Guest Post by Mitchell Clark
Nonki na Tōsan Shusse Sugoroku, or Carefree Dad Success Story Gameboard.
One of the many strengths of the manga collection at OSU is a subcollection of gameboard prints, or sugoroku. Our collection contains dozens of these, dating from as far back as the Edo period to as recently as the 1980s. One sugoroku, dating to 1925, features one of Japan’s earliest serialized comic strips, Nonki na Tōsan, or Carefree Dad (often translated as Easygoing Daddy).
Nonki na Tōsan was first published in the newspaper Hōchi Shimbun in 1923—interestingly, in the wake of the Great Kantō Earthquake. Its lighthearted nature was seen by publishers as a salve to lift spirits at a time when the capital region was still reeling from disaster. Inspired by the American comic Bringing Up Father by George McManus, Nonki na Tōsan became immensely popular for its slice-of-life comedy and portrayal of everyday Japanese virtues. Created by Asō Yutaka, the cartoon quickly inspired Nonki na Tōsan merchandise, toys, games, and even three silent films released in 1925.
Jumping forward two decades, following Japan’s defeat in World War II, Asō opened a studio in the recovering Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo, where several more Nonki na Tōsan reels were produced. This culminated in the self-titled movie Nonki na Tōsan, released in 1946. Meanwhile, the popularity of the strip continued until Asō’s passing in 1961, which coincided with the dawn of a new era of television animation and home entertainment. A pioneer of his time, Asō is credited with popularizing key features of modern manga, including sequential panels and speech bubbles. Nonki na Tōsan was one of Japan’s first four-panel (yonkoma) manga to break through as a commercial success, leaping from the pages of newspapers into toy stores and onto the silver screen.
A 1926 film reel of Tōsan having lunch on the roadside.
The Carefree Dad’s Success Story Gameboard
Observant readers may notice similarities between Tōsan’s Hollywood-style rise-to-fame story depicted in the 1925 Nonki na Tōsan Shusse Sugoroku (Carefree Dad’s Success Story Gameboard) and the real-life success of the comics and subsequent Nonki na Tōsan films. Produced at the same time, this gameboard was likely published to promote the films and included scenes similar to those seen in the movies.
The first stop (block) of the game shows Tōsan escaping the very earthquake that inspired the comic’s creation, highlighting the event’s lingering reverberations. Left without a home, Tōsan and his family are confined to dingy barakku (barracks). The second stop features the iconic tin-roof shantytowns that rose from the ashes of the quake. From there, the gameboard follows Tōsan’s rags-to-riches story and eventual success (shusse). He takes on odd jobs across Japan—selling the evening paper (perhaps the Hōchi Shimbun itself?), gambling, and horse racing. After clumsily shattering dishes at a soba noodle shop, he lands a job “walking the beat” as a policeman (omawari-san).
Stops 1 and 2. “Earthquake” (ヂシン) and “Shanty” (バラツク) respectively.
Tōsan’s jobs often reflect the social context of the sugoroku’s publication. At one point, he works as a sakan-ya (plasterer). Construction jobs were in high demand after the Great Kantō Earthquake, with the region’s rapid reconstruction. Humorously, though, Tōsan seems to prefer drawing graffiti to plastering houses. Later along the gameboard, Tōsan is enlisted as an undōin (campaigner). In 1925, the General Election Law extended voting rights to Japanese men aged 25 and over, essentially quadrupling the national electorate. Tōsan reflects this new political climate of the Taishō era by commending the ramblings of a kojiki (a now-derogatory term meaning “beggar”).
Stop 20. Beggar: “Left or right politicians,
both pathetic candidates. Go ahead, give voting a shot.”
Tōsan: “Well said!”
At stop 21, players encounter additional political concerns of the day: Taishō (Tōsan’s neighbor, friend, and co-star) confronts a figure called a hainichi (anti-Japanese), depicted as a lowly figure framed under a foot-stomped “rising sun,” with the shadow of a horned demon looming in the background. While a hainichi in this context might refer to a Bolshevik, communist, or socialist, such “demons” could also symbolize anti-Japanese Koreans, Chinese, or even Americans at this time, and so players had many options for interpretation.
Stop 21. The “Anti-Japanese”
Later in the game, Tōsan’s luck turns around when he begins acting in movies as a katsudō haiyū (film actor) after losing his job as a garbageman. In a comedic twist, he gets lost at sea while swimming and ends up in Hokkaido—a frontier of mineral wealth—where he becomes a coal miner and eventually returns to Tokyo as a kanemochi (literally, “moneybags”). Ultimately, Tōsan achieves great success, though not without a string of comedic blunders and bizarre situations along the way.
Stay tuned for my next blog post on the language of Nonki na Tōsan’s Success Story Gameboard. In the meantime, check out these previous blogs about sugoroku to learn more about the fascinating gameboards in our manga collection. To view these games or other manga, please contact Japanese Studies Librarian Ann Marie Davis at davis.5257@osu.edu or our colleagues at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.
Two of three of the 1925 films are available for viewing to this day on the Internet:
- Nonkina Tōsan ryūgūmairi (ノンキナトウサン 竜宮参り; Carefree Dad’s visit to Ryūgū palace)
- Nonkina Tōsan Hanami no Maki (ノンキナトウサン 花見の巻; Carefree Dad’s Cherry blossom viewing reel)
- Nonkina Tōsan Katsudo no maki (ノンキナトウサン 活動の巻 Carefree Dad’s Activity Reel).
References
- 報知新聞社, Wikipedia, 17 March 2025
- Carefree Father, IMDb, 2025
Additional Resources
- Bringing Up Father in Japanese (a.k.a. Jiggs and Maggie) by George McManus, 1924
- Easygoing Papa (Nonkina tōsan) by Asō Yutaka, CUNY
- Modern Japanese Theatre and Performance by David Jortner, 2007 (Has a brief section about Nonki na Tōsan)
