Tendo shogi pieces

Tendo City sits in the central Yamagata Basin, and its shogi-piece industry is described as roughly nine-tenths or more of Japan’s national total. That scale is visible in the townscape: the JR Tendo Station area has a shogi museum, sidewalks and utility poles carry tsume-shogi, Maizuruyama has a shogi memorial tower, and roadside objects, bridge railings, post boxes, and manholes carry shogi-piece motifs.

The motifs stay close to play. KOMAP walking routes, shop names, and signs place kings, piece shapes, and board language at walking speed, while spring human shogi moves the pieces and players outdoors. Tendo shogi pieces are wooden and lacquered craft objects, and they are also everyday shapes repeated across the city.

Shogi-piece making entered local life in Tendo during the Edo period. Before the Oda domain moved to Tendo, production had already been carried out in Takahata and was later brought to Tendo; the craft’s local path therefore runs through place names, domain movement, and handwork.

In the late Edo period, Yoshida Daihachi, an official of the Tendo Oda domain, encouraged retainers facing hardship to make shogi pieces. That background ties the object beside the board to a concrete line of work: retainers carving, writing, and finishing wooden pieces for income. Later successor training, workshop communities, and festival demonstrations continue the same practical skills of engraving knives, lacquer, and handwritten characters.

Oshigoma are pieces stamped directly onto the wooden body and are associated with beginning play. Kakigoma are written directly on the wood in lacquer; both kaisho and sosho scripts are used, and Tendo’s long-running form is the sosho-style written piece, including types such as Genpei pieces and Sakiwake pieces.

Horigoma are carved with an engraving knife, with machine-carved and hand-carved forms and varieties such as kurobori, namibori, chubori, and jobori. Hori-umegoma are carved pieces whose grooves are filled with lacquer in stages until the letter sits level with the wood, giving a smooth feel in the hand. Moriagegoma add raised lacquer letters with a maki-e brush and appear in professional title-match settings.

The wood changes the color, grain, and feel of a piece. Hon-tsuge from Mikurajima in Tokyo or Satsuma in Kagoshima is used for high-grade pieces; Siamese boxwood from Thailand and Cambodia is used for mid-grade pieces; mayumi, hakuunboku, urihadakaede, and itaya maple connect popular to mid-grade pieces with woods from Tohoku and other areas.

Grain gives each small object a different face. Straight grain, figured grain, and flecked patterns sit around characters such as king, rook, bishop, and pawn. When lacquer fills a carved groove or rises from the surface under a maki-e brush, the gap between the wood and the black character becomes a detail the fingers can read.

The Yamagata Shogi Piece Cooperative brings together workshops, shops, and individual piece makers. Its community includes Horikoshi in Koji, Nakajima Seikichi Shoten in Tazurumachi, Hishinuma Osho Seisakusho in Kitame, Takeuchi Oshodo in Mikkamachi, and Eishundo in Kamatahoncho, along with makers listed as raised-lacquer specialists, carving specialists, and writing specialists in Tendo, Higashine, Yamagata, Nakayama, and Kahoku.

Successor training keeps those roles from remaining only on a roster. At Mori-na Tendo, people who have completed training demonstrate making techniques, and the Tendo Shogi Piece Festival includes skilled demonstrations and hands-on written-piece programs. Wood bodies, lacquer, engraving knives, and brushes are still shown in public settings.

The shogi museum beside JR Tendo Station opened in 1992 and covers shogi’s roots, the history of the game, why Tendo became a shogi-piece town, human shogi, and title matches. The museum places one small piece between play, city life, and workshop practice, making the station area an entry point into wood and lacquer lettering.

Play and display carry the pieces beyond the board’s edge. Spring human shogi stages live pieces outdoors, and the Tendo Shogi Exchange Room and local events keep games in everyday circulation. Decorative hidari-uma pieces and the newer MAIZURU decorative piece put the piece shape, lacquer letters, and design into settings of celebration, display, and city identity.