I just discovered your video series 11 years too late, I’m very excited to learn how to play Shogi. Thank you for making these videos. I hope you are well, wherever you are and whatever you are doing :)
The cursive letter on the promoted pawn looks so different from "金" that even Japanese people can't recognize. But it coincidentally looks very similar to a Hiragana "と" (To). (Hiragana is Japanese original phonogram.) That's why call it "と金" (To-Kin). And most Japanese people don't know that the letter on the promoted pawn is a cursive of "金". They think it's the Hiragana "と".
That's not always true. I do pretty well on shogi, but I'm not good in chess. For me, chess requires much more attention than shogi, cuz it has as many as 4 rooks and 4 bishops on the board! Moreover, the knights can leap over to 8 directions! It's extremely hard for shogi players to be careful about all the possible moves! Many unexpected piece maneuvers and pin/discovery tactics happen for me.
That's interesting, cuz I'm a westerner, who's been playing chess from the childhood and for me shogi is a harder game than chess, cuz in shogi you can use captured pieces
A cool coincidence I found: the “flying” character used for the rook piece comes from the Chinese character meaning “bird.” While the English word for the rook comes from the Persian word “ruhk” (meaning “chariot”), rook is also an English word for a type of bird.
I am an avid chess player and had heard about shogi and found your lesson series and have been watching. I just wanted to say that you are doing a great job HIDETCHI and thanks for even taking the time and your own money to help non-Japanese speaking individuals learn this great game easier. :)
OMG the exact same thing for me I was watching Asuma talking about it to the girl sensei (I forgot her name) and was like hey that looks cool and looked it up on RUclips
Got into the game through same anime, looked up some videos. One day I went to my local game store just browsing and got my set on that same day. Only one in shop
For people wanting a Shogi set but struggling with the characters on them; what I did was buy a basic set with the full characters on (it doesnt matter, but is down to preference on what you want to get used to) and then drew initials on all the pieces to help learn what they are (so 'PP' for promoted pawn, 'R' for rook etc) It works well and stops people getting scared off when I ask them to try it. By the time the writing wears off, I should be more used to the symbols. Hope that helps some of you. (I used wikipedia to find out which pieces were which accurately).
Twist3dLogic What I did was put colored stickers on them to tell them apart. The king and pawns didn't have stickers, for you can tell what they are by their size. The rook is red, bishop is blue, lance is green, knight is black, and silver and gold generals are silver and gold. Promoted, if they become the equivalent to a gold general I gave them a gold sticker, and the promoted rook and bishop I kept as red and blue stickers, but with a black dot on them. I've had no trouble telling them apart, and I'm pretty proud of this system I thought of.
Sorry for my late reply. Unfortunately, I live in Japan and have no idea where you can get Shogi sets in U.S. How about searching it on some online shopping website or something? And, thank you very much for leaving a comment.
Meaning of each character is 99% equal. However, the way we use them is sometimes different, and the meanings sometimes get different when they're combined. For example, "手紙" is toilet paper in China right? But it's "Letter" in Japanese. And, what else,,, "愛人" in Japanese means what you mean by "情人" in Chinese. It's interesting. Yes, I understand. "Hello, I'm from China, I like shogi." We can guess by seeing the characters, and I can also understand simple Chinese sentences, too.
Since the pieces that promote to gold generals have characters on the promoted side that are cursive variants of 金, I'm wondering if it's a coincidence that the character on the promoted side of the pawn looks like the first kana of the Japanese name for a promoted pawn.
I think that they mark the beginning of western internet shogi videos, and I really like how he did it out of his own interest to spread the game using his own knowledge. It's very different than a polished tutorial, though polished tutorials are what seem to trend nowadays on the internet. These videos of hidetchi have their own personality and it really fits in with the older youtube feeling, I think.
wow ur videos are great!! i heard aboutshogi when i was watching anime and it seemed intresting. i wanted to learn how to play but couldn't find out how until now!!
thanks for the lessons! I downloaded a shogi app. I finally won against the computer on game #5. I still don't understand all the rules but I just kept playing.
