Beginner-friendly kanji set (would this idea work?)

I found this posted on reddit:

"I am a beginner shogi player and have a really hard time distinguishing between the different pieces using the Japanese characters since I don't speak the language."

I think learning the kanji should be encouraged instead of using western piece sets. Rather than a solution, I see western set pieces as a possible problem: a person who refuse to learn the kanji won't be able to understand diagrams on Wikipedia articles, shogidb2.com games, YouTube videos and other useful sources that use the original script.

As the above quoted redditor said, telling kanji apart can be hard. This is my idea for a new kanji set: give each different piece a unique color so the new player can associate the moves with colors instead of kanji shapes.

You can see an example here:

imgur.com/a/Q4QKDat

Pieces with the same moves share color, so only eight unique colors will be needed: pawn, bishop, rook, lance, knight, silver general, gold general and king.

Promoted pieces such as 圭, 全, andとshould use the color of 金 (because of their moves). Promoted rooks and bishops can keep their original colors.

What do you think of this method?

I think you are right on target.
Kanji is probably the biggest obstacle for players who are interested in shogi.
That obstacle is the same for Japanese children. (btw, I'm 2 dan though, I am often confused Nari-kyo成香 with Nari-kei成桂.)
So, there are pieces like the one you drew available in Japan (Sota Fujii learned Shogi with it).

m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JZ33r8mrL._AC_.jpg

I don't think there be many people who would disagree with your opinion, so the problem is whether we can get the right designer.
(I once saw a guy on Twitter whose hobby is to design his own Shogi pieces.)

Perhaps enough to add like arrows to the existing piece set?
http://www.shogi.se/rook.png

I'll explain my idea with more detail: I'm talking about colorizing kanji. For example, in this new set:

歩 are yellow
飛 is green
角 is blue
銀 are gray
金 are gold
香 are black
桂 are orange
王 is red

Pieces that can't be dropped to the opponent's last rank promote to gold color (they move like 金) and the other keep the same color.

A set like this would allow the begginer to focus their attention on colors rather than on complex shapes. The beginner will learn the kanji in a slow and passive way, focusing first on color and then on shape.

#2

"I don't think there be many people who would disagree with your opinion, so the problem is whether we can get the right designer."

We don't need a new desing: colorizing one of the already implemented sets on this site would work. I like the ones with the moves under the kanji.

#4 well colors for the promoted pieces to would be great but it would be morehouse pieces by color instead of by the Kanji right?

It is a good idea, I also agree with not using a western piece set. Especially when you are somewhat familiar with the kanji and basic piece movement. But I am also struggling with having 2 castle names (in Japanese and in English), it just gives unnecessary complexity.

It may sound dumb but I have always thought putting the English letter under the single kanji design would be good. e.g. pawn would have a small letter P on it under the usual kanji. when promoted I would just keep the English letter in red. When people ask what the piece is refer to it by the English name beginning with that letter. That is all I did to get a few chess players to agree to try it(along with a lookup sheet of what pieces move in which ways), a lot of potential shogi players are more interested in puzzles/puzzle games than Japanese language.

Perhaps it is not insane to just write the English letter and omit the kanji altogether although this seems somewhat sinful and harder(finding blank pieces of the right shape) than just writing on your pieces in whiteboard marker like I did.

I like the colour Idea but I feel it doesn't work for colour blind and is mostly necessary for pieces that promote to have gold movement e.g. pawn, lance, knight and silver. Most chess players are willing to learn how the pieces move if they can easily distinguish them from one another and recall what they are.