Hikō Bakudan Sugoroku Magazine Shōnen Sekai / 飛行爆弾雙六(双六)小波案/池田永治画 by Iwaya, Sazanami and Ikeda, EijiPublication Date: 1917
For its New Year’s Day 1918 issue, the popular children’s magazine Youth World (Shōnen Sekai) included a “sugoroku” (literally “double sixes,” a game similar to “snakes and ladders”) game as its holiday supplement. Although the starting point shows a cheering crowd sending off a Japanese warplane, all other scenes are in Europe.
The game emphasizes technologies of war: airplanes, seaplanes, zeppelins, cannon, tanks, bombs. The winning move brings the player into the cockpit of an airplane from which bombs are being dropped. Vivid colors bring battles to life, whether on land, air or sea.
The artist, Ikeda (1889-1950), worked as a “manga reporter” for Yomiuri Newspaper and drew cartoons for Yomiuri Sunday Manga during this period.