I can't figure out all of the different qualities, wood types, writing types, and so on..., of the Shogi pieces. Can anybody give me a link, preferably amazon, where I can get a set of pieces similar in quality to the new ones (less shiny, red on back, etc.) but with both characters on the front, like the old pieces, but not in cursive? Also, could someone give me a link to a decent board, like this one, that's not too expensive?
nono look at the row right below the goat one. It resembles the horse character, though it still looks like it is on its side because it is an earlier version of the character
@Zendath666 It depends on what you want to use it for, and personal preference. My favorite set is plastic with a vinyl roll-up board that make it easy to carry around. Some of the cheapest sets are wood, such as the "Shogi in a Box" set from Japanese-Games-Shop (which is the one I started with).
As a student learning Mandarin Chinese, kanji is weird in that it's the same character with a different pronunciation and (usually) slightly different meaning.
I may be wrong, but I even believe in Japanese there are two different readings for most kanji characters. One which replicates the chinese sound and one which represents the japanese word for the meaning of the kanji
Thanks, great vid. I've studied japanese so I can read the kanji but I hope other people don't have trouble with it. It seems really hard to me if I didn't know japanese.
Since you say these are Chinese characters, and I know Chinese, the character you translated as "jewel" actually means "jade" in Chinese. Of course, jade is a kind of jewel/gem. But maybe the "jade" meaning is absent in Japanese? In which case, it would mean that Chinese characters have a different meaning in, or to, Japanese.
He is satisfied because he wanted to teach with them and also have the other version, although it is of inferior quality. I learned today there is another version but I don't like it because sometimes I use the lower letter to recognize the piece. :)
@HIDETCHI I'm looking up Cassia on the internet and finding several species and uses. Some call it 'cinnamon', which is a very common spice in the Western world. Would 'cinnamon horse' be right? (I like the sound of it).
Hidetchi, I have been trying to find a good place to buy a Shogi board and pieces in the United States, but cannot find single-character pieces. Do you know of any Japanese websites that sell pieces and will ship overseas? Where did you get the pieces you used in this video?
It's a very little mistake, but you said that "these are all the cursive forms of this (金) symbol." And you also showed the "to" hiragana, but it's completely a different thing, and "kane" kanji has no "to" reading, as u also know as I think :) Btw I'm enjoying your lessons :) 頑張って下さい！
Thanks, some stuff on that site is pretty expensive, But i found what i needed for 30 USD , Thank you very much. Now i can continue watching your videos =)
I watched this video over and over and I am happy to say I feel I can now easily recognize the pieces. Chinese characters however are still a total Fing enigma. Also I am moderately irritated lol
Not complaining or anything, just thought I'd share: I'm not gonna lie, when he said he's got new pieces that are easier to use.. I thought he meant they have English letters :p
i see! you must be right ! i play chess very often so i kind of forgot how complicated it could be. thank you for the lessons! do you know a free shogi game software on pc? i'd be grateful if you help me find one, i really need to play this game!
wait, why are the characters chinese if the game is japanese? aslo, these look like some quality shogi pieces and board, very beautiful. do you know any good online shops? all I can find are crappy sets on amazon
+brunosupertramp1 hello friend, the japanese language is composed of chinese characters, some of the characters they use were taken from the chinese language a long time ago (-1400 if im not wrong), so even though they're from china originally, they're part of the jp language, they are called "kanji" 漢字 literally chinese letters(characters)
I just discovered your video series 11 years too late, I’m very excited to learn how to play Shogi. Thank you for making these videos. I hope you are well, wherever you are and whatever you are doing :)
Yakuza 0 brought me here
@@dmitriireadz6378 same
Of course it's a Japanese game.
It's just that we use Chinese characters in Japanese language, just as you use alphabets in many languages.
The cursive letter on the promoted pawn looks so different from "金" that even Japanese people can't recognize. But it coincidentally looks very similar to a Hiragana "と" (To). (Hiragana is Japanese original phonogram.) That's why call it "と金" (To-Kin). And most Japanese people don't know that the letter on the promoted pawn is a cursive of "金". They think it's the Hiragana "と".
Really? I always thouth is the kana "to" ... D:
I was wondering! Thanks!
thanks, i was wondering about that
As some who's also trying to learn japanese the idea that kanji can have cursives terrifies me
That's not always true.
I do pretty well on shogi, but I'm not good in chess.
