Floor Shogi Boards

As mentioned in the other thread about table shogi boards (lishogi.org/forum/general-shogi-discussion/table-shogi-boards) I have wanted to create a thread to share floor shogi board (or "shogi board with legs") images, so here it is. :D

This is my 3 sun (9cm) shin-kaya shogiban from Aoyama Gobanten, purchased in mid 2020.







The pieces are old (boxwood?) from another floor shogiban I purchased together with an old slightly warped board from Japantown, San Francisco before then.

I hope to see what others have, too!

11

Beautiful board and piece set!

1

Great set, @ohithere. It sounds like you aren't sure the pieces are boxwood. The grain looks right. In my single experience with boxwood it's extremely hard with decent weight despite the tiny piece size. Fantastic material.

My floor board recently acquired:

I wasn't confident sourcing komadai so I made platforms to raise tabletop komadai I already had. I thought I may as well display two other piece sets I have. One really old one and one made of "axe fold" wood which is sold as a cheaper alternative to boxwood. I personally don't think it compares but it's nicer than maple.





I gambled buying this floor board. It's a nice piece of wood but the finish is poor so I am attempting to refinish it without disturbing the lines.

2

That board has a beautiful color, @FrostedNuke! These photos make the grain look awfully interesting, too. What wood is it and what's wrong with the finish??? I love it.

Excellent work on the extended platforms, too, I'm jealous. Right now I'm mostly studying with my floor shogiban (replaying games, following along with books, etc.) and I use the little table board holders from the other thread. :P

@ohithere the wood is some kaya lookalike but not the real thing. So probably some kind of spruce. The finish was a bit splotchy looking in the light and had a slight stickiness. It also looked a bit grimy and sunburnt. Isopropyl alcohol did the best job of dissolving whatever was on there. Didn't work perfectly but it's an improvement after some linseed oil/wax.

1

Where did you get it? Also miwagobanten?

Current action shot. 🤣

@ohithere no I got it on eBay used. It's just old but the previous owner clearly never used it. Probably was just a decoration. The Japanese written inside the lid has a date, 1997. The lines are hand lacquered. Decent piece, I am just less a fan of the orange color. It looked yellow in the listing.

What book is that?

The book is Habu's Words. I'm going through it for a second time and hoping things stick a bit better. ;)

I thought the formatting looked familiar. I am working through it slowly myself. Haven't gotten very far, still getting used to reading notation quickly.