Greetings Dopers,
I read the Mainichi Shimbun (毎日新聞, daily news) everyday and I came across this interesting article. (hehe, came across…focus Auto, focus!)
Shougi is Japanese chess. It’s similar but a little different. Every year in Tendo, Yamagata, Japan, they have a festival and play Shougi with people. The second link below has all the info you need.
I’ll let the article and link speak for themselves 
Collection of pictures and info about Shougi
楽しんでね＾＾ (have fun)
Auto
I’ve tried Shogi (or Shougi, if you must), but I’m afraid it just made my head ache. I prefer Go.
Still, playing it with real people (rather than *against *real people) sounds fun.
It looks like they’re all in costume as their pieces as well, which is neat - though it looks like the different sides are wearing different colors (at least for pawns). Wonder if they change costumes if they’re captured.
An actual horse (and actual dragon, if available) would be pretty cool for the promoted pieces too.