From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 17 oct 1996 Subject: Thanks! Dear Shogiphiles: Many thanks to the folks who responded to my inquiry on TORI SHOGI, especial ly to Ugo Jude and Jonathan Kamras who mailed me with information together w ith their personal impressions about shogi variants. I would like to return favor by making it clear what I'm up to. The following is a gist of an artic le that I wrote for the Daily Yomiuri (newspaper) of May 16: Chess players can learn shogi moves in about 10 minutes, although it migh t take a little longer to learn the kanji characters. Shogi may look differe nt from its cousin, chess, but they do have the same forefather---a game in India. One rule unique to Japanese shogi is that a piece never dies. Pieces won from the opponent can be used again until either king is checkmated. At the beginning of shogi history, at least three different versions of t he game coexisted in Japan and none of them had a rule that allowed for piec es to be put back into play. It is believed that this rule appeared in the 1 4th century. The shogi piece itself probably helped lead to the emergence of this rule. Unlike chess, which has two sets of white and black colored piec es, shogi has two identical sets of wodden pieces, known as koma. It wouldn' t have taken an Archimedes to think of the idea of reusing the captured pieces. Some attribute the prevalence of the reuse rule to the spirit of the time s in the 15th and 16th century. Oda Nobunaga, a warloard at the time who bec ame the first of the three unifiers of Japan, is also known as the first to employ shogi proffesionals. He reasoned that war commanders would benefit fr om learning shogi tactics. Shogi has often been likened to war, with the reused pieces being akin to captives turning renegade. At the time the game became popular, people were less adamant about loyalty and had fewer qualms about serving more than one master, which was stricly forbidden in bushido that was yet to come in history. However, the rule allowing captured pieces to go back into play may have also derived from a practical sense of value. Shogi is a game of cornering t he opponent's king, but it also involves confiscating the opponent's pieces. Tactics at the beginning and at the middle of the game are primarily focuse d on capturing the opponent's pieces, or exchanging weak ones for strong one s. The captured pieces are stored for reuse. They really sound more like mon ey. Possibly the game was influenced by the monetary system, which developed on a large scale at this time. Shogi history is interesting, but the true excitement lies in the game it self. Actually I wrote another one on an older form of shogi in Heian period (ca 9 -12 century), but having learned that there are many things that I don't kno w in shogi history, I'm going to rewrite it, and hopefully will present it h ere. Thank you. (MS)Takako Noda