Life In 19x19

There are two traditional Japanese floor Go boards for sale on Kuroki's web site. They were used in games 3 and 5 of the 1975 Honinbo title match. Sakata won the first three games but Ishida won the last four which made him Honinbo five years in a row. Both the boards are signed on the bottom.

http://shop.kurokigoishi.co.jp/en/item/2627

http://shop.kurokigoishi.co.jp/en/item/2626

Perhaps a little bit of Sakata's legendary magic might rub off if you buy the first board. A Japanese friend of mine once said "If you buy a proper set with slate and shell stones you will become two stones stronger" - I assume that he meant that you would study harder.

If you have to ask how much, you can't afford it, but if you spread the cost over 50 years, the daily cost of ownership becomes quite reasonable.....

John Tilley (aged 72 and can't afford or justify it)

To progress two stones, it is just a tad over my budget

Nice find, John, thanks for the post. At 65, I, too, have all the gear I need but I visit Kuroki and the other big suppliers often, just to see what’s new or interesting.

http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~goban/engli ... rsion.html
https://www.maekawa-kayagoban.co.jp/
https://www.miwagobanten.com/
http://6brothers.net/product/list.html?cate_no=118

The real problem is: Sure, you can buy one of these beautiful sets but what then?

Do you really want to place is just somewhere? I mean, I would want to play with it, so it has to be readily available. But it's a floor goban and my apartment is not designed to have things standing on the ground somewhere in the room. Also, floor goban strikes again!, you need to have space to sit on both sides of that marvelous block of wood.

I'd need a new apartment, too! But does it end here, with maybe a new room (or part therof) to play on it? Can it really be any floor in this room - given that you will sit a lot on that floor? Does it not matter in which direction the window goes? Maybe you would want to add two more stones and need a hand-written caligraphy of Go Seigen - do you know for how much these go?

It's a rabbit-hole! No, thank you!

(My wife approves of my decision.)

When I was a shodan in Hawai'i a Japanese 1 kyu invited me to play at his home one afternoon. He had been in an internment camp during WWII, but afterwards had become a very successful businessman. We played on a floor board on the tatami. The board was a rather thick kaya board with black lacquer on the sides. He told me that it had once belonged to a daimyo. It must have cost a small fortune.

I was visiting Japan in 1985 and went to the Maruhachi Gobanten in Tokyo where I was privileged to examine an antique kaya board from the Edo period and the selling price was about four times the price of the boards linked above. One problem with these masterpiece boards is they really aren't practical for playing unless you can forget about the 50,000+ USD you spent to buy them. I don't find much rubs off on me from owning objects connected to great go players. I have a fan signed by Kato Masao when he was in New York City for the first game of a Meijin title match but it doesn't seem to have helped me to play better

I found this interview with the owner of Maruhachi Gobanten. Gives some insight into how the high-end boards get to be as expensive as a good grand piano.

xela wrote:I found this interview with the owner of Maruhachi Gobanten. Gives some insight into how the high-end boards get to be as expensive as a good grand piano.

When I went to the Maruhachi Gobanten I was helped by the master, the late Kito Atsuo. I think Mr. Kito Torujiro, the interviewee, was also present and brought things out from their storage area.