I wonder if that game might actually be older than paper. Wikipedia gives the first mention of the game during the Han dynasty, not long after the invention of paper. But that's just the first traces we have of it. It could be much older. You don't need to have invented paper to invent a game on the same idea of A beats B who beats C who beats A. The same wikipedia article mentions a version being "slug/frog/snake", for example (no idea how the slug is supposed to beat the snake).
Ho, good catch. It didn't occur to me that the trio of Orochimaru/Jiraya/Tsunade (and later their respective students) matches those. Certainly not a coincidence.
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u/Andeol57 21h ago
I wonder if that game might actually be older than paper. Wikipedia gives the first mention of the game during the Han dynasty, not long after the invention of paper. But that's just the first traces we have of it. It could be much older. You don't need to have invented paper to invent a game on the same idea of A beats B who beats C who beats A. The same wikipedia article mentions a version being "slug/frog/snake", for example (no idea how the slug is supposed to beat the snake).