Kamakura is sometimes considered as de facto capital of Japan during the Kamakura period that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate established in 1192 by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo [It’s my favorite character in the game Genji].
This is simply introduction to the name Kamakura, but not the Kamakura book write by John Fairbairn. The book above was about the jubango match in 1939 to 1941 between Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen in which Go Seigen prevailed over the board with the final score of six wins to four loses.
This book contains 190 pages but there were only 10 games in it. The main aspect of the book that distinguished itself with any other GO books written before was the usage of few moves per diagram to illustrate it so that one can visualize it without a goban.
Within 4 days I’ve finished reading the book thoroughly once, since 21st to 24th June. The realistic experiences that brought out through all the diagrams really means that Kamakura was a treasure must be keeping by any GO player. It will definitely improve one’s strength by at least one to two stones by finishing this book.
Well, it was not enough just by reading it once. There were too many words that I don’t understand where I’ll use a dictionary when I enjoy it for the second time. Third time will come where I’ll laid out the stones on the goban to feel the experiences and the tense of the games that brought to us from the deep thinking by the players from the time it was played.
All my friends that play me will know that I’ll hardly play hoshi using either black or white. Since komoku and takamoku were my favorites. Now hoshi will be the frequent if not all that I’ll use when I hold white. The 1-3-5 Shusaku’s opening will still be my forte when using black.
Thanks to Hock Doong in telling me about this magnificent book and helped me to buy it. Can’t wait to finish it for the second time and then lay it out.
I’ve now being accepted into University Malaya to pursue my study in music. I’ll not have enough time to improve my beloved hobby, GO. Anyway I’ll still review the old kifu to satisfy my thirst for it and I’m now impatiently waiting for the books ordered by the help of Hock Doong.
To add some color to the post, I’ve posted this picture which I got it from Jing-na’sblog [http://zemotion.blogspot.com/], first I thought it was the piano keys pattern on the dresses they are wearing but found out that it wasn’t. Still I like this picture and decided to put it here.
