Because of my surname and my affinity for board games, I would have deeply enjoyed to take the shogi 'king' piece as my avatar. Let me explain to you why this is not possible.

In my picture you see the pieces in question, to the left the white, to the right the black king piece. What tells them appart? That little ` on the right side of the big sign in the upper area of the piece.

The right piece is called gyukushō, the jewel general. He is the challenger, the usurper, as I like to picture him sometimes, which is why he has the first move. But as you can see, he is indeed not called king, but general. Traditionally he is the lower ranked player, so in an attempt to explain the meaning, he is the second among leaders of armies.

The left piece, the reigning champion, the higher ranked player, is actually translated the king general. If you grasped the sense of the black piece, than you can see that it also doesn't call it king, but only best among present leaders of armies. The prefixed ō- can be translated as king, but also as 'great', though great general didn't seem to hit the spot.

And all this struggle, where we western players enjoy to call our key pieces 'king', is for a very elemental reason. The true king, the shogun, has no place on the battlefield. He is to reign the land, and his affairs and interests have to be sharply separated from the mortal choices of battlefield tactics. It's not just to value or caress the shogun, but because leading a country and leading an army are two entirely different matters. May it be the king who declares war and publicly arranges the critical strikes, the one who actually orchestrates war ought never be distracted by lucid things as diplomacy.

I would like to go on at length about the importance of this point, but that is out of bonds. There is plenty material about this matter to be found in Military Methods by Sun Pin, even Aids to Scouting by Robert Baden-Powell, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, and many more.

It is for these reasons, that it is a wonderful piece with interesting meaning, yet inadequate to serve as an avatar in reference to my surname.


For those interested, the one signed piece across the board is a 'pawn'. It is called fuhyō, meaning foot soldier, and promotes to tokin, the gilded one.