For me, chess requires much more attention than shogi, cuz it has as many as 4 rooks and 4 bishops on the board! Moreover, the knights can leap over to 8 directions! It's extremely hard for shogi players to be careful about all the possible moves! Many unexpected piece maneuvers and pin/discovery tactics happen for me.
That's interesting, cuz I'm a westerner, who's been playing chess from the childhood and for me shogi is a harder game than chess, cuz in shogi you can use captured pieces
@@donpax8959 same here😅
@@siddharthmanwani6065 nice :) and wow, it's been a whole year since I wrote that comment!
@@donpax8959 Now two, heh.
A cool coincidence I found: the “flying” character used for the rook piece comes from the Chinese character meaning “bird.” While the English word for the rook comes from the Persian word “ruhk” (meaning “chariot”), rook is also an English word for a type of bird.
What a cool coincidence
I am an avid chess player and had heard about shogi and found your lesson series and have been watching. I just wanted to say that you are doing a great job HIDETCHI and thanks for even taking the time and your own money to help non-Japanese speaking individuals learn this great game easier. :)
I said cursives of "gold".
They are all cursive styles of the same kanji, "gold". They are only different in how much they are cursive.
Thanks for leaving a comment. I hope you enjoy my video lessons and learn well about Shogi.
the first time a hear a man be satisfied by buying something of lower quality when he has already the same thing in high quality, lol :P
I first saw shogi in naruto,when shikamaru played with asuma,i am a huge fan so shogi piqued my interest :)
i know right!? now with these lessons i want to get myself a shogi set!!
OMG the exact same thing for me I was watching Asuma talking about it to the girl sensei (I forgot her name) and was like hey that looks cool and looked it up on RUclips
same
I watched a shogi anime call the ryuos work is never done, its cool go check it out
Got into the game through same anime, looked up some videos. One day I went to my local game store just browsing and got my set on that same day. Only one in shop
No, cassia means bark of cassia tree.
It was used for its incense.
For people wanting a Shogi set but struggling with the characters on them; what I did was buy a basic set with the full characters on (it doesnt matter, but is down to preference on what you want to get used to) and then drew initials on all the pieces to help learn what they are (so 'PP' for promoted pawn, 'R' for rook etc) It works well and stops people getting scared off when I ask them to try it. By the time the writing wears off, I should be more used to the symbols. Hope that helps some of you. (I used wikipedia to find out which pieces were which accurately).
Twist3dLogic What I did was put colored stickers on them to tell them apart. The king and pawns didn't have stickers, for you can tell what they are by their size. The rook is red, bishop is blue, lance is green, knight is black, and silver and gold generals are silver and gold. Promoted, if they become the equivalent to a gold general I gave them a gold sticker, and the promoted rook and bishop I kept as red and blue stickers, but with a black dot on them. I've had no trouble telling them apart, and I'm pretty proud of this system I thought of.
Massivly helpful
Sorry for my late reply. Unfortunately, I live in Japan and have no idea where you can get Shogi sets in U.S. How about searching it on some online shopping website or something?
And, thank you very much for leaving a comment.
@zZCosmicEnergyZz Go to shop.nekomado.com
Thanks.
You're right! They're Yamagami's pieces.
The nicer ones are made by "Etsuzan".
You are talking about the Hiragana "と" that we use everyday, but the character written on the promoted pawn is not that.
"と" is a cursive of "金".
Meaning of each character is 99% equal. However, the way we use them is sometimes different, and the meanings sometimes get different when they're combined. For example, "手紙" is toilet paper in China right? But it's "Letter" in Japanese. And, what else,,, "愛人" in Japanese means what you mean by "情人" in Chinese. It's interesting.
Yes, I understand. "Hello, I'm from China, I like shogi." We can guess by seeing the characters, and I can also understand simple Chinese sentences, too.
You can see some free software in my later lesson. I think it was around lesson#25 or so.
Oh, I bought it from a Japanese website... It's a shopping website of Japan Shogi Association.
Thanks, HIDETCHI. I love learning new games, especially strategy games. I look forward to watching the rest of your lessons.
That's internationalized version of Shogi.
You can see it in video-ID: JAUf_zym1rs
But it's not popular at all. I've never played with it.
Since the pieces that promote to gold generals have characters on the promoted side that are cursive variants of 金, I'm wondering if it's a coincidence that the character on the promoted side of the pawn looks like the first kana of the Japanese name for a promoted pawn.
