Shogi... The Art of War And Changing Sides

Today I was going to talk about something that I wish I could talk about a whole heap more. Shogi. Now, for those that don't know, Shogi (将棋) is the Japanese Chess. And the analogy to Chess is very good; at least in most ways. As with International Chess, the goal of the game is to checkmate your opponent's King piece using a turn-based sequence of moves. Unlike Chess however, you don't have a "white" and "black" set of pieces... for reasons I'll explain later... but rather you have pieces facing different directions. The pieces have a very close resemblance to those used in International Chess as well.... I will very briefly describe (where I've included the abreviated names and kanji):

Reigning King, or ō (王) and the Challenging King, gyoku (玉) : moves 1 adjacent square in any direction

 The Rook or hisha (飛)  : moves any number horizontally or vertically

The Bishop or kaku (角) : moves any number diagonally in any direction

The Gold Generals kin (金) : moves 1 adjacent square except diagonally backwards

The Silver Generals, gin (銀) : moves 1 adjacent square forward and diagonally backwards

The horsed knight or keima (桂) : moves 2forward + 1 left or right

The Lance or kyō (香) : moves any number of squares forward only (to the first obstruction)

The Pawn or foot soldiers, fu (歩) : moves 1 square forward only.

Shogi board in the starting position

Opponent pieces are captured by landing on them - however, this is where the first real differences comes in to the game. Unlike western Chess where captured pieces amount only to a score - in Shogi, the captured pieces can be re-used (or dropped back on the board) by the capturing king. In other words, the more you capture, the stronger your force. Now whilst this might suggest that wholesale capturing of pieces is the best strategy, it isn't. Indeed more times than not, it's the giving away of pieces in order to displace your enemy that wins the day... as the end-game is often a hectic orgy of attack and counter-attack with both sides trading pieces in a checking contest. In this case you also have to be very careful what pieces you sacrifice as they may be the very pieces that your opponent requires to win! It's because of the ability to drop your opponent's piece that all pieces look the same.

The limitation on drops is that the dropped piece must have a legal move available for it (e.g. pawns can't be dropped at the final row), they cannot produce an immediate checkmate, and for pawns you can't drop them on the same column (file) as another unpromoted pawn. Drops are a critical part of the game, and the key feature that distinguishes it from international chess and which makes it so much more demanding. And exciting.

On an historical note - the uniqueness of drops in Shogi I believe reflects a fundamental difference between Japan and the international chess communities. Japanese warfare has always been largely clan based throughout it's history (being largely internal in focus), and is therefore very much dependent on the relationships between clans that can span centuries. Loyalties changed in a much more complex way than perhaps was often seen in the west, and this dynamism is nicely reflected in the drops system.

Now talking about promotion... when a pawn reaches the final row in Chess it can be promoted... whereas in Shogi, when a piece (except the King or Gold General) reach only the last three rows (the promotion zone) they can be promoted. The hisha and kaku are promoted to the dragon king or ryū (竜) and dragon horse or uma (馬) respectively which retain their powers plus gain the power to move 1 square in any direction. All other pieces are promoted to an equivalent power of a Gold General. The Silver General becomes (全) , the Knight becomes (今), the Lance becomes (仝) where these can all be called nari which means to have grown or be promoted. The Pawn becomes (と) and is known simply as to. Promotion is purely voluntary - and in some cases such as the Silver, you may chose not to promote it in order to retain the diagonal backwards mobility. The promoted pieces are turned over to reveal the promoted kanji.

Example of "promoted" pieces which are turned over

One of the variants of shogi is known as tsumeshogi (詰将棋) which revolves around identifying how to achieve checkmate within a certain number of moves. In this case, the board only has those pieces that are important to the solution, already assembled in a particular pattern. The single player must then move his first and subsequent attacking moves into checking positions such that opponent must always be moving to escape check. The player must be able to identify which placements would result in checkmate in the shortest number of turns and resulting in no pieces remaining in their hands (including captured pieces).

Example of a tsumeshogi problem

One of the many difficulties in getting into a hobby like shogi is that it's hard to find English books that really allow you to get into it. They tend to either be too simplistic or too complicated (assuming at least a high level of understanding of chess). There are a number of books, but the Art of Shogi by Tony Hosking (below) is a good one. The other often quoted book is Shogi for Beginners by John Fairbairn (though I found this one to be written in a slightly less easy to read style).

