Life In 19x19

I used to hear more about hiba Go boards, but in recent years they're hard to find in most stores aimed at western clientele. I wonder if it's because as shin-kaya gains acceptance as a material, hiba falls out of favour as another light coloured wood that costs slightly more than shin-kaya?

Hiba is either a species of or a relative of cypress. I believe that it's often used to make bath tubs and bathing equipment in Japan. One can also find hiba Go and shogi boards. I'm not sure I ever saw a full floor goban made of hiba, but it used to be named as one of the three "non-kaya" woods used in nice table boards, along with katsura and agathis.

I recently bought a hiba board from kurokigoishi, and I couldn't be happier. I enjoy the very light, straight grain, and the slightly yellow colour. I'd post a picture, but any I have online are too big to post here: there's some pics in my blog, where I also did a full gushing review if anyone's interested in a bunch of self-justification for spending so much money on a pretty hunk of wood.

Really, if shin-kaya isn't your thing, and you like a lighter coloured board, I just thought it might be helpful to make people in the market for a board aware of hiba again, since it's seldom mentioned these days. I know I'm very happy with mine.

For more info about hiba wood see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujopsis. I have seen one-piece floor boards made of hiba for sale. I think they may be more prone to cracks than thinner pieces. The trees grow as high as 40 meters with trunks 1.5 meter in diameter, so thick one-peice boards would appear to be possible. Kuroki Goishiten's hiba boards are more expensive than the shin kaya boards. I think shin kaya wood (spruce) is softer than the hiba.

Yes, Hiba is the underappreciated wood for gobans; here is a recent Ebay listing for a full-sized Hiba table board that had no takers even priced at $50: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yutopian-Hiba-Go-Board-Goban-Original-Cost-400-/330892632458?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=8a%252FnXtZjiFBM2vtqQ8D%252BT1QnyPE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

From what I have heard (not having actually played on a Hiba board) it is the softness of the wood that makes it less appealing; although the small indentations made by stones are a mark of honor, the fact that the day-in day-out handling of the board can leave dents, scratches, and depressions that quickly make the board look old and tired.

I know from following your blog that you had coveted a traditional Korean board made of Agathis--but Agathis is reputed to be the hardest of the traditional goban woods, and now you one of the softest! I'm glad you love your board, and I hope it gives you many years of pleasure!!

I was a partial owner of a lovely hiba board, purchased from Kuroki many years ago. The grain petter was similar to yours but the color was radiantly golden, sunny yellow. Fabulous. Very soft, yes. We played with gusto and put a lot of dents in the surface. It was fabulous. The board moved on to a new owner who said he "appreciated the energy inflicted" upon it.

We should have kept it!

schwartzseer wrote:Yes, Hiba is the underappreciated wood for gobans; here is a recent Ebay listing for a full-sized Hiba table board that had no takers even priced at $50: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yutopian-Hiba-Go-Board-Goban-Original-Cost-400-/330892632458?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=8a%252FnXtZjiFBM2vtqQ8D%252BT1QnyPE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Looking at the 2nd picture, it's not appreciated more because of the damaged condition rather than because it's made of hiba wood.

tchan001 wrote:

schwartzseer wrote:Yes, Hiba is the underappreciated wood for gobans; here is a recent Ebay listing for a full-sized Hiba table board that had no takers even priced at $50: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yutopian-Hiba-Go-Board-Goban-Original-Cost-400-/330892632458?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=8a%252FnXtZjiFBM2vtqQ8D%252BT1QnyPE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Looking at the 2nd picture, it's not appreciated more because of the damaged condition rather than because it's made of hiba wood.

To me this doesn’t look like damaged but rather like a wood impurity (branch or something) and the white stuff seems to be resin oozing out of the wood, in which case it shouldn’t be too hard to remove the resin and live with the “impurity”. But looking at the other pictures, yes, this looks quite rough.

I think it looks like a piece fell off and was glued back on with a bit too much glue applied. lol

I had a mild interest in the board, and exchanged some emails with the owner, and Bonobo is correct--the "white stuff" is in fact a sticky resin that had oozed out. Other than that it looked like a reasonable board, not too rough (though I thought the claim that it was worth "$400" was a bit much, given that the owner said he bought the Korean made Hiba board from Yutopian, and they currently list it there for $190 + s/h).