These videos will live on in the internet history and the history of shogi.
I think that they mark the beginning of western internet shogi videos, and I really like how he did it out of his own interest to spread the game using his own knowledge. It's very different than a polished tutorial, though polished tutorials are what seem to trend nowadays on the internet. These videos of hidetchi have their own personality and it really fits in with the older youtube feeling, I think.
10:19 That's right. 士 represent the adult males. 武士Samurai, 弁護士lawyer, 紳士gentleman
よくめっけますね。調べたら、士は成人の男性のことでペニスが元だそうです。初めて知ったよ。
まさか本当にペニスだったとはっ！！！
wow ur videos are great!! i heard aboutshogi when i was watching anime and it seemed intresting. i wanted to learn how to play but couldn't find out how until now!!
What do you mean by 'symbol piece' ?
Thank you, I found it very interesting :)
Btw I fell in this trap before: 「歩兵」の駒の裏は、一見すると「と」（「止」の崩し字）のように思えるが「今」の崩し字である。
thanks for the lessons! I downloaded a shogi app. I finally won against the computer on game #5. I still don't understand all the rules but I just kept playing.
I can't figure out all of the different qualities, wood types, writing types, and so on..., of the Shogi pieces. Can anybody give me a link, preferably amazon, where I can get a set of pieces similar in quality to the new ones (less shiny, red on back, etc.) but with both characters on the front, like the old pieces, but not in cursive?
Also, could someone give me a link to a decent board, like this one, that's not too expensive?
8:47 "this is how the character horse is made" ... Uh... Pretty sure that's a goat
nono look at the row right below the goat one. It resembles the horse character, though it still looks like it is on its side because it is an earlier version of the character
@Zendath666 It depends on what you want to use it for, and personal preference. My favorite set is plastic with a vinyl roll-up board that make it easy to carry around. Some of the cheapest sets are wood, such as the "Shogi in a Box" set from Japanese-Games-Shop (which is the one I started with).
1:52 it means "step" in Chinese
Here is the link to the site I refered to.
w w w 5 b . b i g l o b e . n e . j p/~shu-sato/kanji/
Thanks.
You could post the website you found about the origin of the characters! I really like this kind of study
For me as a westerner the two characters are easier for me to recognize. So its a bit subjective. Red on the promoted side definately helps though.
Thanks Hidetchi. Your videos are very helpful
Hidetchi Is there Stalemate Like There's No Legal Moves ?
As a student learning Mandarin Chinese, kanji is weird in that it's the same character with a different pronunciation and (usually) slightly different meaning.
I may be wrong, but I even believe in Japanese there are two different readings for most kanji characters. One which replicates the chinese sound and one which represents the japanese word for the meaning of the kanji
Thanks, great vid. I've studied japanese so I can read the kanji but I hope other people don't have trouble with it. It seems really hard to me if I didn't know japanese.
I would like to get these pieces. How do I get them?
awesome!! I enjoy these videos a lot. The simple set of pieces you have are made by "Yamagami", is that correct? And who are the nicer ones made by?
@HIDETCHI What's that new set called, the one you're highlighting in this video. Thanks
Don’t mind me while I frantically search through my kanji notes to try and translate the names of the fonts
@FFan1to12 Kanji are Chinese characters used in Japanese.
I fear no man, but that... thing. *cursive kanji* ... it scares me.
Can you tell me where I can get those pieces?
Since you say these are Chinese characters, and I know Chinese, the character you translated as "jewel" actually means "jade" in Chinese. Of course, jade is a kind of jewel/gem. But maybe the "jade" meaning is absent in Japanese? In which case, it would mean that Chinese characters have a different meaning in, or to, Japanese.
He is satisfied because he wanted to teach with them and also have the other version, although it is of inferior quality. I learned today there is another version but I don't like it because sometimes I use the lower letter to recognize the piece. :)
@HIDETCHI I'm looking up Cassia on the internet and finding several species and uses. Some call it 'cinnamon', which is a very common spice in the Western world. Would 'cinnamon horse' be right? (I like the sound of it).
Thank you for a very useful shogi tutorial!
Could you please provide a link to the site where kanji origins are described?
I wish that I enjoyed learning in school as much as I enjoy learning about this game.
