There much to be said about objects created from by hand and from natural materials. This entire set is created from natural wood, not plywood. The wood grains are clearly visible on the board. The board is very strong and very sturdy. There is a sliding drawer within the board that houses all the Shogi pieces and an instructional sheet.
The game pieces in the set are also made from natural wood. Some of the pieces contain natural wood grains as well as rings. The writing on the pieces appears to have been written by hand, as some pieces have discolored from someone whipping the ink away to rewrite some characters.
Unfortunately, this set does not come with anything to house the pieces captured by both players during game play.The pieces are made from scrap pieces of wood--the result is one pawn had a distorted shape. Some of the larger pieces are a little wide for the squares on the board.
As for the instructional sheet it does no more than explain the basic rules of Shogi. Matching the pieces to sheet may be confusing to those who cannot read Japanese because the writing in the manual does not match the font use on the actual game pieces--especially for rook, bishop, knight and silver general.
This set gives only the bare essentials needed to play and to learn how to play Shogi. It comes with a sheet explaining the rules, game peices, and a board with a drawer to house all the game pieces. The piece comes with two extra pawns; so the distorted piece may be discarded. Aside from minor issues (a distorted pawn, the writing on the pieces written in a different font and manner than what is written on the sheet, and the size of major pieces being too wide for the squares on the game board) this is a very nice piece. The disappointing thing about this set it that the person who wrote on pieces or made the set did not sign his or her name on the bottom-side of the Jewel (opposing) King; nor did he or she write the font he or she used on the pieces on the bottom-side of the (defending) King.
I bought this shogi for my husband' birthday gift.
My husband and I never played shogi before but, we read the instruction that came with and played a few times.
It's very fun game!
Instruction(Ebglish) shows very basic rules, how to play, how to move pieces and how to read.
Shogi board is not too small and not too big, it was perfect size for just getting started.
We watched a few You Tube videos to get understand more details.
I think shogi pieces are little big, some of them don't fit perfect in the square space.
Every time I place them on the board, I always hit another pieces.
So, you kinda have to fix pieces all the time.
There is a long slide-style box inside the shogi board which you can keep your pieces.
I wish it had both sides separately , so each player can have own box.
But, it has only one long box.
Quality of wood is OK. It'll be nice gift for beginner.
There are two extra pieces for Pawn (Fuhyo).
So far, we really enjoy this product :D
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Bottom line, it meets my needs, and the price was reasonable.
As another reviewer has said, some of the pieces are larger than the squares, but going slightly over the lines isn't really a big problem. Some of the wooden pieces are slightly chipped or flawed (no paint missing it was chipped before painting), and the red ink on the promoted sides seems to be somewhat faded on many of the pieces. One or two of the black-ink sides were slightly smudged.
In short, this is a great set for playing shogi with. Not so much a collector's set to display proudly, but that's not what I got it for.
The one thing that does impress me quality-wise, is the drawer under the board for storing the pieces. It slides in and out easily (from either side), and when sliding in, it smoothly finds its place. It's not too easy to overshoot that place, nor does it jarringly "snap" into place. It just "finds" it.
Following an idea from youtube, I took a sharpie to the pieces, to mark on the corners what the available moves for all the pieces were. Dots for single-square moves, short lines at the edges for distance moves (lance, rook, bishop), and L-shaped hooks at the front for the knights. Hopefully this makes it easier for a new player to join the fun.
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I do have to say that there are a couple of things about this set that I am not fond of. The drawer holding the game pieces has to be pushed through... its not two drawers and there are no pulls. The other draw back is that the pieces themselves are cheap and not the greatest of quality. There is a set of shogi pieces for $8 (http://www.amazon.com/Shogi-Japanese-Pieces-English-Manual/dp/B003M2O1KI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359249964&sr=8-1&keywords=shogi) that are of the same quality. You are essentially paying for the table for the $40.
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I have never played this before and I'm still getting used to the rules but it is very fun to play.
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The table itself is heavy and durable and the colors are clear. However, my 3-year-old grandson was critically injured when this table collapsed and trapped him between the table top and the legs. He was life flighted to the hospital in critical condition due to compression on his chest, causing him to stop breathing. If you still want to buy this product, make sure it is only used with CLOSE adult supervision. Be aware that the table and chair legs do not lock into place when closed, so be sure to store it up and way from where your young child may be tempted to try to set it up alone. Also, if the table or chairs are tipped over, the locks that hold them open and in place do not hold. Serious issues that we learned the hard way. The police and hospital both have reported this problem to the manufacturer.
