The Go Player's Guide

The Go Player's Guide to Japan
November 18, 2002
by Chris Garlock

Go Central

Up an alley just a few steps from the Ichigaya subway station, in a nondescript building with a plastic sushi display out front, you'll find Go Central. Hundreds of Go players pass through the doors of the Nihon Ki-in every day. For most, the headquarters of the Japan Go Association begins and ends on the second floor, where ten dollars buys you ten hours of Go seven days a week on one of the 250 boards filling the main playing room.

But a tour, courtesy of Hidekazu Suzuki, Assistant Manager of the Nihon Ki-in's Overseas Department, reveals much more. In classrooms on both the second and third floors, Go players of all strengths can take lessons every day, receiving 90 minutes of instruction for just $10. When I stopped by last Friday, Shirae Jarahiko 7p was teaching a rapt class of more than 40 kyu players. The main playing area on both floors host hundreds of competitors at tournaments most weekends. The fourth, seventh and eighth floors house the Nihon Ki-in's administrative offices, while the fifth and sixth floors contain the Ki-in's crown jewels, the professional playing rooms where the titans of Go past, present and future lock in ageless mental combat amid the splendor of tatami mats and shoji screens, a peaceful rock garden and the exhortation of Yasunari Kawabata * rendered in exquisite brushwork * to delve ever deeper into the depths of professional excellence. The basement is put to Go use as well, housing television studies for the various Go programs beamed to a nation newly entranced by the game, thanks to the huge popularity of the Hikaru no Go manga and anime (over 500 youngsters regularly turn out when special youth events are held).

Go Tokyo

There are hundreds of Go clubs in Tokyo, ranging from fancy affairs well-appointed with gleaming kaya table boards and top-grade stones to smoky walk-ups with stained boards and chipped glass stones. Clubs go in and out of business regularly, and as no central listing in maintained, any search must begin with a personal contact. Most local players seem to have their own personal favorite club, usually one near where they work or live, and of course there's always the Nihon Ki-in. The largest can have 100 boards or more, while the smallest have as few as twenty, and there are also untold numbers of home clubs hosted by retirees who set up a few boards and hang out their Go kaisho shingle. I visited three clubs in a whirlwind day Friday that began with a game at the Nihon Ki-in, included a visit to the brand-new Yaesu Go center (complete with a well-stocked bookstore including no only the usual Go books and equipment, but Hikaru no Go trading cards and plush toys too!) and concluded with a pair of games at the Kiraku Go Club in Shinjuku. At all the clubs, after you pay your fee, a card is made up with your name and declared rank and the club manager pairs you with an opponent. The result is marked on your card, which stays at the club and which is used to adjust your rank over time. Each club I visited had its charms, the most obvious being the opportunity to play endless hours of Go but also, for a Westerner with no Japanese, an opportunity to meet a foreign culture on the common ground where lasting friendships are formed. (Thanks to Mr. Suzuki for the Nihon Ki-in tour and the Yaesu Go Center visit and also to Tetsuji Nakagawa for taking me to the Kiraku Go Club as well as a wonderful evening later on at a nearby sake bar)

20 Masters

Even without knowing Japanese, it was easy to pick out the shrines of the Honinbos: they were the ones with the Go pieces placed on the stones. The ashes of twenty Honinbos * the Go masters of their day, stretching back hundreds of years * rest at the Honmyo-Ji Temple in Sugamo. Shusai, the greatest of the great * and the last hereditary Honinbo * has pride of place in the center, while his fellow masters surround him, including Jowa, Dosaku, Shuho and Shuei. As befits a true master, the stones are modest, even plain, and each year the current Honinbo (Shusai bequeathed the title to the Nihon Ki-in) visits for a special ceremony. Standing among the stones, the silence does not seem like that of the dead but rather the deep, powerful quiet of someone thinking about their next move. (My deepest thanks to John Power for recommending Honymo-Ji, and to Hidekazu Suzuki for re-arranging his schedule at short notice to take me there)

Back to Columns