E-Sugoroku

絵双六 / Edo period– / Layout / Games and Play

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.

E-Sugoroku — Hanabutai atari sugoroku (CC0) — Hanabutai atari sugoroku (CC0) · CC0

E-Sugoroku — E-sugoroku by Utagawa Kunisada II — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — E-sugoroku by Utagawa Kunisada II — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

E-Sugoroku — Shusse sugoroku, the game of getting ahead in life, 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Shusse sugoroku, the game of getting ahead in life, 1924 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Spiral or field progression
A scene in every square
Start and goal
A narrative held on one sheet

Best used for

Explaining a process or an institution on one sheet as a route to follow
Venue guides and timelines that must be read in a fixed order

Use this style

Take the compact brief into a project or hand the structured version to an AI tool.

design.md image prompt JSON API MCP & machine access Compose

open in ChatGPT open in Claude open in Google AI

Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats

Dictionary entry

Type: A number and one short line per square, a single face throughout
Composition: A spiral or serpentine route with start and goal at opposite corners
Material: Flat woodblock-like color on one large sheet, folds planned into the layout
Caution: Dividing the squares evenly without pacing the progression leaves a sheet where nothing tells the reader which step is the climax.
Further study: round and jumping sugoroku / career sugoroku and its social vision / Meiji educational sugoroku

Related entries

Hanafuda (花札)Same Games and Play lineage.Compare E-Sugoroku and Hanafuda
Ukiyo-e (浮世絵)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Nostalgia.Compare E-Sugoroku and Ukiyo-e

Cite this entry

The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.

Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/e-sugoroku
Markdown: [E-Sugoroku — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/e-sugoroku)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/e-sugoroku">E-Sugoroku — IndexStyle</a>

Back to index position