After a lot back and forth, some restless nights and some mental gymnastics to justify such a ridiculous, only emotionally driven purchase I decided to get this set.
Here is the full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/raytsh/al ... 5129614826
The board is Honkaya (easy to tell by the smell) and the collector I bought it from guesses that it is about 50 years old. But who knows really. The Paulownia box certainly looks old and the board has an uncountable amount of playing marks all over the top surface. The board has barely warped, only about 1-1.5mm on two opposite corners. The color is dark and rich and the 5 pieces have been aligned in a way that the joints align with the lines nearly perfectly. The lines are proper tachi-mori lines. The board is quite heavy with 5.5kg. My only real gripe with the board is that many of the joints show splits. But I guess that is a common thing keeping the age of the board in mind.
The bowls are made of Keyaki and are lacquered, not waxed/oiled. One can tell because the lacquer starts to come off at the rim. The appearance of the wood nicely flips from light to dark when moved in the right light.
The stones are shell and slate and are 9.1-9.5mm thick. So that's around size 33 I guess. The color of the shell stones is not bright white but more warm white to slight cream maybe. Many of the stones are of Yuki grade as well as far as I can tell.
All in all a nice set. And the smell, wow, this just does not come across through photos! Though I wish I had someone to play with. For the time being, it's only replaying Kifu for me (and maybe I eventually get my wife to play someday).
. I like the signs of wear such as the dimpled playing surface. That sort of dimpling is natural and always occurs when the board is actually used. To me it gives the board a history. You can imagine how much pleasure the previous owner had using it. In Japan it is common to repair the playing surface by planing it smooth and reapplying lines if it has been severely dented (e.g. a hammer is dropped onto the board). I would not try to "clean up" the pawlonia boxes. They too show a patina of use and it would be difficult to return the boxes to a like-new appearance. The function of the boxes is simply to protect the board and bowls. In Japan I was told by a professional player and connoisseur or go equipment, that the pawlonia boxes can protect your stuff even in case of a house fire(!) I'm not sure whether I believe that but the soft character of the wood will certainly absorb impacts from things dropped on it (like a hammer) and other impacts when the equipment is being moved from place to place. I have a board like yours which I store in its pawlonia box. Years ago we had a roof leak in the winter due to an ice dam and water fell on the box. The board inside was totally protected but the box shows discoloration from the water.