From: "Randal J. Andrews" <tiger22 <at> IX <dot> NETCOM <dot> COM>
Date: 16 jan 1996
Subject: Re: Notation

K. Sunny Sano wrote:

>Yes, surely it's another point you have to ponder upon; Japanese (and
>every people in the world) would never allow that their own culture
>shall spread under borrowed terms.

Does this mean that if one million people in the West learned to play
shogi but knew little or nothing of the Japanese tradition that this
would be a failure?

I think, however, that knowledge of the Japanese tradition is essential
to understanding shogi and to get maximum enjoyment from it.
Therefore, the proper international standard for shogi books should use
the Japanese kanji for each piece.   This is the way many chess books
are produced.  To avoid the  problem that each country has its own
notation, chessplayers developed Figurine Algebraic Notation (FAN).
Each piece is represented by a little picture, very much like kanji!

I would like it very much if someone would would write a font so that I
could use Japanese shogi kanji to record my games.   I would also
prefer using Japanese numbers for the ranks, but again I don't have
that font, so I use letters a..i.

I'll buy any shogi book in English regardless of the notation used! I
appreciate all efforts in this project.