A History of Tsume Shogi: Shogi Muso and Shogi Zuko
Hiroki Obara · Developer
In Japan, November 17 is Shogi Day. According to the Japan Shogi Association’s history of shogi (in Japanese), the eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, made it a rule in 1716 that a shogi game be played once a year in front of the shogun, on November 17. These games were known as “castle shogi” (御城将棋). The association has kept the date as Shogi Day since 1975.
The two classic tsume shogi collections, Shogi Muso and Shogi Zuko, come from that same world: the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan and paid stipends to a few shogi players and their families.
The shogi houses and their presented collections
In 1612 the shogunate began paying a stipend to a shogi player of the Ohashi family and to a go player, among others. In time these players called themselves iemoto, head families of their art, and held the official posts for shogi and go.
Through the Edo period the title of Meijin, the top title in shogi, passed only within three houses: the main Ohashi house, a branch Ohashi house and the Ito house. Once a player became Meijin, he kept the title until he died.
A collection of tsume shogi problems was called a zushiki (図式). The second Meijin, of the Ohashi house, presented one to the shogunate, Shogi Zushiki, with one hundred problems. In it he set down the rules on illegal moves in writing for the first time. The conventions that composed problems follow today are in The Finer Rules of Tsume Shogi.
Some problems came from the shoguns’ side as well. The tenth shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, who ruled from 1760 to 1786, was so keen on shogi that he called himself seventh dan, and he wrote a problem collection, Gyosen Shogi Kokaku.
Ito Sokan and Ito Kanju
The association’s list of Meijin (in Japanese) gives the seventh Meijin as the third Ito Sokan. He held the title from 1728 to 1761 and took it at 23.
The name Ito Sokan appears three times on that list: the first Sokan was the third Meijin, the third Sokan the seventh, and the sixth Sokan the tenth. The Sokan in this post is the third, the seventh Meijin.
Ito Kanju is on the same list as a player who was granted the Meijin title (贈名人). The year given is 1760, with the note “42 (age at death)”.
Kanju was Sokan’s younger brother, and Sokan later adopted him as his heir (Japanese Wikipedia, “伊藤宗看 (3代)”). In 1734 (Kyoho 19), Sokan presented the shogunate with a collection of 100 tsume shogi problems. Its original title is Shogi Zushiki (象戯図式), it is also called Shogi Tsukurimono (象戯作物), and today it is known as Shogi Muso. Kanju’s Shogi Zuko, originally titled 象棋百番奇巧図式, was presented in the third month of 1755 (Horeki 5) (Japanese Wikipedia, “将棋無双” and “将棋図巧”).
Their collections in library catalogues
The two collections are read today as Shogi Muso and Shogi Zuko. The publisher Heibonsha prints both in one volume, Tsumu ya tsumazaru ya: Shogi Muso, Shogi Zuko, under the names of Ito Sokan and Ito Kanju, most recently in its Heibonsha Library series in 2020.
Library catalogues also list Edo-period collections under the two men’s names.
- The National Diet Library holds a 1970 facsimile of Shogi Tsukurimono by the third Ito Sokan. The catalogue record says the title in the preface is Shogi Zushiki and that it reproduces the edition of Kyoho 19, which is 1734. It gives the author’s dates as 1706 to 1761.
- The Date collection of the Miyagi Prefectural Library has Shogi Hyakuban Kiko Zushiki by Ito Kanju, dated 1755 in its catalogue record. The National Archives of Japan also has a printed copy with the same title from the Horeki era, once held by the shogunate’s own academy.
- The National Diet Library Digital Collections has a printed Shogi Zuko by Ito Kanju, open to read online.
Shogi Zuko’s 611-move problem and the Kanju Prize, named after him, are covered in Practical vs Composed Tsume Shogi.
Into the newspapers
From 1843, late in the Edo period, the Meijin title stayed vacant. When the shogunate fell in 1868, the three shogi houses lost their income. In 1879 the eighth Ito Soin of the Ito house became the eleventh Meijin, and he was the last Meijin to come from the old houses (Japan Shogi Association, history of shogi, part 2, in Japanese).
The first tsume shogi problem in a newspaper appeared on July 17, 1881, in the Ukiyo Shinbun. It was taken from a book printed in 1703. From February 9, 1896, the Yorozu Choho ran tsume shogi as a series, set every Sunday by a player who later became the twelfth Meijin.
Problems that had been presented to the shogunate in the Edo period were, by the Meiji era, printed in newspapers. Today the association’s website has a daily tsume shogi page with one problem for each date. How a composed problem is put together is shown with a small example in Composing Your Own Tsume Shogi.
Solving tsume shogi in Shogi365
Shogi365 contains tsume shogi from mate in 3 to mate in 9, with 1,000 problems for each length, 4,000 in total. You choose by length.
You solve by playing on the board yourself. Any check, right or wrong, can be played, and the defender replies automatically. If you don’t mate within the move count, the attempt fails, and you can retry up to three times. After solving, the Review button steps through the line from the start position one move at a time.
All problems are free to solve. The app shows ads, and a one-time Remove Ads purchase turns them off. How to use the app is in Getting Started with Shogi365.
