Hey buddy, quick question, where do you think Sudoku actually comes from?
You’d think so!
Yes OfCourse! What do you mean, that it's not Japanese?
Sudoku is not originally Japanese. Shocking, huh? It's actually a French game.
Are you kidding me? But the word is Japanese! How can it not be from Japan?
I know, it’s confusing. The name “Sudoku” is Japanese, sure, but the puzzle itself has a much older, international history. It actually traces back to 19th-century France.
France?! No way. How did it end up there?
So, there was this French mathematician, Édouard Lucas. He invented something called “Latin Squares”.
What is that?
It's basically grids where each number or symbol appears only once per row and column. That’s basically the DNA of Sudoku.
Huh, Latin Squares... sounds fancy but kinda boring compared to Sudoku.
True, it’s more abstract math stuff.
So, is that what evolved to Sudoku?
Not exactly. Fast forward to the 1970s, an American architect named Howard Garns took that concept and created the first puzzle that looks exactly like modern Sudoku. He called it “Number Place.”
An architect? Designing puzzles? That’s unexpected!
Right! He wasn’t just sketching buildings instead he was building brain teasers. Then, this puzzle traveled to Japan in the 1980s, where it exploded in popularity. The Japanese publishers gave it the name “Sudoku,” meaning “single number,” and boom! It became a cultural phenomenon.
So, Japan basically gave it a catchy name and made it famous worldwide. That’s some serious rebranding power.
Exactly! It’s a brilliant example of how ideas evolve, and they’re never truly owned by one place. Sudoku’s journey from French math to Japanese bestseller is a global adventure.
That actually makes playing Sudoku feel cooler, like you’re part of a puzzle with a secret international backstory.
Totally! Next time someone brags about Sudoku being Japanese, you can school them with the real story.
Now I want to try “Number Place” puzzles next.
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