Tendo Onsen Marugoto

Tendo Onsen Marugoto is a thermal facility in Tendo City, Yamagata Prefecture, the undisputed shogi capital of Japan, where the ancient Japanese chess-like board game of strategic depth has been elevated to a civic identity as the primary production center for shogi pieces (koma), producing over 95% of Japan's shogi pieces from the local workshops that carve and lacquer the distinctive wooden tiles from boxwood (tsuge) in a traditional craft designation. Tendo's unique contribution to Japanese culture reaches its annual peak in the spectacular Ningen Shogi festival, in which real people dressed as samurai and palace attendants serve as living chess pieces on a giant outdoor board set in the castle park, playing an actual shogi match that draws crowds of spectators to watch the city's cultural centerpiece unfold in theatrical historical splendor. The chloride thermal waters of Tendo Onsen warm visitors to this characterful and unique city where one of Japan's great traditional intellectual games is woven into the urban identity through living craft tradition, spectacular festival, and the quiet pride of a community that has mastered and preserved an ancient art.