach you to play. If you are curious about the game and love comics, I highly recommend it. : D

Menko

Menko is a traditional Japanese card game that is widespread among children, especially boys, being so widespread it is also an important element for socializing among children. The cards are fairly stiff and thicker than normal, with images on one or both sides.

It does not resemble common western card games and as it does not follow particular rules related to the counting of seeds or figures and you can use cards with the most varied depictions: manga drawings, baseball players, samurai, legendary monsters and how many other. In some ways it reminds us of the old game of marbles and has a strong dexterity component and can therefore be played evenly at different ages.

The game was born in the Edo period (between 1600 and 1800) and the representations used over the years are a mirror of the time ... we go from ninja and samurai of the oldest cards to sports and cartoon characters starting from the twentieth century.

Rules of the game

The game consists in turning over the card that is on the ground, with the movement of the air created by throwing the card in its turn, if you manage to turn it over, that card is won by the opponent and thus expands its collection. Cards can have particular shapes, generally they are circular or rectangular.

SHOGI

If you are passionate about anime, you have certainly already seen this game play, which is played on a 9x9 chessboard where two symbolic armies face each other, made up of 20 pieces of different value and movement skills; the aim is to kill the opposing shogun. If this broad description reminds you of chess you should not be surprised: in fact they have a common ancestor that is an ancient Indian game called Chaturanga, from which both our Chess (of Spanish origin) but also the Thai Makruk and the Chinese Xiankqi.

The game initially comes from China while its name is assigned to it in the Heian period when Chinese chess became very popular at court they took the name of Shogi , which means " game of the generals ".

In that period, however, the game was very different from what is practiced today because over time the shogi were very influenced by the ongoing war operations, since the generals (who were the main users) tried to introduce this board game their military strategies.

In the Edo period and precisely in 1612 the Tokugawa shogunate created the first official association of Go and Shogi led by Honinbo Sansa and other Buddhist monks who in 1636 codified the official rules and later several tournaments were organized in the castle of the Tokugawa family. 

With the end of the Tokugawa dynasty, the shogi ceased to be an elitist game intended only for high military hierarchies and spread among all social classes.

The Japanese Shogi Federation was founded in 1924 to which 174 professional players are enrolled but already at the time there were about 20 million amateur players in Japan.

Basic rules
Once the pieces have been positioned, the players move in turn and can make three types of moves:

• move a piece on the chessboard
• promote a piece
• parachuting a piece captured on a free space on the board.

Each piece moves in a particular way and as in western chess to capture the player must move his piece on the occupied enemy square. The types of piece recall, especially in the movements, those of chess ... 

Initial arrangement.

Re: the Japanese name of the black king is gyoku or gyokusho which means "general of jade" while the white one is called osho, which means "mister general". It has the same function as the western chess king and can only move one square per turn

Gold generals: there are two for each player and the Japanese name is kin or kinsho which means "golden general". They can move only one square per turn in six directions: horizontally and vertically both forward and backward but diagonally only forward.

Silver generals: there are two for each player and the Japanese name is gin or ginsho which means "silver general". They can move only one square per turn in five directions: diagonally both forward and backward or vertically only forward.

Horses: there are always two for each player and the Japanese name is kei or keima which means "honorable horse". He has the same skill as the western chess horse and like these he moves L and can jump over the other pieces, but he only moves forward .

Lance: there are two for each player and the Japanese name is kyo or kyosha which means "perfumed wagon". They can move any number of squares but only forward so they cannot retreat.

Standard Bearer : There is a single standard bearer for each player and the Japanese name is kaku or kakugyo which means "chariot with horn". It can move any number of squares but only diagonally both forward and backward.

Tower: each player only has one and the Japanese name is hi or hisha which means "flying chariot". You can move any number of squares horizontally or vertically forward or backward like the western chess tower. 

Pawn: there are nine for each player and the Japanese name is fu or fuhyo which means "infantryman". It can only move one square forward and can never go back

All the pieces, except the king and the gold generals, when they reach the three lines of the chessboard where the opposing pieces were initially positioned can be promoted: to do this it is turned upside down (behind each piece there is the ideogram of the promoted piece) and this acquires greater capacity for movement. If a pawn, horse or spear reaches the bottom row, they must be promoted, as they would otherwise not have legal moves in a subsequent round. For the same reason, a horse must be promoted even when it reaches the penultimate row.

Captured pieces can be put back into play on free squares by parachuting so that the player can check the pieces he has captured and use them as if they were his pieces. However, there are limitations that we leave out ... ^ __ ^

A game of Shogi in the anime of Naruto.

It should be noted that since the pieces won by the opponent can be replaced, there is no bin / black differentiation, and the pieces have a pointed shape to indicate who they are attacking.

Victory conditions
As in western chess, when the king is in danger of being captured by an opposing piece, it is said that he is in check if the king cannot escape the threat of capture it is said that the opponent has made a checkmate and therefore has captured the king. Checkmate ends the game with the victory of the player who made it.

To avoid the king's capture, which is considered humiliating, the player can abandon the game when he realizes that defeat is inevitable in this case the game ends. The game ends even when a player makes an illegal move.

MAHJONG

Mahjong is a fairly recent four-player board game, born in China probably in the 19th century, and now very popular especially in Japan, although not as much as the other games we are talking about here. The name literally means "hemp bird" or "hemp sparrow hawk". 

It is a card game that has some analogies with some western card games (pinnacola, straight forty and the like).

Players earn points by creating appropriate combinations of tiles and removing them from the game. The composition of the set of tiles used, and the rules for allocating points, vary slightly according to the region in which it is played, even if the fundamental concepts of the game remain substantially the same in all the variants. 

Generally the game consists of 144 tiles (similar to those of the domino but thicker, as they must be able to stand vertically) marked by Arabic ideograms and numbers divided into different macro-groups (Semi, Honors and Supreme Honors) once divided into subgroups (just to make everything simple O__O):

• Circles: they represent the koku a type of hunger coin with a central hole they symbolize the bourgeois class. 
• Bamboo: they represent bamboo sticks and symbolize the peasant class.
• Characters (wan): they represent the characters (ideograms) of the first 9 numbers and symbolize the class of men of letters.
• Winds: represent the cardinal points east, south, west and north.
• Dragons: they represent the colors green, red and white.
• Flowers: there are four tesserae, namely plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo.
• Seasons: there are obviously four and represent spring, summer, autumn and winter (in some versions they can be replaced by the 4 professions lumberjack, farmer, fisherman and schoolboy).

For the avoidance of misunderstandings, the "Mahjong" that many have tried on a computer or in the arcade is simply a solitaire made using the tiles of this game.

CONTEMPORARY BOARD GAMES

The Japanese are famous above all for the great boost they have given to the gaming industry, and today the board game represents a slice of the niche market. 

Obviously, Japanese production is still much greater than what comes to us; in fact, the cultural obstacle of the kanji makes the diffusion of Japanese games much more difficult.

One cannot fail to notice that the genre of deck-building is highly appreciated and there are many games by Japanese authors (besides Tanto Cuore which is the best known abroad) that have achieved great success. Of some games you can find on BGG the files to be printed and pasted on the cards to make them usable.