So Shibano is still a sweetheart. Thanks for the lesson.

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I don't look at rankings but wow, Murakawa is really that strong huh? And I knew Takao was still strong (being in the leagues also) but I didn't know he was also so high up.

I'm also surprised that Hane Naoki and Kono Rin are lower... So who is higher than expected? I guess Onishi Ryuhei, Motoki Katsuya, and Sun Zhe, I'm only barely familiar with them.

...speaking of Motoki, he is the commentator of the women's Honinbo semi-final match between Ueno Asami and Nakamura Sumire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikXASy0TaQk

There is no live stream (or date) announced for Rina's Honinbo match. Please share the news if anyone sees that it will happen.

Today I found a long article and a 50 minute podcast about "sasuga" (Shibano's tweet about Rina's win) and I guess I'll just need to pay attention to it's uses. As with many things, context is important.

https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/sasuga/

1. One way Japanese linguists use to explain sasuga to themselves is to propose that it derives from classical 'shika suru ga', meaning 'it is so, but/and...' In other words, it has no real meaning of its own and so no direct connection with the speaker's meaning which really lies in the '...' part. Sasuga is thus, at heart, a communication cue. This could be seen as a way of saying it's the context that matters, which is true but needs the rider that the context includes things like intonation and social norms.

2. I forget the precise details now, but many years ago Prof. Roy Miller got irritated by a passage of Japanese by a famous author he was reading. He thought it was gibberish. He therefore asked some Japanese people what they thought of the piece. They all said complimentary things like "very beautiful" or "most profound." He remained unconvinced and wrote either a very long article or a small book about it. I think he fell into the common trap of assuming the piece had to have a meaning, whereas it can be enough for it to suggest a meaning. Tis occurs in other languages, but literary Japanese in particular can often be like haiku on steroids. It then helps immensely if you are a native speaker and easily share the social norms.

3. Another common trap is to assume that Japanese is so different from any other language that it is 'alien.' The aspect that I have noticed most is that Japanese is supposedly unique, or at least unusual, in having different languages for males and females. Well, I suppose it does, but it's not unusual. All languages have that feature. I can remember my own interest in languages being sparked as a tiny tot when noticing that my mother and father spoke in different ways (and, of course, children speak in different ways, too).

4. So, there is no need to assume that the various usages of sasuga make Japanese in any way unique. A passable equivalent of the same phenomenon can be found in the English word 'nice'. If someone says just, 'Nice' it can mean 'beautifully played' or 'what a perfect mess you've left me in' or a host of other wildly different things that any native speaker can dream up with varying contexts and intonations. This is another lesson I learned as a tiny tot. My primary school teacher would remind us almost daily: "nice is not nice."

Yes... I'll have to be more care. I didn't realize how often this might be happening. I've only learned the beginner's example: "chotto..."


I actually get surprised often by how many times a silly or figurative phrase in English has a direct transaction in Japanese. "In front of my eyes" == "me no mae" (目の前). That's the only one I can remember offhand but it happens often. Though I learned that saying "go to bed" doesn't work in Japanese, it should be "go to sleep."

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Well, back to Rina, I hope she makes it to the main battle. As for Shibano, he won the Kisei S-league. There will still be the final rounds to decide the challenger.

Well in world rankings Ueno Asami is above Fujisawa Sensei . . .



Murakawa Daisuke is the strongest pro from the Kansai Kiin.

I don't have much to add to the Japanese discussion, sorry I just wanted to say that, in manga translations, I read often "as expected of...!". It makes me think that Shibano's expression must be very common, and that the easy translation is not always the best.

About Murakawa vs. Fujisawa:

I was surprised she won! but made me really happy. Murakawa is 9-dan, and the ratings might say this or that. But to me, there is something that somehow has been missed here: he plays in the Kisei S league. That's his level, and that's the level of Rina's accomplishement. Otake Yu is going to be hard, of course, and he already beat her in the Tengen just a couple of months ago. But she has a decent chance. Let's see what happens.

Hey everyone, Rina's Honinbo game to qualify for the final league is live now. Good luck to her.

https://youtu.be/yfKeNKOpX3Y

I think Tsuruyama is also playing to make the league today. Good luck to him too.


--------------

Results of the YouTube chat poll:

Who are you rooting for?

Fujisawa Rina 5 Dan (84%)
Otake Yu 6 Dan (8%)
Nishioka Masasuke 3 Dan (Record Keeper) (7%)

Well, that's a bummer. I didn't check with AI but there were a few moments earlier and in the decisive fight where the on-stream graph moved a lot. https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/match_news/ ... aisyu.html

I like that we get to see the post game review with variations. Even better when the board is a mess and they push the stones to the side in a big jumble. It's fun to watch. I wonder what word they use for this.

Yeah, bummer.

I couldn't follow all the game. Until I could watch it (white, Otake, was trying to make life on the right), it was more or less even, perhaps black a little ahead. White was quite ahead for some time, but black was able to catch up again. But black was never very ahead.

Then I had to stop, because of work (work sucks too!), and when I had the chance to check, it was nearly over but white was about to win.

It's a real pity. Would have been great to have General Fujisawa break into man's land.

I hope it won't be long before an Amazon claims a seat in one of the big leagues.

