Maki Kaji, the ‘godfather’ of the widely popular puzzle game, Sudoku, sadly passed away on August 10 at 69-years-old.
His death was finally announced on Tuesday by Nikoli, the puzzle company that he helped create and launched Sudoku through
Nikoli wrote on its website that Kaji: “known as the Godfather of Sudoku, (was) adored by puzzle lovers around the world and we would like to express our gratitude to all of you.”
According to the company’s official statement, his cause of death was bile duct cancer.
Sudoku is one of the most popular games of all time.
It is played by millions around the world daily, appearing in newspapers and apps alike, putting it up there with classics like crosswords, find-a-words and word jumbles.
So how did it all start?
who wants to play sudoku with me?
— minato plushie bot (@minatoplushie) August 18, 2021
Maki Kaji, like all geniuses these days, was, in fact, a university dropout. He worked in a printing company – ‘ta-da!’ – before creating Japan’s first-ever puzzle magazine.
Sometime in the 80s, Kaji took inspiration from an existing number puzzle in the magazine and developed it into the sudoku we know today.
The word ‘Sudoku’ is a contraction of the Japanese translation of “every number must be single.”
Rest in peace, inventor of sudoku.
— Salocin.TEN (www.salocinten.info) (@SalocinTEN) August 18, 2021
The game became a huge hit outside of Japan sometime around the 90s when overseas newspapers began publishing them.
Sudoku is now lauded around the world as a puzzle of wits, in the sense that it keeps your mental processes sharp, and even has a world championship that has been running annually since 2006.
Alas, Kaji will surely be missed. A true innovator, he once told the BBC back in 2007:
“I get really moved when I see a new idea for a puzzle which has lots of potential. It is like finding treasure. It’s not about whether it will make money, it is purely the excitement of trying to solve it.”
