Shogi set

Next to FIDE chess and Xiangqi (Chinese chess), Shogi (Japanese chess) is the third of the three 'big' chess variants. As I had already made sets for the first two, I obviously needed to make a Shogi set as well, to complete the 'big three'.

My Shogi set was made entirely from cork: tiles and squares cut from cork tiles to create the board, whereas the pieces were cut from bottle corks, subsequently painted (a different colour for each different piece), and with their Japanese symbol painted on them. As Shogi and some of its variants are unique in that captured pieces become the property of the capturer and can be reintroduced onto the board ('dropped'), the pieces are not differentiated into 'black' and 'white'. Rather, the ownership of a piece is indicated by the direction it's pointing in.

This shogi set was the final set in the 'first wave' of me creating chess sets. This first wave roughly coincided with the 1990s, when, as I said earlier, other interests took over. As is the case with (almost) all the chess sets I made so many years ago, this Shogi set is lost. Looking back at the one remaining picture now, taken while it was 'embedded' in a Japanese maple, I'm not too sad it's no longer in existence. Too cheap and gaudy with the differently coloured pieces. I've got ideas for creating another Shogi set or board, which is more Japanese-styled; watch this space!