From: =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCPmVCPCEhTTU7ThsoQg==?= PO HARENET OR JP> Date: 26 jan 1996 Subject: Letter from Monsieur Teste -2- SUB:Letter from Monsieur Teste -2- FROM:Sunny@mugen Dear all Shogi friends, Happily enough I could get rewrited latter half from Monsieur Teste who is possibly now enjoy swimming under the sun of azure sky somewhere in Greece. He wrote to me personally that some of the expressions in the first half might have been "ont alle trop loin" which can be interpreted as "strident", but it's totally up to my capacity of translation. I have to make an apology to anyone who felt something disagreable in the previous posting. Shown hereafter is the rewrited latter half of the letter. [Quote] We westerners must not forget our responsibility. It is the dawn of Shogi in the west. Our decisions will affect all who come after us. We do not have the right to claim any inconvenience for ourselves. It is our destiny to be inconvenienced. We must consider what is best for future generations. It is our job. If we must alter our notation or anything else, now is the proper time to do that. It is for our generation to get it right, no matter how often we use the erasers. We have this duty we cannot deny. Now is the time to link us with the vast Japanese literature. Our movement is young, we still have a list of dreams not yet dreamt. Let's not be so eager to disconnect ourselves from the original. We don't have to resort to this. In today's world, Japanese is an important business language. It is not so exotic to the west anymore. Let's not exaggerate the difficulty. Think of tomorrow's world. Let's connect ourselves, not disrupt the flow. Let us consider that any pieces other than kanji are immitation. Who says so? Over 1,000 years of Shogi history. It is a problem only if you believe it is. I don't believe we have the authority to change the pieces. I say this in a moral/ethical sense. The originals will emerge in the end, regardless. We know it. On the Internet The Internet is the best means to unite the worldwide Shogi community. We need a greater presence on the Internet. We are leaving out a lot of fans by using only a mailing list. We need a newsgroup, too. We will get many more additional fans with that. A number of people who don't use mailing lists will come to a newsgroup. Who will step up to do it? Who among the subscribers will be the first man of the newsgroup? In the future, we need to use the Shogi server to learn from Japanese experts. The westernization of Go is more developed than Shogi. Let's learn a lesson from them. Consider that, already on the Go server, Takemiya-san has already playeda game! There is also a professional offering teaching games for a fee. Think if some day we could have Habu-san play a game on the Shogi server! We could watch the moves as he defends one of his titles. Think of all the fans who would be watching!! We don't have many clubs in the west, but now the Internet is as wide as all the world, and anyone anywhere can visit the Internet Shogi Club using his computer. I think all the subscribers are good people who want to see Shogi succeed in the west. But we have to debate the issues. Ideas live and die. "Les Dieux Ont Soif," but this time, let's not give the gods the blood of humans to drink, but the blood of incorrect, defeated ideas as a result of our discussions. We just need to apply our little grey cells on behalf of future Shogi fans. After we plague each other with arguments and many ideas are killed, let us open the doors of Shogi City to hope and joy for all. Au revoir et a bientot, Monsieur Teste [Unquote] K. Sunny SANO (KFF00705 niftyserve or jp)