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In the last scene of episode 4 of Yuru Yuri San Hai (i.e., the third season of Yuru Yuri anime), Sakurako played with her friends a lottery game for finding out "lucky colors". She did so by drawing a diagram on the ground and following the lines. I have never seen this particular kind of game before, and am wondering if this is some traditional children's game or Sakurako just invented it on the spot. Can anyone provide some clues? Thanks!

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user23823
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1 Answers1

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This is a method of randomly assigning things called "ghost leg" (in Japanese, called "Amidakuji", which means "Amida lottery").

Basically, the way it works is that each player picks one of the lines at the top. Then, you follow the line downwards. Every time you intersect a horizontal segment, you follow it. Here is an example of one possible outcome for a player of this game.

Note that the loop-de-loop and the non-strictly-horizontal cross-segments (like the ones that go left-down-right and right-down-left from the rightmost line) are not used in conventional ghost leg. This is just the show being silly.

This system is well-known in Japan (and maybe the rest of East Asia?), but is certainly not well-known elsewhere, which is likely why you have never heard of it.

senshin
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    Thanks for your information. In fact I live in China and this is the first time I see this game. The Wikipedia page linked in your answer does not seem to indicate the game's origin, neither does the page's Chinese version. The Japanese version did say it came from Indian buddha, though. – user23823 May 03 '16 at 17:09
  • It seems to me that if non-strictly-horizontal corss-segments are allowed then the output will not always be a permutation of the input. That is, different inputs may get sent to the same output. – user23823 May 03 '16 at 17:20
  • Maybe I will need to move on to Mathematics SE haha. – user23823 May 03 '16 at 17:21
  • For what it's worth, I recall seeing such a game in a children's magazine in Hong Kong years ago (and in fact was about to comment suggesting that this could be the game here). – Maroon May 04 '16 at 08:04