Shogi
At the beginning of April a visitor to this website called “Jon” posted a comment asking,
What is the difference in quality between the Classic Shogi Set and the Nintendo Shogi Koma (Kaki-Goma Style)…?
A month has passed already, but the other day I had a close look at the two sets. Here are the results…
The two sets are actually quite different, more than you might suppose.
KOMA QUALITY
In terms of quality of material, the Nintendo Shogi Set is better, particularly the quality and finish of the wood.
The wood of the classic shogi koma pieces are flecked and mottled whereas that of the Nintendo pieces is lighter and cleaner.
KOMA DESIGN
The Classic Koma design imitates a “hori goma” style of carving. I think the kanji design has been stamped onto the surface of the pieces because the lines of the characters are slightly indented into the wood.
The Nintendo Koma design is – or cleverly imitates – the sweeping hand-painted character style of kakigoma.
The result is that the design of the Classic Koma is a little easier to read, but the Nintendo set has a more sweeping and spontaneous feeling to it. The difference in style is clearly seen in a comparison of the keima or knights:
Classic Keima, left. Nintendo Keima, right.
KOMA BACKS
The two shogi sets have similar red characters on the backs of the pieces. The design is quite cursive in both cases.
Classic Koma, left. Nintendo Koma, right.
KOMA BOXES
The Classic Shogi Koma box lid has nicely jigsawed recesses for you to insert your fingers when lifting the lid off whereas the Nintendo box has straight edges.
Classic Koma box, above. Nintendo Koma box, below.
In conclusion, the Nintendo Koma set is definitely of higher quality, but the Classic Koma set is easy to read. If clarity trumps quality for you, you will prefer the Classic Shogi Set with its “stamped” images. On the other hand, if you are looking for a high quality mass market set the Nintendo Shogi Set would be the best choice for you.
David Hurley
The Nintendo games company doesn’t just manufacture video games. They have a long history of making traditional Japanese games such as hanafuda card decks and shogi sets as well.
Nintendo Hanafuda decks have been available on this site from the beginning, but for some reason or other, I never quite got around to uploading Nintendo shogi sets. Finally, however, I have got around to it and am pleased to announce that I can now offer two Nintendo shogi koma sets and the Nintendo folding shogi board.
I would place the Nintendo shogi koma in the “good quality mass market” bracket. You can choose between “kaki-goma” and “hori-goma” sets.
Kaki-Goma
Kaki-goma are shogi pieces with the characters that designate the piece values painted on with a calligraphy brush (“kaki” = written/painted + “goma” = “koma” = shogi piece).
Hori-Goma
Hori-goma have the characters carved into the surface (“hori” = carved), and then painted with sumi ink or lacquer . There are various types of hori-goma, but the Nintendo hori-goma are of a relatively simple design and the carved characters have been painted over with ink.
The Nintendo shogi board is a standard folding wooden board held together with a couple of metal hinges.
Check out tbe Nintendo Shogi Koma via the link.
DH
I have just made a new page under the Shogi tab on this website and added two shogi training sets to the listings. Shogi training sets are popular with children here in Japan, and would also suit non-Japanese beginners who want to learn shogi as quickly as possible and master the moves as they play.
Part of the process of learning how to play shogi involves remembering the kanji characters for each piece. That’s because shogi pieces have the piece-name on their face to distinguish them from each other. If you want to play shogi well you have to learn to read the kanji at a glance and know immediately which piece is which.
That can be a difficult job for foreign players who have not studied kanji, but it can be almost as difficult for Japanese children who may only know hiragana and a few basic kanji when they first begin to play shogi.
Kumon Shogi Training Pieces
Some years ago, the Japanese private education company, Kumon, brought out a wooden “Study Shogi” set to help Japanese children learn shogi.
The shogi pieces in the Kumon set have little grids on them representing the squares immediately surrounding the shogi piece, with red arrows to show where the piece can move. If the arrow finishes inside the square, then piece can only move as far as that square. If the arrow breaks through the outer boundary of the square, then the shogi piece in question can move several squares in that direction, like the rook, bishop or queen in chess.
The name of the piece is also given in hiragana underneath the traditional kanji character.
The Kumon set is made to their typically high production standards, and everything is made of wood.
Another nice feature of the set is that the wooden box that stores the pieces, and the wooden lid, double as trays for the shogi pieces during play. Because captured pieces can be reintroduced to the game as your own pieces, it is important to keep all the pieces you capture on display so that both your opponent and you can see what has been captured.
The "Master Shogi" Training Set
More recently, another shogi training set, called “Master Shogi” was released by Japanese game company, Beverly Enterprises Inc. It is a slickly packaged set designed more like a board game, with a cardboard board overlaid with a plastic grid into which the plastic pieces sit very snugly. The squares where the pieces go at the set up stage are marked with the kanji character of the respective pieces.
As you get better at reading the pieces and understanding how they move, you can replace the stickers that cover the plastic pieces with new ones with standard shogi kanji designs on them and no movement styles.
The Master Shogi set includes a couple of illustrated Japanese instruction pamphlets. One of the pamphlets is a in “manga” format, with the instructions explained in popular comic strip style.
If you have some knowledge of Japanese and can read hiragana you will be able to read the Japanese version of the rules that come with the set. If you can’t read Japanese, the diagrams show you clearly how the pieces move.
Both shogi training sets offer the learner a good way to get to know how the pieces move. The Kumon set is better quality, being made of wood, but the Master set is cheaper and has some nice features that youngsters will enjoy such as the option to “upgrade” pieces with new stickers as they master their movements.
Both shogi training sets are now available on this website via this link or under the Shogi tab in the horizontal menu.
David Hurley
