E-Sugoroku vs Hanafuda

絵双六 / 花札

Both sit in Games and Play, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. One is layout and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

E-Sugoroku

E-Sugoroku — 『花舞台当寿語六』（CC0）E-Sugoroku — 二代国貞の絵双六 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainE-Sugoroku — 出世双六 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Japan's pictorial board sheets dividing one page into a story of squares. Careers and pilgrimages arranged in spiral progressions show the sugoroku sheet as ancestor of information design and game UI.

Hanafuda

Hanafuda — 花札 1870年頃 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainHanafuda — 花札の図案 1870年頃 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainHanafuda — こいこいの場（CC BY 2.0）

Japanese cards that compress twelve months of flowers, birds, wind and moon into 48 sheets. Their bold flat-color stylization against black came out of a long history of redesigning the deck to slip past bans, and it was where Nintendo began.

E-SugorokuHanafuda
EraEdo period–18th century–
FamilyGames and PlayGames and Play
KindLayoutStyle
CuesSpiral or field progression / A scene in every square / Start and goal / A narrative held on one sheetMonthly flower-and-bird designs / Black borders, flat color / Extreme simplification / Ribbon and animal combinations
Best used forExplaining a process or an institution on one sheet as a route to follow · Venue guides and timelines that must be read in a fixed orderExtending a seasonal theme across a set of dozens with very few colors · Small handheld cards whose drawing must still read from across a table
TypeA number and one short line per square, a single face throughoutAlmost no lettering on the card, combination names sent to a rules sheet
CompositionA spiral or serpentine route with start and goal at opposite cornersInside the black border, sky above and the month's plant below
MaterialFlat woodblock-like color on one large sheet, folds planned into the layoutFlat black, red, purple and gold, form carried by contour alone
CautionDividing the squares evenly without pacing the progression leaves a sheet where nothing tells the reader which step is the climax.Scattering flowers as generic Japanese pattern ignores the monthly sets and produces a deck nobody can actually collect and play with.

Put these two together

Games and Play

IndexStyle