Those who like to plan trips round famous go places have a new addition to the list.

A sculpture has just been unveiled on Ozushima island off Shunan City in honour of the recently deceased Fujisawa Hideyuki. Quite what the links between him and the city or island are I have no idea, except that teh sculptor has a studio on the island. It's way down in Yamaguchi Prefecture, off the usual tourist trail, but maybe that makes it all the more worthwhile visiting.

The work is by noted sculptor Nakajima Mikio. There is calligraphy front and back. One side says 磊磊 (rairai) which is by Fujisawa himself. Basically it means a great pile of stones, but has nuances of great and of an attitude of someone who looks only at the big picture and ignores the details. Sounds like Fujisawa... The other side says 旅人 (a traveller) and is by Yanagida Taizan. I imagine, from his name, that he is a successor to Yanagida Taiun, who was a very famous calligrapher who just happened to be a go nut, and quite a strong amateur. He knew and consorted with most of the famous players, and also gave calligraphy lessons to Nihon Ki-in players to help them write their fans (and most of them need help, according to the lady there in charge of the book of sample mottoes).

In fact, the GoGoD database has a game in 1989 by Yanagida Taiun, not long before his death, with Fujisawa. He beat him on four stones. Amongst other games we have by him is one with Maeda Nobuaki 9-dan. This was part of an amusing series in which Maeda played strongish amateurs (some were 5-dan, then a very high grade) in an even game to see how far they got before they had a totally lost game. None got beyond move 72. Yanagida got to move 56.

The Shunan Fine Arts Museum also mounted a concurrent exhibition of Fujisawa's calligraphy. Fujisawa was a noted penman. His style (to my untutored eye) shows strong influences of the Yanagida school.