No. 123, February 2002｜National Diet Library

National Diet Library Newsletter

No. 123, February 2002

Selections from NDL Collection

Okada Kenshu Collection:
A Collection of Shogi (Japanese Chess) Books

"Shogi" is a board game involving two players and 40 pieces; commonly referred to in the West as "Japanese Chess". The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king. There are many similarities to chess in the way the pieces move, but what is decidedly different is that a captured piece can be used again as one's own piece. There are said to be about 20 million "Shogi" players in Japan, or one person out of every six. (from The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan)

The Okada Kenshu Collection is one of the great collections of Shogi books.

Seiyo shogi shinan

Seiyo Shogi shinan (How to play chess) by Kikka senshi (1869)

Okada Kenshu (1835-1897) served Kaga-han (Kaga Domain, now Ishikawa Prefecture) and his hobby was playing Shogi and collecting books on Shogi. In 1899, his son, Okada Jotaro, donated Kenshu's collection of Shogi books to the Imperial Library (predecessor of the NDL) by his father's will. We do not designate these books as a special collection. But we customarily call it the "Okada Kenshu Collection" Every books of this collection has a stamp that says "Donated by Okada Jotaro".

Igo shogi bunkashi ten

In 1988, the NDL held an exhibition "Igo Shogi bunkashi ten" (Exhibition of Igo or Go, a Japanese board game played with small black and white pieces, and Shogi). Many books from the Okada Kenshu Collection were displayed in this exhibition and the existence of this collection came to public attention.

Igo Shogi bunkashi ten (1988)

Shogi renzyushu

Shogi renzyushu (Records of Shogi games) by Ohashi Socho (1816)

Shigi hayageiko

Shogi hayageiko (Quick Shogi exercises) by Ohashi Sokin (1886)

Shogi hayashinan

Shogi hayashinan (Quick lessons in Shogi) (1891)

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