Read ☆ PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook È Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata È 0 review characters Ý 名人 Meijin ¶ PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook On Go is an essential expression of the Japanese spirit And in his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and heretofore invincible Master and a. With no such intention in mind I rather fell out of the frying pan on this one I had to get away from Yourcenar and a glance at the shelves made me think nothing could be further from Hadrian than a book about GoMy very first Go move and it s a mistake Continue here

Summary 名人 Meijin

Yasunari Kawabata È 0 review characters Ý 名人 Meijin ¶ PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook Younger and modern challenger Yasunari Kawabata captured the moment in which the immutable traditions of imperial Japan met the onslaught of the twentieth centu. EDIT I wonder would a pun like be acceptableA masterpiece perhaps all of Kawabata s sentiments crammed into one book rather than an observation of a Go match Though Kawabata s ideals doesn t strike me as those which are sensible for some reason this book touches me deeply than I ve ever expectedAfter reading this I thought as if for a moment I could understand the reasons behind his suicide Another one sitting read 4 stars 1 personal star

Yasunari Kawabata È 0 review characters Ý 名人 Meijin ¶ PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other's black or white stones Simple in its fundamentals infinitely complex in its executi. Kawabata writes a factual account of a Go match which at one level could be compared with the sort of journalism you see in a magazine like New in Chess He presents all the moves in the game and comments the play Somehow he turns it into an emotionally gripping meditation on life art fate and the inevitable destruction of traditional Japanese society He apparently thought this was his best book remember that he won the Nobel PrizeIt would be easy to say that this is a uniue occurrence but in fact I think board games journalists are undervalued and Kawabata just happens to be the only one who s received any broader recognition For example Gena Sosonko is not as good but it s not ridiculous either to compare him with Kawabata In his case he is mourning the vanished chess culture of the old Soviet UnionAnother interesting piece of Go lore I picked up from the German guy I was talking with this afternoon Anyone who knows anything about the game can see immediately that Kawabata was a decent player Apparently he was rather than just decent he was strong enough that he once won a three stone handicap game against a 9 Dan professional In chess terms I d say that s about euivalent to an International Master title ImpressiveNow here s a development that s seriously confused my understanding of Kawabata s classic novel A few days ago Not and I watched the rather fine movie The Go Master which it might surprise you isn t based on this book at all but is a dramatization of the life of a different player Go Seigen What s interesting for Kawabata fans is that the two stories intersect in an unexpected way Go Seigen a genius who is widely believed to be the greatest Go player of the 20th century also played a match against Honinbo Shusai the real life prototype for the Master in Kawabata s book Go seemed to be outplaying Shusai throughout and Shusai in desperation resorted to an extremely unethical strategy As the nominally stronger player he had the right to adjourn the game when he wished even when it was his turn to play He did this several times and each time analyzed the position together with his students before resuming In the course of one of one of these adjournments he found an unexpected move that changed the course of the game and allowed him to snatch a narrow victory It is widely believed that the move was actually found by Shusai s student Maeda later a top player in his own right Maeda never confirmed or denied the storyFive years later Shusai played the match against Kitani that was immortalized in The Master of Go Kitani who was a friend of Go Seigen naturally wanted to stop the Master from using the method that had worked so well for him in the previous match In the face of considerable opposition he reuired and eventually obtained a modification of the adjournment rule based on Western chess praxis The player who wished to adjourn had to seal their move writing it down and putting it in a sealed envelope at the end of the playing session so that both players would be on an even footing As Kawabata recounts in the novel Kitani understood the implications of the Western style adjournment rule better than Shusai At a critical juncture he played a trivial forcing move to gain time to think and this won him the game I have read the novel three times and I believed it was clear that Kawabata was presenting Kitani s pragmatic action as unworthy and almost despicable This seemed strange since he is always referred to very positively in the Japanese Go literature But now knowing the background I wonder if there is an ironic level that I have been missing Kawabata as noted was a strong amateur Go player It is inconceivable that he would not have been familiar with all the details of the earlier game between Go Seigen and Shusai where Shusai had behaved in a far underhand way than Kitani ever did Basically Shusai had it coming and everyone would have known thisIs there anyone here who s read the book in the original and can comment