One of the first things you teach to a new shogi player is "You want to make a pawn exchange on the rook's file." This sets them in the right direction, focusing their attention on using the rook to attack, and eventually being able to rationalize that they can put other pieces on that file to attack with. This isn't a criticism - this is genuinely good advice that should be given to everyone.
But sometimes beginners take it too literally.
You ever tell a beginner that they should castle their king, and they say, "But I don't know how to castle!" You show them various examples of castles, you show them Hidetchi's castling videos, but they tell you it's not enough. "Those resources don't give you step by step guides on how to make those castles." It's actually really common to hear this complaint. And beginners, please know that I completely understand where this is coming from, but the simple fact of the matter is that the reason nobody tells you the move order for building castles is the really common and obnoxious answer that is the answer to most shogi questions:
It depends.
Hey shogi fans,
It occurred to me that a blog is probably a really ideal way to get a lot of my shogi ranting done in a way that doesn't really require any sort of prep time or audio/video editing. I've done a couple of blogs in the past, but I think I was too formal with them. So instead of having any sort of aim or goal or anything, think of this as just a place where an aging shogi player can yell about the game she loves.
If you don't know who I am - my name is riko, formerly known as hirohiigo. If you know me from back then and are confused about me calling myself a she, just don't worry about it. Back in 2009 I got really angry at a game of chess after accidentally stalemating my friend and quit the game forever, only to be wooed over by shogi because of how almost impossible it is to draw in this game. Around 2010 I made the 81-Square Universe, an old (and now dead and gone) shogi forum and began a really spottily-updated history of shogi content creation.
My current, main shogi presence can be felt on the Shogi Harbour discord and the Shogi House youtube channel, for which this blog is named.
That's pretty much all the introduction I feel like giving, as other bits of my story could probably be better used for milking content other, more relevant blog posts.
-riko