(Just enough) Japanese to read classical commentaries
Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 1:58 am
Being a history nut, I have always been interested in classical go games and have replayed a lot of ancient Chinese and Japanese games since I learned go. Recently, reading more about go during the Edo period and the following decades made me even more interested in having access to more material.
Posts/books/articles by John Fairbairn and mention by Bill Spight of Hattori Inshuku's Okigo Jizai were kind of eye-openers: there is a vast amount of commented go games and instructional material just waiting to be read.
Background
I have studied a bit of Chinese ten years ago, stopped completely afterwards but still remember plenty of characters. Using Chinese tsumego books has also helped retention and acquisition of new vocabulary items. This means I already know words and should be able to look up for kanji quite easily in online or paper dictionaries.
I also studied a very tiny bit of Japanese at some point. Some basic grammar must still be stored somewhere in my memory. If not, the experience might be more painful than I intend it to.
Goal
Modest, but may be too ambitious still. I hope to acquire a very basic knowledge of written Japanese that will enable me to "read" (i. e. get the gist of) a very specific subset of Japanese literature: game commentaries. Even this apparently modest goal will surely prove too much and the project will probably end before that goal is reached. After all, this is only a side project of an already time consuming hobby. Still, let's give it a try.
Tools
Online Japanese dictionaries (mainly jisho.org)
Japanese grammar books I still have at home
Google for puzzling grammar points
...
Material
I will use books from the Digital Library of the Meiji Era website because my interest lies in reading commentaries about games of the Edo/Meiji period. There is so much material here that choice might prove difficult. Interestingly many books have the kanji "subtitled" in hiragana. I'd like for the text to be rather short so that I can translate entire pieces in one go, this usually gives a nice feeling of accomplishement.
At the moment I have my eyes set upon vol. 2 of Shusai's commented games (打碁選集. 下巻, 1939) and 置碁打方妙手百番 (1918), a collection of "fake" handicap games for learning purposes.
Shusai's commented games have no furigana but each sentence is rather short and the matter interests me very much. Texts in the 置碁打方妙手百番 are longer but use furigana. At this point I don't know which one I will use, maybe both.
Posts/books/articles by John Fairbairn and mention by Bill Spight of Hattori Inshuku's Okigo Jizai were kind of eye-openers: there is a vast amount of commented go games and instructional material just waiting to be read.
Background
I have studied a bit of Chinese ten years ago, stopped completely afterwards but still remember plenty of characters. Using Chinese tsumego books has also helped retention and acquisition of new vocabulary items. This means I already know words and should be able to look up for kanji quite easily in online or paper dictionaries.
I also studied a very tiny bit of Japanese at some point. Some basic grammar must still be stored somewhere in my memory. If not, the experience might be more painful than I intend it to.
Goal
Modest, but may be too ambitious still. I hope to acquire a very basic knowledge of written Japanese that will enable me to "read" (i. e. get the gist of) a very specific subset of Japanese literature: game commentaries. Even this apparently modest goal will surely prove too much and the project will probably end before that goal is reached. After all, this is only a side project of an already time consuming hobby. Still, let's give it a try.
Tools
Online Japanese dictionaries (mainly jisho.org)
Japanese grammar books I still have at home
Google for puzzling grammar points
...
Material
I will use books from the Digital Library of the Meiji Era website because my interest lies in reading commentaries about games of the Edo/Meiji period. There is so much material here that choice might prove difficult. Interestingly many books have the kanji "subtitled" in hiragana. I'd like for the text to be rather short so that I can translate entire pieces in one go, this usually gives a nice feeling of accomplishement.
At the moment I have my eyes set upon vol. 2 of Shusai's commented games (打碁選集. 下巻, 1939) and 置碁打方妙手百番 (1918), a collection of "fake" handicap games for learning purposes.
Shusai's commented games have no furigana but each sentence is rather short and the matter interests me very much. Texts in the 置碁打方妙手百番 are longer but use furigana. At this point I don't know which one I will use, maybe both.
, at/with this move the also-good-point of the checking at 45 exists." > " 
, the place-wanting-to-do-the-pincer-of-22-before exists." > " 
to 
, as for the shape/form/aspect having become, it is an acceptable-for-both and good (thick?) shape." > "The sequence from 20 to 30 gives an even result and a good (thick?) shape."
, one dislikes the blockade of black い." > " 
, because there is no adequate way to catch, it would only seem to be powerful." > "Since there is no adequate way to catch (white's marked stones), 
, if white thrusts here now, he does not gain anything."