From: Sam Sloan ISHIPRESS COM> Date: 28 jun 1999 Subject: George Hodges and the big big very big shogi sets I have received the following letter in response to my letter entitled: "Big big very big shogi sets". (Please note - Letters in this group are also available outside this list through http://www.deja.com which explains why it was possible to read my letter without being a member of this list). ------------------------------------------ Dear Sam Sloan, Doing some Internet surfing last night, I discovered the "Shogi Discussion List" and was interested to see your contribution dated 23 June, referring to the large versions of Shogi. At first I was angry when I read your posting, discovering that almost all of what you said about the production of sets for these games by George Hodges was wrong! However, I accept that you almost certainly do not know the full story of this - allow me to bring to your attention some facts! > I know for sure that these sets were made on special order. Richard Bozulich went to > an artist who designed the sets & NOT true - Mr. Bozulich did provide George with some graphic work for the large Shogi variants (kanji for the pieces) but that was almost as far as his contribution went. From that point on, ALL the work on the larger variants was done by George. No special order, just the interest of one man in bringing these games back to life, something no-one else has done. George was not then - and is not now - a rich man, merely a business man who had discovered the great game of Shogi and had been fascinated by the variants, large & small! Back in 1976, George started on the production of these sets: the boards were commercially screen-printed on vinyl, the pieces were made by hot-blocking on blanks, provided, it is true - quite expensively - by Mr. Bozulich. Much hard labour went in to the manufacture of these pieces - I know all too well for I assisted in the production of these pieces, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of them, spending many many hours assisting George in his attic, the pair of us clustered round a very expensive hot-blocking machine!! Sets made, George offered them all for sale - as far as is known, the only person in or out of Japan to do so, something for which he has never received the credit due to him. He was not interested at all in any sort of monopoly over the production of these sets, in fact he would have been very pleased if someone in Japan had taken the initiative to produce their own sets for these wonderful games. I know that some people have balked at the cost of his sets, but in fact they are quite reasonably priced, especially considering that total production was, in commercial terms, a very small run indeed. Actual cost per set was worked out by me based on the costs of various raw-materials (vinyl, blank pieces, machine etc.); George then added a relatively small profit margin before reaching the price quoted on his lists. Sadly, few people were/are interested in these Shogi variants and sales have been very slow to say the least - George still has many sets unsold - the whole thing has been quite a loss for him! Happily, these sets are still available and can be obtained from him: his address is George Hodges, PO Box 77, Bromley, Kent BR1 2WT, UK I hope that you can post to Shogi Discussion list a correction to your last posting - I can assure you that the above is the correct history of the production by George of the various Shogi variants. Also, I would point out that I am writing this without reference to him - I think he'd be very angry to see your posting as it is, believe me, very wrong in almost all its details. Best wishes David Willey