Choosing a Tabletop Shogi Board: One-Piece or Joined, How Thick, and Which Komadai Goes With It

If you play shogi sitting on a chair, at a dining table or a desk, the board you want is a tabletop board (takujō-ban, 卓上盤). Legged boards (ashitsuki-ban, 足付盤) are made for playing while seated on the floor, and their height assumes it.

Deciding on “tabletop” is the easy part. After that, Japanese shop listings throw a lot of terms at you: 1.5-sun, 2-sun, hagi, ichimai, masame, shin-kaya. This page goes through them in the order that actually matters when you are choosing, using what Japanese board makers themselves publish.

What a tabletop board is for

Maekawa Kaya Goban-ten, a kaya board specialist, describes the tabletop board simply: 「卓上盤は、主にテーブルで椅子に座って使用します。」 (“Tabletop boards are mainly used at a table, sitting on a chair.”) It adds that they are relatively affordable, light and easy to handle, which suits beginners and anyone who wants to play everyday games without fuss (Maekawa Kaya Goban-ten, “How to choose go and shogi boards”, checked Oct 27, 2026).

The same page lists the whole range of boards in Japan: from simple rubber and folding boards to traditional wooden tabletop and legged boards. This guide is about the wooden tabletop board, but the questions below apply to cheaper boards too.

If you are still deciding between legged and tabletop at all, start with board dimensions in Shogi Board Sizes, and How They Differ From a Go Board.

Step 1: Thickness, graded in sun

What “sun” means

Japanese boards are sold by thickness in sun (寸), a traditional unit. Kyoto Ōishi Tengudō, a long-established Kyoto maker of go and shogi equipment, gives the conversion as 「1寸=10号=3.03cm」: one sun equals ten gō (号) equals 3.03 cm. Thickness is shown either in sun or in gō (Kyoto Ōishi Tengudō, “Reading grades and size labels on go and shogi boards”, checked Oct 27, 2026).

So a “2-sun” board is about 6 cm thick, and a listing that says “20-gō” means the same thing.

What Japanese makers recommend

Maekawa gives the usual tabletop range as 1 to 3 sun: 「卓上盤の厚さは1～3寸（1寸＝約3cm）くらいが一般的です。」 It then sorts buyers like this (Maekawa, checked Oct 27, 2026):

And the trade-off in one line: 「厚みが増すほど重くなりますが、打ち味（指し味）や音が良くなり、風格も備わっていきます。」 (“The thicker the board, the heavier it gets, but the feel and sound of play improve and it gains presence.”)

That gives you a practical way to decide:

• The board will live in a cupboard and come out for each game. Lighter matters. Around 1 to 1.5 sun.
• The board can stay out on a table or shelf. A 2-sun or thicker board starts to give the feel Maekawa calls serious.
• You want the sound above all. Thicker, accepting the weight.

The sun number is a class, not a measurement

Here is something shop listings make clear if you read the specifications line by line. Tengudō publishes measured sizes for its tabletop kaya boards, and three boards sold as “2-sun” are listed at 5.7 cm, 5.9 cm and 6.7 cm thick. A “1.5-sun” board is listed at 4.5 cm and a “3-sun” board at 8.8 cm (Kyoto Ōishi Tengudō, tabletop kaya shogi boards, checked Oct 27, 2026).

In other words, “2-sun” tells you the class of board, not its exact thickness. When you order from abroad, ask for the measured thickness and weight in centimetres and kilograms, especially if you are comparing two boards from different shops.

How heavy

The same listings give weights: the 2-sun boards at 3.7 kg, 4.0 kg and 4.9 kg, and the 3-sun board at 5 kg. The playing surface on all of them is roughly 33 to 34 cm wide and 36 to 37 cm deep. Those are figures for particular kaya boards from one shop; other woods and other boards will differ, but they give you a realistic picture of what you will be lifting.

Step 2: One-piece board or joined board

The next term you will meet is how the board was made from the wood.

• One-piece (ichimai-ita, 一枚板): cut from a single piece of timber.
• Joined (hagi-ban, 接ぎ盤 / ハギ盤): several boards glued side by side.

Maekawa explains the joined board as 「2～5枚程度の木材を横に接ぎ合わせて作ります。」 (made by joining roughly two to five pieces of wood side by side). Because the timber is easier to obtain, the price can be kept down. And on the question every buyer asks: 「一枚板と比べても、打ち味や打音、耐久性などに大きな違いはありません。」 (“Compared with a one-piece board, there is no great difference in feel, sound or durability.”) (Maekawa, checked Oct 27, 2026).

What a one-piece board gives you instead is appearance: the grain and colour run continuously across the surface, with no seams. Among one-piece boards, Maekawa notes that straight-grain (masame) boards come only from large, old logs, which is why they are especially valued and rare.

So the decision is fairly clean:

• You want a board to play on, at a sensible price: a joined board loses nothing that matters at the table.
• You want the board itself as an object, unbroken grain and all: one-piece, and expect to pay for it.