This video isn't loading for me. All the other previous videos loaded but not this one? ;o
Hidetchi, I have been trying to find a good place to buy a Shogi board and pieces in the United States, but cannot find single-character pieces. Do you know of any Japanese websites that sell pieces and will ship overseas? Where did you get the pieces you used in this video?
It's a very little mistake, but you said that "these are all the cursive forms of this (金) symbol." And you also showed the "to" hiragana, but it's completely a different thing, and "kane" kanji has no "to" reading, as u also know as I think :) Btw I'm enjoying your lessons :) 頑張って下さい！
The と in tokin is an extremely deformed calligraphy of 金. However, it looks like と, so that's why it's called the tokin (と金).
Can you tell us where to buy your pieces and board? Thanks
Thanks, some stuff on that site is pretty expensive, But i found what i needed for 30 USD , Thank you very much. Now i can continue watching your videos =)
I watched this video over and over and I am happy to say I feel I can now easily recognize the pieces. Chinese characters however are still a total Fing enigma. Also I am moderately irritated lol
Not complaining or anything, just thought I'd share:
I'm not gonna lie, when he said he's got new pieces that are easier to use.. I thought he meant they have English letters :p
It would be nice if you could answer I love your videos dude and just got my own shogi table from japan imported
Hmm you should be able to find a decent one on eBaY.
I got a fairly plain set with board + pieces for 30 dollars AUD (that includes postage)
can you tell me i can buy shogi pieces and these in the video and the table cheap on not plz
lol i wanted to learn shogi from naruto too :) glad to see there are others as well :D
I like the old pieces, has 2 words more complete
For a new player, would you recommend wooden or plastic pieces? Or rather, which ones do you prefer using?
if i were to get a set of shogi how would i read who is who
Sweet lessons! Do you know where i can get a good quality shogi set?
lmao! me too, hi-5!! shikamaru is cool. where can we buy shogi from besides the internet?
Can u make a video on how to learn these kanji letters?
I prefered the old pieces. They had the same chinese characters at the bottom as Xiangqi pieces which I also play a little.
@HIDETCHI what's the url for that chinese character origin? looks interesting, thanks. :)
Is the size of the pieces important?
i want to make my own shogi game, and its easier to make
it, if any pieces have the same size.
They r cheaper and better....for u guys. haha
i see! you must be right ! i play chess very often so i kind of forgot how complicated it could be. thank you for the lessons! do you know a free shogi game software on pc? i'd be grateful if you help me find one, i really need to play this game!
Great! I'm gonna try and find a set of his. :)
hidetchi,
How do you make your own board and pieces?
THANX :)
@HIDETCHI Where do you get those shogi pieces from... please reply
in dire need of new pieces
Y is it chinese letters, when it is a japanese game?
03:31 don't get it, isn't the "pawn" supposed to be the letter "to"? と
any chance you get one with pictures? :D
I think that と is the cursive form of 止. Tell me if I'm wrong.
i got interested in this game because shikamaru too, so thank him, gotta ask my parents to buy this for me
Wow, where did all these people come from, all of a sudden?
This guy is a fucking hero!
shikimaru is awesome he's the reason i wanna play shogi but av been a chess player since before i saw naruto
I have a question, who gets first move when you start playing?.?
wait, why are the characters chinese if the game is japanese?
aslo, these look like some quality shogi pieces and board, very beautiful. do you know any good online shops? all I can find are crappy sets on amazon
+brunosupertramp1 hello friend, the japanese language is composed of chinese characters, some of the characters they use were taken from the chinese language a long time ago (-1400 if im not wrong), so even though they're from china originally, they're part of the jp language, they are called "kanji" 漢字 literally chinese letters(characters)
+TheSimslash oh i see. interesting :)
thanks for teaching shogi
Where do you buy these shogi pieces ?
That's so funny same here. Though I want to play because of the strategy involved.
ｗｗｗ . tonan . jp / moji / 10tokin / index . html
when you say this is cursive are you saying that it is Hirigana?
It was lesson#27
Also where could i buy a international set? i can't find one.
what happened to your old pieces? You threw them away?
obrigado por ensinar shogi
Where does one find these single character pieces?
@Furral never mind... it's the new youtube layout, it's confusing me.