If anyone is lucky enough to be in Beijing right now, the master goban maker Yoshida Torayoshi 吉田寅義 [author of Goban and Shogiban – Creating Game Equipment] will be demonstrating how to make gobans at the China Qi Yuan 中国棋院 at December 17th at 10am. They will be showing a set of goban worth one hundred million yen at this event.

Link to announcement from Chinese weiqi news site
http://www.eweiqi.com/news_detail.asp?id=14719

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According to Yoshida Torayoshi's Japanese site, the exhibit will run 6 days from December 18th to the 23rd.

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Whoever is in Beijing and can attend this event, please please please take some pictures and post on this thread for us to enjoy.

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A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

My mistake, only 100 million yen worth of goban

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http://tchan001.wordpress.com
A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

that would be pretty awesome, i hope someone puts it on youtube.

Some photos from the exhibit (Beijing time Dec 17, 2011):

http://slide.sports.sina.com.cn/go/slid ... 21224.html

That's some fancy foot work to help with the carving

What a sexy goban though

Very sad to have missed this having gone home for Christmas...

Thanks for sharing!

Wow, those pictures are awesome!

Now I want one...

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Can someone clue me in to what's nice about these boards? I feel like a cretin, but to me it looks like all of the boards in that slideshow are wrapped in plastic.

They *are* wrapped in plastic... I'd wrap my $$$$$ boards in plastic for a display, too!

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1. The boards are made by a master craftsman, Mr. 吉田 寅義 -- http://www.gobanya.net/

(I think that website lists among their clients, Fujisawa Hideyuki, Rin Kai Ho, Takemiya Masaki. )

2. Photo 16 of 31: The tree used for the board was 950 years old (almost a millennium).

3. Photo 15 of 31: the shell stones displayed are priced at 5,400,000 RMB (about US$ 850,888).
(From the photos, they seem at least Size 39 (11.0 mm) or 40 (11.3 mm) or even larger).

I was in Beijing. Till Dec. 17th. In the morning.

What's not to like?

I'm in the same boat as jts: I don't really see what it is that you see. I mean, they look nice. Nicer than my folding board for sure. But as for what distinguishes them from other boards with legs, I can't see it.

I don't mean to in any way criticize those of you who do. I just think I'm blind or insensitive to something you see.

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It's a very thick cut of wood which requires a very old tree. Just look at how close the rings are.
It looks like it doesn't have any defects which is also very rare.
It takes many years to dry such a thick piece of kaya before it's stable enough to use for making a goban.
The wood is also cut so the lines formed by the grain of the wood runs straight up and down the board. You can't just cut up a tree any old way to get this type of pattern.
The wood is probably be Hyuga Kaya which in itself is very rare and valuable.
And the board is made and signed by one of the most famous goban makers in all of Japan, the only one who still uses a samurai sword to do the lacquer dipping.

According to "The Go Player's Almanac 2001",

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A blog on Asian go books, go sightings, and interesting tidbits
Go is such a beautiful game.

I agree with tchan that the rings are nicely spaced, but what with the glare we're looking at a big ol' sheet of plastic. If you think those boards look nice, then you would be equally happy with an enormous block of plastic, on which you can draw whatever sort of lines you like. Alternatively, you could make the board out of any sort of wood, and then slap on a heavy veneer to get the right chintzy feel.

I have no quarrel with people who like their objets d'art shiny and plastic, of course. It's not my own aesthetic preference.

And you are clearly entitled to your opinion. Certainly it would be absurd to spent a fortune on the "perfect" yellow Kaya board, when, in fact, you prefer, say, the dark brown of Katsura or whatever. The responses you have received explain quite well why these boards are indeed works of art, and, at least substantially, justify their value.

Of course, if you are simply joking about the saran wrap - fine.

Personally, I love them - but that does not make me right and you wrong, and the better for your check book.

So, if there is something beautiful, but it is wrapped in see-through plastic, we can no longer say it's beautiful, because we are really looking at plastic?

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If I owned it... I'd be taking the plastic off when I took it home. I'm assuming it's just there so it doesn't get messed up while on display.

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