From: Reijer Grimbergen ETL GO JP> Date: 7 aug 1996 Subject: Re: [gaumlu mwp eskom co za: Shogi clothing] grimberg (Reijer Grimbergen) writes: > Return-Path: mwp eskom co za> > From: "Leander Ulrich" mwp eskom co za> > Organization: Eskom > To: grimberg etl go jp > Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 11:35:00 ZA-2 > Subject: Shogi clothing > Priority: normal > X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.33) > *** This is a forwarded message **** > Hi everybody > I have read somewhere that professional Shogi players have to play in > traditional Japanese clothing, as opposed to suit and tie like pro > chess or go players. Can anyone dispute or confirm this? Shogi-L is my > only source of inforomation. Interest in Shogi is very limited in this > area. > Leander Gaum > Rep. of South Africa I can confirm that for some games professionals are expected to wear formal Japanese clothing (wafuku) as opposed to go and chess professionals. This "rule" is only for title matches and not for normal professional games. The reason that I put "rule" in quotes is that I doubt there is anything in writing about this. There are a few precedents in Shogi history that suggest that it has become expected behaviour rather than a formal requirement. For example, in the first game of last year's Oza title match, Mori tried a psycholigical trick by wearing suit and tie instead of a kimono. When he missed a mate in the endgame he quickly changed to Japanese clothes for the remainder of the match :-). Also, it has lately become a fashion to wear wafuku for important non-title match games. For example, last year Goda wore Japanese clothes in the final two games in the C1 Junisen, games he had to win to promote. In short, wearing Japanese clothes in title matches is expected from players and for the Japanese this means it is a formal rule :-). Only really free spirits, like Mori, are able to break the rule and get away with it. Reijer -- Reijer Grimbergen Electrotechnical Laboratory Palcious Tsukuba 302 1-1-4 Umezono 1-24-8 Ninomiya Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305 JAPAN 305 JAPAN E-mail: grimberg etl go jp Tel: 0298-59-1606 WWW: http://www.etl.go.jp:8080/etl/suiron/~grimberg Tel: +81-(0)298-54-5080 extension: 67431 Fax: +81-(0)298-58-5918