“Otake seemed cautious of challenging the Master at his own game. His initial object to limit the Master’s freedom of motion and avoid difficult entanglements over a broad front, he set about shaping his ranks after patterns he had made peculiarly his own. Allowing the Master a strategic point, he was all the while buttressing his own walls. What may at first sight have seemed passive was in fact a strong undercurrent of aggression and an unshakable confidence. What may have seemed mere tenacity had a surging power. True to his own uncompromising aims he would from time to time launch forth violently upon the offensive.”

“The Master of Go“, Yasunari Kawabata, pg 127 Paragraph 2


This is a typical selection from a book that I am intermittently reading. The language communicates a great deal, but manages to flip its rhetorical statement within the confines of a paragraph, 6 sentences long. It is understandable why the book was selected for the Nobel Prize for Literature (1968). It is however a sad pity that he was “found dead by his own hand, in 1972.” I will post the SGF of the game later on with some comments…

I’m up early, writing for the wiki at iShudan. I’ll be away most of the day soon, at the foot of Mount Ranier. My little boy and his mama are going with me on a trip into the “big blue room” this afternoon, and I’ll be fulfilling family duties to record and film selected moments for later transmission and archival. I might get to play a game outside with my bamboo board and jujube bowls sitting at a stump, as in ancient Indo-China. /me smiles at the thought… I’ll post a picture or two if it’s a nice game. Happy Sunday, and welcome to your second year my son.