Cultural Practices: Long Dice
In the Book 3 episode "The Runaway", one of the games that Toph cheats at features long dice with "X"s drawn on certain sides. This is yet another example of a Korean culture Easter egg making it into the series. The dice are primarily inspired by two traditional Korean game pieces:
Jangjak yut (장작 윷), also known as yut sticks, are used in the board game Yunnori (윷놀이). Each stick has a flat side that is unadorned and a rounded side that often has "X"s carved into it. These two sides create binary lots that are cast to determine how far a token can advance on the game board. The contrasting shape and design of the stick's two sides are meant to represent the concept of yin and yang.
Yunmok (윤목은) are long dice used in the game Seunggyeongdo (승경도) or "Rising Ministers". It was a game commonly played by the children of nobility. The goal of the game was to climb the ladder of the Korean-Confucian bureaucracy through rolling the dice. Through the game, young Korean nobles were introduced to the ranks and purposes of various government positions they could one day occupy. Yunmok dice are unique to Korean culture; each one is comprised of five sides with the numerical markings carved into the corners of the die, rather than its side faces.
The dice in "The Runaway" have a similar "X" pattern to jangjak yut, but are shaped more like the tapered yunmok dice.
