Kifu for Java is a Java applet that allows you to play kifu-fomat recorded shogi moves. It can be also used to show Tsume shogi. There are many great shogi plays that are recorded in kifu-format. Many shogi sites uses this applet so this page guides you how to navigate this board.
The first image you see below is a non-clickable image of the applet. Directly below the image, the actual applet should load after a brief delay. If those two images look the same except for maybe version numbers, then your OS and browser is properly set up for Japanese fonts. Also the applet this site uses control buttons with English labels on them. The applets in other sites may use Japanese labels.
Meaning of the Navigation buttons on tops are as follows, although it might be obvious
| Button | Meaning | Button | Meaning |
| |< | Jumps to the Start | >| | Jumps to the end |
| << | Play Automatically backwards | >> | Play Automatically |
| < | Steps back one move | > | Steps forward one move |
| +< | Back to the previous branch point | >+ | Forward to the next branch point |
| ■ | Stop the Play | 反転 (Flip) | Rotate the board 180 degree |
[棋譜保存]("Save" in English edition) Button is for saving the kifu file for your own reference. You can replay the saved kifu with variety of shogi software. One of them, Kifu for Win can record and re-play kifu files. It's free software and you can download it. (See here)
The drop down control above the [棋譜保存] button and below the history window is a branch indicator. It either shows ”変化なし”（No alternate move) or the first candidate of the move, which looks like "１．▲２六歩” You can click on the down arrow and see all alternative moves.
In the history window, if the move has *(asterisk symbol), then there is a comment attached to that move. The comment is displayed in the comment window.
You can also click the move directly in the history window and jump to that postion.
If you are seeing the image below, then you have Japanese fonts installed, but you may need to do more tweaking on OS and browser in order to see the history window right. In case of IE on Windows XP, some people reported that changing your regional format setting to "japanese" took care of the problem. Also, disabling San Java and use MS VM instead also seem to help and load the applet quicker.
Update:
I believe there currently is a bug in the latest Java runtime implementation in such a
way that any Java applet that was intended to show Japanese text will
have a issue when executed in non-Japanese environment. Issue ranges from Japanese characters turns into tofu (see the above image, the application can not load relevant database etc., A remedy is simple if you are running the Windows, you just need to setup your display format to "Japanese"
MS VM (Java) don't have this issue but it is outdated and is no longer bundled with Newer Windows..
You can set your location and language setting in Windows Control
panel. However, this setting will cause weired things if you are not Japanese. For instance, monetary format will show with
Yen symbol and not a dollar sign in application like Excel, week of the day will display with Kanji characters in Word, etc., You can ease the pain by creating a new user account login just for Shogi in Windows and set that account with Japanese setting.
Regardless, this is inconvenient.
This is why I have switched to Kifu for Flash on my site. This program is a new application offering from the same guy who gave us Kifu for Java and Kifu for Win. Many other site still use Kifu for Java though, so I will keep this page active so that you are aware of this. Knowing the issue may help you while you are surfing Shogi resource on the net..