On a personal level, Shogi was one of the things that was a good bonding point between myself and T-chan's father (who was really into Shogi). He took on the job of trying to teach me how to play... a challenge given my very limited Japanese. Still we managed ok. However, the hardest thing has been that there's no one really to play with back here in Adelaide when I came back... so my ability to learn properly was limited to playing against the computer (using Japanese software). That's a pretty bad way of learning as you don't improve by observing good play - only by trial and error. I have to admit that over the last few years since L-kun was born I haven't been keeping up with Shogi at all which is a big shame.

As I write this... I can't help but feel regret at not having been more dedicated... and that I've slowly forgotten most of the skills. I think it's time to re-invest the time.

Happy New Year 2011... Note the Differences

Well - it's a little on the late side, but I finally managed to get myself in front of a computer to blog... it's been about a week since I last really did anything... and that's been a good thing. No offence to my 0.75 readers, but, it's nice to spend a little time doing other things as well as blogging. Like enjoying time spent with the family (or even enjoying time with myself... though that doesn't quite sound right now that I've written it).

New Years was (despite every early indication) was a VERY HOT AFFAIR here in Adelaide. Well, New Years Eve was at least. It was forecast to be about 41 degrees here in Adelaide (downgraded from an earlier forecast of 43). In fact, such was the heat that much of the state was in a "catastrophic fire warning" condition... which basically meant that people were advised to evacuate to major population centres. We have these sorts of days every now and again each summer... but the evacuation thing is relatively new (following the horrible fire-storm known as Black Saturday that went through just outside of Melbourne in 2009 that resulted in 173 people being killed). It was a stark reminder in this time of parties and excess that we live in a sometimes dangerous environment. Indeed, there was even speculation that the fireworks in the city were going to be cancelled this year due to the fire threat.

Of course - to a 3yo, none of that matters. The only thing that matters is that he can finally try out his new pool that he's been hanging out to use since Santa-san brought it a week ago. 41 degrees... excellent pool weather.

Actually New Years Day for our family is not generally one that is associated with "fun"... let me explain.

You see, in Japan they have a tradition (perhaps it's not that common these days) known as osouji (basically, the cleanup). Traditionally, the end of the year is marked by cleaning your house of dirt and dust (and in our case, clutter) to welcome in the New Year with clean house, and clean hearts.... the latter provided by a little bit of elbow-grease, combined with some sweat and tears. Strange as it may seem... this is one tradition that really resonates with me... it's a great way of bringing the family together and making cleaning the house a great event.

Normally this hard work finishes in the early evening for us (we normally have a lot of cleaning to do)... and as such we tend to have quiet New Year Eves these days. As we were going celebrate this year over at our friends house (let's call then C&Y) we started our cleaning ritual earlier... with a spot of pool time in the middle. We didn't finish till about 4:30 in the afternoon, and ended up about 30 mins late arriving at our friends house. We had a brilliant evening of home-made yakitori as well as copious amounts other delicious food, and just the odd drink or two...

The thing that L-kun loved however were the sparklers. Now in Japan... summertime is the time for fireworks. And fireworks are readily available to buy pretty well anywhere and everywhere. It's one of the quintessential experiences in any Japanese summer to go out onto the street and light up some fireworks. Well, Australia is a little different... and in South Australia it's actually illegal to buy or use fireworks unless you are a licenced pyrotechnician (or working with a licenced pyrotechnician). Therefore about the only things you legally buy and use are... sparklers.

Having been in Japan, I have to say that I think their laws are most likely too relaxed (when it comes to potentially dangerous materials)... but on the flip-side, Australia takes a far too strict stance. It can  be such a magical experience to do real fireworks - but, you've got to make the best of what you've got... so...  we all enjoyed the sparklers very much.

And L-kun almost made it to midnight as well... at 11:30 he suddenly was struck with the strong urge to do a... well... an early New Year "deposit" would be the polite way of putting it. But alas he insisted on going home to do it (a clever ruse used to get Mum and Dad back home where he promptly jumped into his pyjama's and straight into bed almost in the same stride). 10 mins before midnight, L-kun went to sleep. Thank you Y&C for your delicious food and your great company... and apologies for having to make an early (and unwanted) departure!

