My understanding of how to stimulate these powers has been strongly affected by Kageyama (Lessons in the Fundamentals). Towards the beginning of that book, he shows an easy ladder - but, hard for me at the time I read the book. He says anyone can read out ladders, and if you can't you should move the stones all the way across the board, so that the ladder becomes a short one. If you can read that out successfully, move the stones away by one diagonal, and then again, and before you know it you're reading a ladder clear across the board. Then you read out a ladder problem or two every day, and within a month you can read out ladders that aren't even on the board yet.

Likewise with tsumego, I assume - staring at it until your eyes hurt will do no good. (Which isn't to say you can't treat a hard Go problem as a koan. But koan are not intended to make you strong at Go, no?)

I can solve some of the easier problems in the Igo Hatsuyoron, and I don't think its purpose is simply to stimulate strong players. They aren't unsolvable by a long shot, they're just hard problems. In general, I think that if you can't solve a problem in a few* minutes, you're simply not at the level to do that problem yet, and you shouldn't do it.

*"few" depends on your rank

It's like weight lifting. Sure, you can try even 500 lb. at your visit in a gym. Why not? Well... There is no much sense in trying that and it's just a waste of time.
If you are ddk do not try any dan level problems - it's the same like in my example above. Waste of time and a headache guarantee.

If you want just to contemplate these problems - sure, you can. Nothing will change however. Nor you understanding of go, nor your skills.

You may find my Gateway to All Marvels fills the void. Many techniques are identified, discussed and indexed over a very large range of problems that include the easisest and the hardest. Plus there is a wealth of historical commentary that helps you both enjoy and remember the shapes.

If you want to insist on having the Meijin Inseki as your mentor, you will probably find his Yoshin Joki more suited to your grade.

I can tell you our member, Cassandra, has extensively studied problem #120 of Igo Hatsuyoron

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Go is such a beautiful game.

One thing worth noting is how tsumego get to be certain levels -

You start by learning basic shapes (killing shapes, living shapes, etc), then you might go up a level to get to where you force your opponent into those shapes prior to killing. Then you might get to where you have a problem where you need to make a move that is miai to create one of two different killing shapes.

Then you might move into tesuji problems. You will have a problem where there is a particular tesuji to create a liberty shortage, or a tesuji to destroy an eye. Then you'll have problems where you force your opponent into a shape where you can apply the tesuji...then you have problems where you get to a position that makes miai of two different tesuji, etc.

Now by the time you get to the level of the Igo Hatsuyo ron, you have the idea where there's layers upon layers of techniques, you play into a position where you have a variety of options of killing shapes where each branch might only work due to different tesuji, etc. There may be some value to playing through the solutions, but you might not get the full effect unless it is annotated to show you why certain moves are significant (or likewise unless you are already familiar with certain tesuji). It may be better to start with problems that simply involving applying the technique as opposed to finding ways to force your opponent into a position where they choose which sword to fall on.

If you are looking for a book to just read through the problems and solutions, I would second the choice of John F.'s e-book "Gateway to all Marvels". It does an excellent job of providing you with a description of the techniques involved with each problem, related problems (so you can see the same technique in a different context), and even things like historical background for problems (if you prefer a little flavor added to your go).

Thank you for the suggestion! I have a copy of it on one of my flash drives. I'll open it up and read through it.
Yoshin joki... This is the first time I even heard of it. Where can I acquire a copy?