Top Knot Mino.

How it goes together

The generals are a Half Mino’s: king 2h, silver 3h, and the 4i gold, which guards the silver from below while the silver guards it back. The difference is one pawn. In a Half Mino the 2g pawn stands just above the king; here it has gone on to 2f, so 2g is empty and the 2f pawn has nothing behind it. With the left gold added on 5h it is still a Top Knot Mino, on a full Mino.

Move by move

Black only, from the start position. The pawn goes first, as a feint; then the rook swings, the king walks to 2h and the silver steps up to 3h.

Six moves. One more, the 6i gold to 5h, gives the full Mino version that English Wikipedia draws; the Japanese diagrams stop here. Either way the name is about the pawn.

What it is good against

It keeps what the Mino family does well: a low king behind a silver and a gold, strong against a rook coming along the side. And the 2f pawn is not wasted. The Silver Crown starts by pushing that same pawn so the silver can climb to 2g, so a Top Knot Mino has already played one of the crown’s moves.

Where it breaks

The king’s head. The square above the king, 2g, is empty, and the 2f pawn in front of it has no defender at all: if it is taken, nothing can take back. Japanese sources call the pawn a flaw (傷), and Shogi Wars says the head looks cold. Against an attack on the second file, rebuild into a High Mino or a Silver Crown before it arrives.

When to build it

A feint ranging rook (陽動振り飛車): you open with 2f as if staying a static rook, the opponent prepares for that, and then you swing to the fourth, third or central file and castle on the right after all. It is the result of that plan rather than a castle anyone sets out to build.