The next morning we had another Japanese tradition... mochi. I've talked about mochi in a recent post on my other blog (see here). It's a rice-gruel that's converted into an even thicker gruel paste-based rice-cake. It's a fairly strange creation the first time you eat it... very sticky and chewy. On New Years day, mochi is the traditional dish that's served covered in kinako (a soybean powder) and sugar. It may not look that appealing... but it's actually quite nice once you get used to the texture.

In fact, every year, a handful of Japanese will die from choking on mochi during New Years celebrations. Hmmm... I'm a real bundle of joyful news today... Still, the reason I mention it is that we had to be very careful with L-kun when he was eating it. Kami-kami-gokkun (chew chew swallow). First things first however... he had to get it into his mouth. His chopstick practice seems to be going well (with his brilliant trainer chopsticks, or hashi). Ganbatte L-kun.

And I'm not sure that this is a fair indication of his reaction, but the good thing about L-kun is that he normally reacts fairly clearly when he's eating food. There's often little room for doubt when it comes to whether he likes something. In the case of mochi, he ate it all up...yummy. Actually, he's always loved kinako since he was a baby.

Another tradition in our household is to eat boiled pumpkin... the golden yellow/orange colour also supposedly brings good fortune for money. In our case we seem to be good at generating the "spend money" luck. We are always lucky when it comes to our ability to spend.

Yet another tradition relates to the eating of soba noodles; a dish known on New Years as toshikoshi soba noodles... toshikoshi meaning to jump from one year to the next. The significance is that the long soba noodles are meant to symbolise the wish for a long life. There are however other interpretations about this as well, but I don't know which is the correct one.

Finally, we come to the last of the New Year food traditions... the osechi-ryori (which is a New Years dish, normally served as a bento box). Well - this year we kinda skipped this one tradition and had temaki-zushi (hand-rolled sushi) instead. I have to say, for the three of us, it kinda looked a little bare (but was delish nonetheless). To be honest, both T-chan and I were looking to have a rest. We'd had a busy year in 2010... and were looking to ease ourselves into 2011.

Here's a look at a typical homemade osechi-ryori at T-chan's house from way back in 2005. Hmmm... I think I know which one T-chan would prefer to be eating, but that does look like a lot of hard work.

We can but dream.. or in this case, remember...

The one thing that I didn't mention, because it's not really possible to do here in Adelaide, is the Japanese tradition of joya-no-kane and hatsumōde. The first is the tradition where the local temples will ring their temple bells 108 times (to dispel the 108 earthly desires... ah... how many now...?). The second is known as the first shrine visit of the year... note joya-no-kane is a Buddhist tradition whereas hatsumōde is really a Shinto tradition. I understand that sometimes people will go to a Buddhist temple for hatsumōde as well. Unfortunately, we have no Japanese temples or Shrines in Adelaide... so our New Years Day is generally spent on family activities... this year it was called relaxing at home!

Speaking of this year... it's the year of the rabbit...the previous the year of the tiger. So if you were born in 1999, 1987, 1975 (and so on in intervals of 12)... you are all supposed to have particularly auspicious year this year. Unless of course you live in fox country or somewhere (like Australia) which has the calicivirus (which is deadly to rabbits). In this case, if you actually are a rabbit... it might not be a good year at all.

And this brings up another bizarre contradiction about Japan... desipite the fact that the Japanese New Year is most definitely the 1st of January (since the Meiji era) - they still consider the Chinese zodiac for their yearly  meanings. Japan can be so western and yet simultaneously remain so eastern. This contradiction is perhaps at the heart of modern Japanese life.

So that ends my rather belated post on New Years. So, as is the traditional saying in Japan:

akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (Happy New Year) ; and

kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu (I hope we can have a good relationship this year)

And thank you for everyone that has been reading this blog (all 0.75 of you)... and also thank you to all of you  who have been entertaining me over the last year as well with your own great blogs. Hope to see more of you in the coming year!

Note the Differences - Christmas Time

Actually... Christmas is actually a big event in Japan, but not necessarily for the reasons that you might think. Firstly, Japan has a very small proportion of Christian followers (<1% by most reckoning... but that's still over 1 million people in total). Secondly, Christianity has seen many purges from the country over the centuries, and has to some extent persisted by not being overt in nature. Finally, as is often the way in Japan, the external trappings of Western Christianity have to a large extent been subverted for commercial and social enrichment (e.g. faux church white weddings).

