The christmas breaks are always fun, and with it oft comes new
diversions and paths in life. One such was opened to me recently in
the lovely game known as shogi...now of course, i researched the game
and found some very interesting things and am highly anticipating
learning how to play.

However, then i discovered taikyoku shogi and i absolutely fell in
love with the concept of the game, and it hasn't left me in weeks
since i was first introduced in October. So i've come to a decision, i
want a set. Searching on the internet found me absolutely nothing in
the way of actually buying a set...living in south England has its
drawbacks.

So, if you can't buy it, make it...(and even if you can, if you can
make it for cheaper, well...)so i have set out to create my own
Teikyoku shogi set, however the internet is sparce in the actual
specifics of a set itself so i am finding it difficult to locate the
information needed, and hopefully some of you here will be able to
fill me in and offer helpful advice.

Firstly i intend to make a 2 part board, split in the middle and
connected with something resembling piano hinges. The board itself
will be made of a block of (cheap) hard wood, with a small 1/4 inch
upper lip(as a border around the game itself) and a 1/2-3/4 inch lower
lip. Covering this will be a mahogany or oaken veneer, on the top side
cut into squares with a slight gap in the manner reminiscent of fancy
chess boards. A clasp will be attached(or two) to two sides of the
lower lip, so that at the end of play(cough) the pieces may be stored
within the board itself when its folded in half. The issue here is in
knowing to what sizes one would need to make the board, firstly the
size of the squares depends on the size of the pieces, and i intend to
create the pieces to a similar size as standard shogi sets, so
extrapolating from that isn't difficult,(A 9 X 9 board is about
12inches by 12inches by my reckoning)and i estimate that a taikyoku
board will be approximately 4ft by 4ft +/- 1.5inches. I would
appreciate any feedback on this estimation and any measurements of
existing taikyoku boards you know of to confirm that.

For the pieces themselves i had intended on creating them out of
polymer clay using a mold for the shape and size, however replicating
the kanji is currently my biggest issue, having a)never studied them
and b)no real experience with using either polymer clay or painting
onto them. Suggestions on that would be beneficial although the real
problem are the kanji itself.

Is anyone aware of a list i can obtain with all the kanji listed for
Taikyoku shogi along with quantities for the pieces?

Yours sincerely
Djones