Kuniyasu's Four Seasons of Edo Sugoroku

Setup

• The board is the real print Edo Meisho Shiki Yusan Sugoroku, drawn by Utagawa Kuniyasu, from the National Diet Library Digital Collections.
• 2–6 players. Playing alone, you face 3 CPUs.
• Everyone places a piece on the start, First Fuji from Nihonbashi (bottom right). Each piece has its own shape, so you can tell them apart even on a shared square. Pieces never block or capture each other.

How to play

• Take turns rolling one die and move that many squares. The route goes clockwise round the outside from Nihonbashi, then round the inside once more to the Asakusa market in the centre. The squares are not numbered on the print, so BGJ numbers them 1 to 37.
• The road follows the seasons: the bottom row and left column are spring, the top row summer, the right column and the inner bottom row and left column autumn, and the inner top row onward winter, ending at the year-end market in Asakusa.
• Five squares carry an inn mark (泊): Clamming at Shinagawa, Peonies at Tomigaoka, Niwaka Festival at Yoshiwara, Insects at Higurashi and Passing Shower at Sekiya. Stop on one and you miss your next turn.
• Beside Evening Cool at Ryogoku (top left) the print says "roll a one here and you go through to Yoshiwara". If you roll a 1 while standing there, you skip straight to Yoshiwara (square 18) — and since Yoshiwara is an inn, you miss a turn there.

Winning

• The first player to reach the Asakusa market in the centre with the exact roll wins.
• Extra pips send you back as the yellow panel beside the market says: 1 extra to Komagata Hall, 2 to Snow at Massaki, 3 to Winter Wind at Matsuchiyama, 4 to Passing Shower at Sekiya and 5 to Night Rain at Azuma Woods. Sekiya is an inn, so you miss a turn too.
• By default the game ends when the first player finishes; the others are ranked by how far they got. A house rule lets you play on until everyone is ranked.

House rules