I'm also thinking about the nature of this game. It is very difficult to force a checkmate unless you have a significant material advantage, as I ultimately did last game. I have fallen prey to trying to make this like a regular shogi game, and I had the right idea in the first place. This needs to be a game with a strong offense and weak defense, otherwise it lasts forever. If players are close in strength, they might never get to the end. So we have to get generals away from the king, for instance. We need it to be only slightly defensive so that no player can force a mate with a single drop on the right square. Another reason to get rid of the gold cannon (as I started envisioning it as a defensive piece). Perhaps we even need to have pieces starting further ahead of the king, with a gap pf at least 3 squares between him and his army.