The same logic applies to go boards; there is a longer explanation in One-Piece or Joined Go Board (Ichimai-ita vs Hagi-ban). In Tengudō’s tabletop listings you will see both written out, for example 「2寸柾目（ハギ）」 (2-sun, straight grain, joined) next to 「2寸柾目（一枚物）」 (2-sun, straight grain, one-piece).

Step 3: The wood

Only now does the wood come in. Tengudō sorts board woods into broad classes: 「本榧（最高級）、ヒバ・檜・イチョウ（高級）、新榧・桂（中級）、合成盤（普及品）」 — real kaya at the top; hiba, hinoki and ginkgo as high grade; shin-kaya and katsura as mid grade; composite boards as the popular entry level (Tengudō, checked Oct 27, 2026).

What Maekawa says about the common alternatives (Maekawa, checked Oct 27, 2026):

• Shin-kaya (新榧): despite the name, not kaya at all. 「本榧とは別物の北米から輸入されるスプルース材です。」 — a spruce imported from North America. Large trees, so basically straight grain; whitish in colour (finished with a tint); its working life is said to be shorter.
• Katsura (桂): a deciduous tree, the classic source being Hokkaido. 「打ち味は硬めですが音の響きは悪くありません。」 — firmer under the piece, but the sound is not bad. Its brown colour darkens with the years. Tengudō adds that because thick katsura trees are scarce, katsura boards are almost all cut as flat grain (itame).
• Hiba (ヒバ): bright yellow to pale yellow with fine grain. 「材質は軟らかく打ち味は比較的良いですが、音の響きは控えめで」 — soft, a fairly good feel, but a quieter sound, and somewhat less durable.

For a fuller comparison of woods and how they behave under shogi pieces, see Choosing the Wood of a Shogi Board.

Step 4: Folding boards

Maekawa’s list of board types starts with rubber and folding boards. A folding board hinges in the middle so it can be closed and put away. If storage space is the real limit, a board you can fold and actually take out every day is worth more than a thick board that stays in a cupboard. If the board can stay out, the wooden boards above are the step up.

Step 5: Pieces and the piece stand

A shogi board is not complete without a komadai (駒台), the small stand beside the board that holds the pieces you have captured. Its height has to match the board.

Tengudō is specific about this: 「駒台は将棋盤の厚さ（高さ）によって各寸毎に用意されています。」 — piece stands are made for each board thickness. It lists three kinds (Kyoto Ōishi Tengudō, “Shogi history, komabako and komadai”, checked Oct 27, 2026):

• Four-legged (yagura): for 6, 7 and 8-sun boards
• Single-leg: for 3 to 6-sun boards
• Flat, tabletop type: for 1 to 2-sun boards, mostly in shin-kaya or katsura

So once you have chosen your board’s thickness, choose the stand to match it. For a full list of what a beginner needs (pieces, stand, piece box), see The Equipment You Need to Start Shogi.

Where the board lives

A tabletop board spends most of its life on a table or in a cupboard, and both places matter. Maekawa’s care page asks you to avoid 「直射日光の当たる場所、ストーブや冷暖房器具の近く、風の吹き抜ける場所など」 — direct sunlight, spots near heaters or air conditioners, and places where wind blows through — because rapid changes of temperature and humidity cause cracks, warping and sun-fading. Damp places cause mould and stains, and even in a normally dry room, a board shut away in the rainy season can pick up moisture, so wipe it dry from time to time (Maekawa Kaya Goban-ten, “Caring for go and shogi equipment”, checked Oct 27, 2026).

In practice: keep it where humidity cannot build up (don’t seal it away at the back of a closet), and out of the path of draughts and air-conditioning. More in Caring for a Go or Shogi Board.

Common questions

What thickness should my first tabletop board be? If it will be put away after each game, around 1 to 1.5 sun. If it can stay out, 2 sun is where Maekawa places boards for a serious feel of play.

Is a joined (hagi) board a lesser board? Not at the table. Maekawa says there is no great difference in feel, sound or durability; what you give up is the continuous grain of a one-piece board.

The listing says 2-sun. How thick is it really? Roughly 6 cm, but individual boards vary; Tengudō’s 2-sun boards range from 5.7 to 6.7 cm. Ask the shop for the measured figure.

Can I use a legged-board piece stand with a tabletop board? No. Stands are made for each board height; tabletop boards of 1 to 2 sun use the flat type.

Is shin-kaya a kind of kaya? No. It is a spruce imported from North America, sold under that name.

Summary

• Playing at a table means a tabletop board, usually 1 to 3 sun thick (1 sun = 3.03 cm).
• Thicker means heavier but a better feel and sound; decide by whether the board stays out.
• The sun figure is a class; ask for the measured thickness and weight.
• A joined board plays like a one-piece board; a one-piece board is about the look of the grain.
• Choose wood after thickness and construction, and match the komadai to the board’s height.

All quotations and specifications were checked on the named shops’ pages on October 27, 2026.