Well, congratulations to Rina on making it to the Judan main tournament. She and Ueno were in it last year where she won the first round and lost the second. She'll be in there with Iyama, Ichiriki, Ida Atsushi, Takao Shinji (beat Ueno). Who else... I like Rin Kanketsu and he's in there. Murakawa Daisuke. Hoshiai Shiho didn't make it.

Looks like Yo Seiko, Shibano Toramaru, Sada Atsushi, and Adachi Toshimasa (forgot about him) will be seeded in.

I hope that Rina plays Rin Kanketsu or Yo Seiki. She is such a fan favorite that she'll probably get a video broadcast with commentary.

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Revealing more of my hopes and dreams, I hope that Nyu Eiko gets to be on the cover of Go World 月刊碁ワールド for her SENKO Cup win. The magazine articles are a few months delayed and I think October would be her chance. The announcement should be coming next week I think. :fingers crossed:
https://www.nihonkiin.or.jp/publishing/go_world/

She's already played Rin Kanketsu in the NHK cup a while ago, with Cho Chikun Commenting.

Thanks for the tip. I see it was not this season. Unfortunately I don't see a way to easily view NHK Cup games. I'll just hold out for the YouTube steam.

Ahh . . .

Lin Kanketsu v Fujisawa Rina, Commentary by Cho Chikun

Oh my, they are young!

The Army will have a new recruit soon.

Saki Yanagihara, 11 yo, has been choosed as a new pro. Choosed, because she hasn't passed the pro exam. She comes from the NK talent search program (or however it's called). She already says that she wants to be Sumire's rival. Good luck.

Sumire was the first recruit, but there has been others, like Tsuji Hana. But I find a couple of things odd.

Yanagihara will be a full pro starting April. But starting January, she will be "a trainning pro", or something like that. This is new. Sumire, and others, began in April their year, as shodan, and that's all. Fujita Reo (9), from the Kansai Kiin, will start as a pro soon too. But at first (while shodan), like a semi-pro, then full pro (after becoming 2 dan).

Is there some kind of battle between the Kiin's, to show that they have the best children, they can find younger talents, and so on? It makes me wonder how they are using children. Sumire is doing ok now, but let's remember the big pressure she had from the media at first. Now the pressure is not better, but she can handle it.

Yanagihara, at least, could speak in the press conference.

I don't think there is any special rivalry with the Kansai Ki-in. Saki is only fourth* in the pecking order of youngest to make pro in the Nihon Ki-in, and even less of a competitor with Fujita Reo.

(*Formally, as she will be 12 years 5 months in April next year, the official date of commencement as a pro, but she will be playing effectively as a pro from January. If you take that date as the criterion, she edges above Cho Koharu in the table, but still well behind Sumire and Rina.)

I don't even think this is a special case in any way, as the committee/system to allow recommendation was set up quite some time ago. I'm a little bit surprised, though, as Saki has been on the scene for some time without setting things alight (although she won her first kids' cup in 2017). What seems to have been the decisive factor though was coming second in last month's World Youth Championships in which, as I recall, she beat a Chinese pro.

But she seems also to have been getting some special attention from pros. Already a member of the Hong Malk-eun Saem school (which is almost a recipe for success), she has taken part in the Ryokusei Academy and the Y's Academy, and several top pros seem to have given some help. If so, this collegiate atmosphere, which may be an offshoot of the new national squad training system in imitation of the Chinese model, could be Japan's secret weapon.

Saki herself seems a real extrovert character, or at least was when she was younger, and so could be a big hit on the pro scene if she make it to press interviews for title matches. She is an all-Japanese girl at the moment (favourite foods sushi and ramen, etc), but what will please Dieter, at least, is that she took up table tennis after watching it at the Tokyo Olympics. She could be the first to combine go diplomacy and ping-pong diplomacy.

What piqued my interest moreso than her aiming to rival Sumire was that she also wants to beat Shin Jinseo . . . Would it be a thing that every young Japanese pro found through the talent program has to beat Shin Jinseo. TheCannyOnion would approve.

It's unlikely they're competing since Sumire herself is from the Kansaii Kiin, unless you mean they're competing to find pros who want to beat Shin Jinseo the most. Lee Sedol may be happy for the current young top pros get a taste of their own medicine one day! If they are comppeting on who can find young Japanese talent? Golly, that's a good sign!

No, she's from the Kansai but was a member of the Nihon Ki-in Kansai branch.

Saki hasn't yet set her sights as high as playing Sin Chin-seo. She would like to rival Sumire (little sis?), but most of all wants to play Rina (big sis?).

Ah! I got the impression from a Asahi Shinbun newspaper tweet, https://mobile.twitter.com/asahi_igo/st ... 0172413952

朝日新聞囲碁取材班 @asahi_igo . Sep 13
公）プロ入り後の抱負は「仲邑菫先生のライバルになれるようにがんばりたいです」。そして「世界で通用する棋士になりたい」「（韓国の世界最強棋士）申真諝（シン・ジン・ソ）先生を倒せる棋士になりたいです」。

Oh wow! Kids are silly. This reminds me of when I stumbled upon an old tweet (5 years ago?) where Seki Koutarou was standing next to a cardboard cutout of Iyama Yuta and making some proclamation about challenging him. But, he is a title holder now so I guess he backed it up.

I also get a kick out of reading Japanese when I can sound out the katakana and figure out the English word. "Rival" is not so hard but I had a difficult time with "all star" from some other Tweet. If only I knew all the other words...