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@Photo credits: Assist Biz
Historical Background
Historical Background
Tendo City in Yamagata Prefecture is famous for producing pieces of Shogi, one of the most popular board games in Japan. Almost 90 percent of Shogi pieces are produced by the Tendo Shogi industry. Not only the production but also events related to Shogi and town revitalization using Shogi games.
The Origin of Shogi
Do you know the Shogi, a board game in Japan? The system is similar to chess but the appearance, the name, and the role of each piece are different from other board games in the world. There are 8 types of pieces: Fu (歩), or pawns, Kyosha (香車), or Lances, Keima (桂馬), or nights, Gin (銀), or silvers, Kin (金), or golds, Hisha (飛車), or Look, Kaku (角), or Bishop, and Ou (王) and Gyoku (玉), or King. It is said that Shogi is from Chaturanga, an ancient board game in Northern India. It is unclear when it was shared in Japan, but some Shogi artifacts from the ruins of the eleventh century were found. Japanese Shogi has undergone a unique development, unlike other types of Shogi in China and Korea.
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Tendo Samurai's Hand Crafts to Mass Manufactured Products
Oda clan who became the leader of Tendo brought the technique of Shogi craft. In the late Edo period, Tendo clansmen suffered from poverty. Then, Ohachi Yoshida, one of the clan's headers started to promote clansmen to produce the Shogi piece craft as a countermeasure for its financial crisis. In the Meiji period, the procedure to make pieces were still all by hands and it took a lot of time. From the end of the Meiji era to the beginning of the Taisho era, these procedures were gradually mechanized. During WW II, demand for Shogi pieces increased a lot as a comforting present for soldiers. However, Tendo was slow to respond to the decline in the Shogi population due to the spread of video games in the 1950s, and the image of Tendo as a producer of popular pieces was negatively affected because of the first oil crisis in 1973 led to a shift in the public's needs toward high quality. Today, only few people can craft shogi pieces by hand through the most traditional crafts style.
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Characteristics
Characteristics
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Minase Style, one of the traditional Calligraphy styles used as Shogi letters
There are mainly 5 types of pieces: stamping (oshigoma), writing (kakigoma), carving (horigoma), carving and filling (horiumegoma), laquware heaping up (moriagegoma). Stamping is the most popular style and relatively cheaper than other types. Writing has a block script version and a cursive version, and the Tendo style uses the latter version. Carving is done by mechanic systems today, but handcraft carving requires experienced skills. Carving and filling also uses lacquer to fill the letters on pieces, but the amount of lacker to fill in is smaller than the heap-up style. heap-up, or moriage style, is expensive and used in matches between the highest-level Shogi players.
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Tendo Shogi Museum
You can learn the history of Shogi craft industry.
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Street Shogi Puzzles
Walking the street in the Tendo city, you can challenge these puzzles.
@Photo credits: Tendo Sightseeing
Human Shogi
In the Spring Festival in Tendo, people play a large scale Shogi, using people as pieces!
To know more!
To know more!
An Official Video about Shogi Culture
Tendo City has a unique event related to Shogi Production: Ningen Shogi meaning Human Shogi. With the introduction of this big event, this short video tells us how Shogi craftsmen think and are motivated about producing them.
(Japanese Only)
Succeeding Shogi Culture
This video shows us interviews to Tendo people about the succession of Shogi craft techniques and culture.
(Japanese Only)
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