• Reading as Patterned PlayEveryday Religion and the Spatialization of Doctrine in a Buddhist Board Game
• Charlotte Eubanks (bio)

Let us take a moment to situate our text. It is cold. You are waiting with your family on the grounds of Tokuzen'in, outside a mid-sized Pure Land Buddhist temple in your neighborhood of the bustling merchant city of Nagoya, Japan. It is the last night of the year, sometime in the nineteenth or very early twentieth century, perhaps the year 1872. The warmth from the special 'long life' buckwheat noodles you ate several hours ago has faded and you are grateful for the heat of the crowd. As you wait for midnight, perhaps you stop by one or more of the various stalls set up around the temple grounds to grab a snack or a small souvenir. One of the things you acquire is a small, fold-up, table-top game that spatializes, visualizes, and cites lines of Buddhist scripture, and that will teach you, through the act of navigating the game space, to read those citations. The sun has been down for hours when, finally, to mark the New Year at midnight, the priests strike a huge, sonorous temple bell 108 times, one toll for each of the delusions or sins identified by Buddhist soteriology. As the last notes fade, you head home, walking through the streets with your extended family: aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents, many of whom have gathered at the old homestead to celebrate the nearly week-long New Year's holiday. It is a wonderful time of staying up late, snuggling up around the kotatsu (a low, covered, heated table), snacking on the many delicacies your mother and aunts have so carefully prepared, napping, talking, and playing games.

The temple you have visited is affiliated with the Pure Land school of Buddhism. Pure Land schools of Buddhism focus on the buddha Amida who, it is believed, maintains a "pure land" (jōdo), located somewhere to the west of our human realm.¹ This pure land is an uncorrupted realm, a physical place into which believers may be reborn upon their human death and in which they can proceed, undistracted by temptation and vice, along the path toward karmic liberation. The teachings of the Pure Land school are codified in three sutras,² each of which describes Amida's realm and the [End Page 40] importance of relying on the power of the buddha (tariki, literally "other power") rather than one's own skills (jiriki) for arriving there. This distinction between one's own good works (associated with "self power"), versus the true path of faith (identified with "other power"), has been a feature of Pure Land teachings since the fifth century. Typical Pure Land practices involve either visualizing Amida and his realm, or invoking his name (nenbutsu), both of which depend on Amida's vows to ensure the liberation and enlightenment of all beings.

Cover of the fold-up snakes-and-ladders style board game Zen'aku sugoroku gokuraku dōchū zue (Good and evil board game, illustrating paths to the Pure Land). This is the Tokuzen'in version.

Home from the temple, you sit with your brother, your grandmother, and a couple of your cousins around the low table. After warming your hands and enjoying a snack, you unfold the sugoroku board game you acquired at the temple. What do you see? How do you interact with the game board as a printed text which references written scriptures? Over the days to follow, as you play the game again and again, what do you learn? What does this game tell you about Buddhism, about how to live, and what happens when you die? What questions might you ask your grandmother—has she ever been to an "impermanence gathering?" How does the game organize space? How [End Page 41] quickly do you come to associate certain acts (of lust, ignorance, or craving, for example) with a downward spiral leading to hell? How many times do you play the game before you figure out what squares lead toward the Pure Land instead? Do you...

• 在佛教棋盘游戏中阅读作为日常游戏的模式化宗教与教义的空间化
• 夏洛特·尤班克斯（生物）

让我们花点时间来介绍我们的案文。很冷。您正在与家人在一起，在日本名古屋繁华的商贸城附近的一座中型净土佛教寺院外的德禅院（Tokuzen'in）旁等待。这是一年中的最后一个夜晚，大约在19世纪或20世纪初，也许是1872年。您几个小时前吃过的特殊“长寿”荞麦面的温暖已经消退，您感激不尽的热量人群。当您等待午夜时，也许您会在寺庙周围的各种摊位中的一个或多个摊位停留，以品尝小吃或小纪念品。您获得的一件东西是一个小型的，可折叠的台式游戏，它可以对佛教经文进行空间化，可视化和引用，并通过导航游戏空间来教您，阅读这些引用。太阳已经下了好几个小时，终于在午夜迎接新的一年，祭司们敲了108次巨大的，响亮的圣殿钟声，对佛教佛法学所发现的每种错觉或罪过都造成了惨重的损失。当最后的音符消失时，您将回家，与您的大家庭（姑姑，叔叔，堂兄弟姐妹和祖父母）漫步在街道上，其中许多人聚集在旧宅基地庆祝近一周的新年假期。这是熬夜，依wonderful在周围的美好时光 和您的大家庭在街上漫步：阿姨和叔叔，堂兄弟姐妹和祖父母，其中许多人聚集在旧宅基地庆祝近一个星期的新年假期。这是熬夜，依wonderful在周围的美好时光 和您的大家庭在街上漫步：阿姨和叔叔，堂兄弟姐妹和祖父母，其中许多人聚集在旧宅基地庆祝近一个星期的新年假期。这是熬夜，依wonderful在周围的美好时光被子（矮矮的，有盖的，加热的桌子），在母亲和阿姨精心准备的许多美味佳肴上零食，打apping，聊天和玩游戏。

您参观过的寺庙隶属于净土佛教学校。佛教的净土学校专注于佛陀阿弥陀佛，据信佛陀阿弥陀佛拥有一个“纯净的土地”（jōdo），位于我们人类境界的西部。¹这片纯净的土地是一个没有腐败的境界，是一个信徒可以在死后重生的物理场所，在这里，他们可以沿着业力解放的道路前进，不受诱惑和罪恶的干扰。净土学校的教导被编入三个佛经，²其中每个描述阿弥陀佛的境界和[尾页40]依托佛（的力量的重要性tariki，字面意思是“其他电源”），而不是一个自己的技能（jiriki）到达那里。自五世纪以来，净土教义就一直把区分自己的善行（与“自我力量”联系起来）与真实的信仰之路（与“其他力量”联系起来）区别开来。典型的“净土”做法涉及形象化阿米达及其境界，或调用他的名字（nenbutsu），这两种方法均取决于阿米达的誓言，以确保所有人的解放和启蒙。

折叠的蛇和梯子风格的棋盘游戏Zen'aku sugoroku gokurakudōchūzue（善与恶的棋盘游戏，描绘了通往净土的道路）的封面。这是Tokuzen'in版本。

从庙宇回家，您和您的兄弟，祖母以及几位堂兄坐在矮桌旁。暖手并享用小吃后，您展开在庙里获得的sugoroku棋盘游戏。你看到了什么？您如何与游戏板交互，以印刷文字引用书面文字？在接下来的几天里，当您一次又一次地玩游戏时，您会学到什么？该游戏对佛教有什么启示，如何生活，死后会发生什么？您可能会问祖母什么问题-她曾经去过“无常聚会”吗？游戏如何组织空间？如何[结束第41页]您很快将某些行为（例如，欲望，无知或渴望）与导致地狱的下降螺旋联系起来吗？在找出哪个正方形通向“净土”之前，您玩过几次游戏？你...