Customer Reviews

Shogi

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Shogi by Cho-Yo.
This is a book about two things: 1. Japanese cultural superiority and, 2. Self-admiration of the author.
What this book is not about is .. you guessed it! - Shogi.

Every non-Japanese shogi player knows: books on shogi are rare. We look for each and every chance to learn more and to read more which is difficult - shogi is not that well known in the West, unfortunately both for shigi and the West. So, when I saw [money] book on shogi I immediately visualized pages and pages of discussions on boats and castles, moving and static rook openings, exqusite tsume etudes, etc. Alas! None of that.
But tons of ranting about Japanese victory in Russo-Japanese war, explained by the author as a result of Russian ignorance rendered in exquisit formulas:
Russia + ignorance (= - knowledge) = Japan + knowledge (= - ignorance)(see p.106).
That Russian ignorance and Japanese knowledge is attributed to the fact that Japanese play shogi and Russians don't.

The book is overloaded with Japanese terminilogy that does not add anything to the reader's understanding of shogi (and I am a former student of Japanese and ancient Chinese languages, so imagine how it will irritate anyone who is not interested in linguistics).
In addition to all that the reader will learn that Abraham was "not an individual person, but a horde of shepherds" of "outcast Brahmans" Indian Brahm - worshippers, that Hebrews are called so because they descend from a guy named Heber, and many other amazing thruths with no respect for any other opinion than author's (p.46).

The book was apparently written right after the end of the Russo-Japanese war (1905) and I have no idea if the author lived long enough to see the Japanese defeat in Manchuria, Khalkhin-Gol, the whole collapse of the Chinese campain, the Battle of Leite, Pacific fiasco of the Japanese fleet and the signing of the capitulation by Emperor Hirohito.
One would wonder if that can be attributed to Japanese stopped playing shogi all of a sudden?

As a lifetime student and admirer of traditional Chinese and Japanese cultures (among other things), Hayan poetry, caligraphy, literature and yes, shogi, I doubt that anyone should spend [money] on this book if his or her goal is to learn shogi, or anything else about things Japanese, for that matter.

However, professional students of Japan and especially of Japanese-Western cultural mentality (I hate this word) will find many fascinating subliminal messages in this book, that are quite unique in the sense that they are also expressed in traditional Japanese shogi terminology.

Alex Chaihorsky
Reno, NV