The origin of the Shogi is said to date back to ancient India. In India chaturanga was played, from which the chess that is known today comes from, and in the East, xiangqi (Chinese chess), janggi (Korean chess) and Shogi. The Shogi was introduced from China between the 6th and 7th centuries. At first the pieces were figures like chess and over time they were named and written in wood.

According to the documents found, at the beginning of the eleventh century it was played among aristocrats. In the 800s, Heian Shogi was born, which was played with 36 pieces but the captured pieces could not be introduced to the board. A century later Heian dai-Shogi was born with 68 pieces and in the 13th century the same game was born but with up to 130 pieces

Towards the 11th century, the rules of the Heian Shogi were changed and the captured pieces could be introduced. And finally, in the mid-thirteenth century, the Shogi was already played with 40 pieces that are known today. Heian Shogi y se podían introducir las piezas captadas. Y finalmente el mediado del siglo XIII, ya se jugaba el Shogi con 40 piezas que hoy en día se conoce.

In the Edo era (1600 - 1867), when Tokugawa unified Japan, the court appointed Shogi dokoro, the Shogi hereditary professional positions to three families, the Ōhashi, the branch of the Ōhashi family, and the Itō. Around the 1630s, Oshiro Shogi, a game a year that was played in front of the shogun, was started on November 17 (currently that day is known as Shogi Day), although in reality, it is said that the shogun did not, she saw if not some rōjū, the high officials of the government, did. This Edo era brought a period of peace, so the Shogi was in full prosperity, great players such as Sōei Ōhashi and Sōho Amano appeared and became popular among the people.