It is the image of Christmas that is most appealing... and can you blame them? It is an image that the West has developed (and commercialised) for centuries... culminating in the Coca-Cola Santa folk-lore image of the 1930's. When we look at Christmas in Japan, it's like looking through a secular mirror of what our own Christmas is becoming, if not become. Yet, there's more to Christmas in Japan than the trees, decorations, Santa and presents...

Christmas in Japan is first and foremost a time of romance... and to be without a date on Christmas Eve is to have suffered one of the great social evils. Well - it might not be that bad, but it's close for the youth of Japan. In fact it's second only to Valentine's Day in terms of romantic overtures and commercialisation. This goes especially for single women...

The other odd thing about Christmas that is often talked about is the Japanese pseudo-tradition of eating KFC for Christmas dinner - and supposedly many Japanese pre-order months in advance to avoid disappointment. The odd thing was that when staying in Japan for Christmas with T-chan's family, we also had KFC (which I thought a little odd at the time), but they just assumed that this was their family thing to do. I've read that up to 1/3 of Japanese families partake of this tradition. KFC first came to Japan in 1970, yet, by 1974 the tradition of  "Christmas Chicken" had supposedly started in one of the first restaurants (in Aoyama).

Nowadays the dominance of KFC, thanks to it's Santa-like Colonel Saunders is unassailable (for now).

The other tradition is of course the Christmas Cake. Unlike the traditional fruit-cake/pudidngs that often adorn our tables in the Australia, the Japanese Christmas Cake is an extravagant affair... well, then again, most cakes are in Japan. The cakes themselves are often just sponge cakes, with strawberry and cream toppings. Sadly, single women in Japan always get it hard - and traditionally when they reached over 25 years of age and were still single, they were referred to as "Christmas Cakes"... which like their real counter-parts must be heavily discounted from the 25th in order to sell. Thankfully those days are gone (are they T-chan?)

And the other thing that is becoming more popular in Japan is the Western Santa Claus... such as our cold Sapporo friend here, photographed in Odori Kouen in very cold conditions)

Actually, Santa's with real beards are becoming especially popular these days, and many foreigners will earn a tidy sum coming to Japan to be the department store Santa. And they can be the most unlikely people.. ever heard of Santa living in Okinawa?

In the West, Christmas is generally associated with spending time with the family, and yet this is traditionally associated with New Years in Japan... but I'll post more about that shortly. The important thing for our family is however that Christmas is almost always a reminder of separation for us. No matter which way it turns out, either my wife or I will be missing our family over Christmas. And this is a common thing for many people sharing international weddings. Of course, whilst T-chan has no Japanese family here in Australia, she is part of a broader family of fellow emigré that spend their Christmas here in Australia with their partner's families.

Over this Christmas break, think back to your own traditions and the way you have spent the time leading up to and including the day. For most of us, a large amount of time is spent worrying about presents to buy, looking for presents to buy, or wondering how we might be able to pay for the presents we've just bought... let alone what presents we will ourselves get. It's good to take some time out from that rat-race and reflect on what Christmas (even from a secular point of view) means to our modern international societies.

So, as the Japanese say "Merii Kurisumasu", or メリークリスマス! And if you have your own Japanese Christmas traditions to add to the list, please drop me a line or send a comment.

Note the Differences - Taking Shoes Off

Well today I was going to start looking at some of the small (and perhaps not so small) differences that I've noticed when it comes to being married with a Japanese. These aren't in any particular order of importance.

The first difference I'll talk about is shoes... and by that I really mean the wearing of shoes inside. Well, it's not like the Japanese are the only people not to wear shoes inside. It’s a common thing in many asian countries, and not uncommon elsewhere. In Australia however, my experience is that it’s much more common not to worry about taking shoes off. I certainly came from a background where you didn't need to -  though that didn’t mean we walked mud in everywhere. Common sense did prevail.

Whilst it may not be uncommon to take shoes off everywhere, in Japan, it's a must. Definitely not a nicety. I have wondered at various points about why it is so important in Japan. Of course, it almost certainly comes from the realities of the climate in Japan and the historical way of life:

+ Japan being a very wet (muddy) country;

+ the use of tatami mats  (and wooden floors which can be readily scratched);

+ the custom of sitting on the floor not to mention sleeping on the floor using futons.

