400 Years of Go in Japan, Andrew Grant

A well written and highly readable account of the development of modern go in Japan from the eighth century to the end of Japanese world hegemony in the 1970’s. Grant tells the stories of the key players and their contributions, the shifting political circumstances, and the rivalries that led to the emergence of go as we know it today. Famous games from each period are included. This is a tale every go player will find fascinating. Illustrated.

Special mention should be made of the contributions of John Power to the presentation in English of the history of go in Japan. His many articles in Go World, the Go Player’s Almanac, and Invincible: The Games of Shusaku are a key source of information on this topic.

Sample Pages Available.

Comments & Reviews

This is a nice book with excellent stories. If you liked the historical commentary in books like "Appreciating Famous Games" or "Invincible" you’ll probably enjoy this book.

Note: My copy came with a sticker attributing 2006 copyright jointly to Andrew Grant, John Fairbairn and John Power, so it’s kind of obvious that Grant used historical sources in English from those other authors/editors.

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I’ve just got this book, so i’m just in the first pages. The information found inside is great and everything on the book was new to me, the idea of including ‘pivotal’ games is brilliant and allows the reader to undertand better the way go has evolved. There are only minor ‘issues’ about the book: +The graphics quality is really poor. +The diagram numbers only show 2 digits +The format is somehow heavy to the reader. (S&S books usually have simple design but with not so many diagrams as other books, the text in this book is too heavy and it’s easy to get tired or dizzy if you’re reading it while going home from work) I must declare that i don’t have the GoGoD encyclopedia nor The Go Player’s Almanac, and i never visited Andrew Grant’s webpage. So i cannot tell if the information inside is new. However, based on DrStraw comment, i think that even for players that have read the Almanac or have GoGoD will find this book quite interesting. Regards, IRN

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This is a nice book for those who do not know much about the history of Japanese go. I might also say it is essential reading for those people. There was very little in it which was new to me (a few anecdotes, but little history), but then I have read every copy of Go World and almost all the English language go books.

If you don’t know who Dosaku was, or what a Godokoro is; if you never heard of Jowa or the Inoues; if you don’t know about the history behind the founding of the Nihon Kiin (or don’t even know what that is) then this is a must read. Don’t pass it by just because it is not going to help you improve your rank. Knowing more about the history of the game is going to help you gain a greater understanding of it and if you ever want to become good at it then this is necessary.

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