Shogi pieces: direction, lettering and the reverse face

Kings, rooks, bishops, golds, silvers, knights, lances and pawns have different movements. A piece points towards the opponent. Captured pieces can become the capturing player’s pieces in hand and later return to play, so the same tile is not permanently assigned to one side by colour.

Promotion on the reverse

Promotion, when permitted by the rules, is marked on the reverse. A rook becomes a dragon and a bishop a horse; promoted silver, knight, lance and pawn move like a gold general. Kings and golds remain unpromoted. Turning a piece over makes its promoted status visible.

Rook and dragon movement

A move beginning or ending in the opponent’s camp—the farthest three ranks—normally allows an eligible piece to promote. A piece dropped from the hand cannot be placed already promoted. A rook gives a concrete example: it moves along ranks and files without jumping over other pieces. After promotion to a dragon, it gains a one-square diagonal move as well. The reverse lettering thus records a change in movement. If captured, it returns to its unpromoted identity for use by the other player.

Kaki-goma have lacquer-written characters. Hori-goma have incised lettering; hori-ume-goma fill those incisions with lacquer to a level surface; moriage-goma add raised lacquer lettering. These are related production branches, rather than a sequence every piece must complete. Timber species and script style are separate choices.

Excavated pieces and medieval games

Pieces excavated at the former Kofukuji precinct in Nara were found with a wooden document dated 1058. The date belongs to that associated document. These eleventh-century pieces already had five-sided outlines, but the games played with early pieces were not identical to modern shogi. The early-thirteenth-century Nichureki describes small and large forms; later medieval variants included dai-shogi and chu-shogi, with additional piece types.

Hon-shogi and captured pieces

Modern hon-shogi emerged during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, without older pieces such as the Drunk Elephant. The reuse of captured pieces also developed around this period, although its precise origin remains uncertain. Later craftspeople developed different scripts and lettering techniques, including the Minase calligraphic tradition.

Piece-making preceded the Oda domain’s move to Tendo: retainers had already practised it at Takahata. In late Edo Tendo, Yoshida Daihachi and others encouraged this supplementary work, helping an existing craft expand locally. Specialisation in wooden blanks and lettering followed. Mechanised blank-making expanded from late Meiji into Taisho, and stamped pieces later helped increase supply. Handwritten, carved, filled and raised-letter pieces continued alongside mass production. Tendo shogi pieces received traditional-craft designation in 1996.