All of these things have lead to a cultural sensitivity to what you walk around with inside. It just made good old plain sense. 

However, a lot of those reasons are no longer relevant... Yet this cultural trait lives on. My theory is that it all goes back to two very fundamental Japanese thoughts. A Japanese (Shinto-like) concept of cleanliness (or purity) and a social concept of inside and outside grouping/living. The view of what is clean and unclean is ancient in the Japanese belief system; along with the idea that walking in the uncleanliness from outside is akin to defilement.

I found it quite amusing on my first trip to Japan when I discovered that I not only had to take my shoes off going inside, but that I needed to make another change when going to toilet... with another special set of slippers kept at the toilet threshold. The toilet represents another form of uncleanliness - and that has nothing to do with whether you leave the seat up or not.

The second, related area was that of the concept of the inside as compared to the outside. There is the concept is known as uchi/soto (uchi - inside; soto - outside). Normally this refers to the distinctions between groups of people (i.e. you should be very polite to those outside your group, but humble to those inside your group... and in this case the Kanji for uchi/soto is actually read as naigai). This can also be extended to inside and outside perspectives to your house... leading to an inside and outside world. The act of crossing the threshold and having to take your shoes off is an act of entering the private, inside world - a place (or refuge) where one can relax and be oneself. Two very different worlds.

Note - I have to be a little careful here.. we sometimes can over-think the conceptual underpinnings of Japanese culture to the point of it being very un-Japanese. And, in the sage words of my wife, T-chan, when asked about the origin of taking shoes when entering into a house... "But it's dirty!" For the Japanese, perhaps there need not be any more explanation required. Another difference is that Japanese often don't look too deeply into why they do what they do. They just do.

To forget to take one's shoes off, is to have enacted one of those unfortunate social blunders that all foreigners must do at one point or another. I'm sure there is shock and dismay in the hearts of all Japanese when someone (a well meaning son-in-law for example) momentarily forgets the rules. I can still remember on my first trip to Japan... I accidentally went to step through the threshold of a temple building with shoes still firmly attached to feet... the monk left me without any uncertainty about that. You learn quickly.

Admittedly, it can get quite tricky when you go out shopping, and you want to try on some clothes. You get to the change room... and you have to take your shoes off - because you are now entering the "inside". As you need to take your shoes off sometimes when changing clothes, this by default means everyone takes their shoes off. Often you need to be on the lookout for different levels (a raised floor etc) that might denote a transition... oh, and seeing a pile of shoes on the ground is a good hint as well. It gets even more strange when you see tradespeople coming into houses - or even furniture removalists - having to take their shoes off. I've even heard tell that burglars will even instinctively take their shoes off. It's just so in-grained socially, cultural and perhaps even morally.

So how did this impact us all the way over here in Adelaide, Australia? Well – there’s the adjustment that we needed to make to our house. Japanese homes typically have an area known as the genken, which is where shoes are removed and stored. Australian homes don’t. Also shoe storage is not something that you will find in most houses here… or for that matter, in most shops. So finding a shoe cupboard was a challenge when we bought our home. IKEA to the rescue. They may not be that stylish, and they may not be that big... but they are at least something.

So we may not have a genken in our home, but at least we've got somewhere to put our shoes. By and large, the no-shoes rule is followed in our house. Tradespeople here will often not defer to our wishes... Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) regulations require appropriate personal protection in the workplace - and that includes appropriate footwear. It's interesting how a cultural perspective will change views on something as basic as OH&S. And T-chan always has to suck-in-her-breath when she sees it... every fibre of her body wants to complain.

The reality is that shoe removal (whilst not compulsory) is a generally something that you accept when you marry a Japanese... and at the end of the day, it does pretty well make a whole heap of sense anyway.

On a side note - our family often muse about the somewhat inconsistent logic of having a no-shoe policy AND at the same time allowing our cat to go in and outside as he pleases. Logic, my 0.75 readers, has nothing to do with it.

Japanese Lesson

Shoes - kutsu (靴)

Inside - uchi (内)

Outside - soto (外)

Note: Special case for the inside-outside groupings of people:  naigai (内外)