From: Hiroki Kawada <kawada <at> MERL <dot> HITACHI <dot> CO <dot> JP>
Date: 9 feb 1996
Subject: Idea of pieces for beginners

Dear shogi fans,

There was discussion that original shogi pieces looks unfamiliar to
beginners in Occident and the pieces are inconvenient to introduce shogi.
Here is my idea for it.

We can draw small marks on original shogi pieces to indicate move
direction.  For example in Gold, six dots(.) on the top three corners and
three sides in the bottom, right and left.  In Bishop, four short lines(-)
on the four corners indicating going straight in those directions.  In
Knight, two small hooks(^) on the two top corners indicating jumping.

Beginners identifies pieces by those marks for the first time, but they
should see Kanji characters at the same time.  If they became familiar with
Kanji's and don't need the marks anymore, they can erase the marks.  A fine
marking pen is convenient to draw the marks on plastic pieces, because they
can be erased by alchol or other solvents (manicure remover for example).
This is just an idea.  I am not sure how the pieces look like and if the
marks really make sense with beginners in Occident, because I never tried
it before.  Does anybody tried similar way before?

Toshiaki Tanigawa told me that similar pieces were once made by Mr. Nakato
in Sengoku (town of shogi where people in US military live near and some of
them may start shogi).  I think the marks may be permanent, not erasable.
Mr. Sanada (pro 6-dan?) has an idea to put stickers on the pieces.

Hope this helps and really works for beginners in Occident.

Hiroki
Hiroki Kawada                     * "After the defeat
Mechanical Engineering Res. Lab., *   it is a valuable time."
Sec. 15, Hitachi, Ltd.,           * K. Yonenaga,
Kandatsu 502, Tsuchiura,          *  Shogi (Japanese chess) player
Ibaraki  300 Japan