874 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



duced into that country from China. The exact date is not known, but 

 it is usually attributed to the eighth century A. D, It is a great favor- 

 ite at the present day in Japan, 

 especially among military men, 

 being regarded as furnishing 

 instruction in the art of war.' 





It 



i^- 



A-% 

 ^ 



Ly 



Fig. 178. 



JUROKU MUSASHI. 



Japau. 



From the AVa ka 



ejirotlured ic Ko 



57. JuROKU MusASHi. "Six- 

 teen Soldiers." The Japa- 

 nese Game of Fox and 

 Geese. Japan. 

 {a) Board and men.- 

 (6) Japanese picture of 



players.' 

 The board has 8 by 8 squares, 

 each of which is divided into two 

 parts by a diagonal line (fig. 

 177). In the games now cur- 

 rent in Japan there is a triangle at the top of the board two squares 

 wide, with its apex resting upon the middle of the upper side. Six- 

 teen men [musashi, "soldiers") are arranged at the sixteen points of 

 intersection at the sides of the square 

 with the Taisho, or General, in the cen- 

 ter. Two play, the " General " striving 

 to capture the "Soldiers," and the lat- 

 ter to block him. 



The board and men appear to be an 

 ex])ression of the same cosmical ideas 

 as are found in the game of Nyout, there 

 being four men associated with each 

 side of the square. The traditions of 

 the game still more closely identify it 

 with the Korean Nyout. 



A Chinese form of the game is fig- 

 ured and described by Dr. Karl Himly ^ 

 under the name of Shap luJc Icon tseung 

 hwan, or "The Sixteen Pursue the 

 Commander" (fig. 179). 



The board, he says, is seen in the 

 streets, where the players — laborers, 



' O. Korschekl, Das Go-Spiel, Mittheilmigeu d. deutscheu Gesellscbaft fiir Natur. 

 und Volkerkuude Ostasieus, III, pp. 21-24. 



2 Cat. No. 70it0, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. 



^Cat. No. 17832, Mus. Arch., Univ. Penn. 



^Aniuerk. in Beziehuug auf das Scliacb- u. andere Brettspiele, Zeitschrift d.] 

 deutschen morgenliindisclieu Gesellschaft, XLI, p. 469. 



SHAP LVK KOX TSEUNG KWAN. 



China. 



