The Master of Go - Kirjakasa

Paperback, 208 pages

English language

Published May 28, 1996 by Vintage.

ISBN:: 978-0-679-76106-8
OCLC Number:: 34888530

(1 review)

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 execution, it is an essential expression of the Japanese sensibility. And in his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and invincible Master and a younger, more progressive challenger, Yasunari Kawabata captured the moment in which the immutable traditions of imperial Japan met the onslaught of the twentieth century.

The competition between the Master of Go and his opponent, Otaké, is waged over several months and layered in ceremony. But beneath the game's decorum lie tensions that consume not only the players themselves but their families and friends - tensions that turn this particular contest into a duel that can only end in one man's death. Luminous in its detail, both suspenseful and serene, The Master of Go is an elegy …

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 execution, it is an essential expression of the Japanese sensibility. And in his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and invincible Master and a younger, more progressive challenger, Yasunari Kawabata captured the moment in which the immutable traditions of imperial Japan met the onslaught of the twentieth century.

The competition between the Master of Go and his opponent, Otaké, is waged over several months and layered in ceremony. But beneath the game's decorum lie tensions that consume not only the players themselves but their families and friends - tensions that turn this particular contest into a duel that can only end in one man's death. Luminous in its detail, both suspenseful and serene, The Master of Go is an elegy for an entire society, written with the poetic economy and psychological acumen that brought Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1 edition

msaari reviewed The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata

Review of 'The Master of Go' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Tämä kirja edustaa japanilaista shosetsu-tyyliä (kertoo esipuhe). Shosetsu on sekoitus omaelämäkertaa ja fiktiota: tässä tapauksessa kirja kertoo todellisesta go-ottelusta, jota Kawabata seurasi ja josta hän raportoi sanomalehdelle, mutta kirjoittaessaan kirjaa Kawabata on ottanut erinäisiä taiteellisia vapauksia ja muun muassa nimennyt henkilöitä uudestaan.

Taustalla ovat siis kuitenkin todelliset tapahtumat: go-mestari Honinbo Shusain ja Minoru Kitanin välinen puoli vuotta kestänyt go-ottelu vuodelta 1938. Kawabata ei kuitenkaan rajoita kuvaustaan ottelun raportointiin, joskin gonpelaajat saavat nauttia mielenkiintoisista käänteistä laudalla, vaan tarinassa on enemmänkin tasoja. Vastakkain olivat nuori nousukas ja vanha mestari, uudet tavat ja vanhat perinteet; lukevatpa jotkut tarinasta Japanin tappion toisessa maailmansodassa. Kawabata tuntuu pahoittelevan perinteisten arvojen tappiota.

Kirja on kiehtova ja kauniisti kirjoitettu. En tiedä, kuinka tarpeellista gon tunteminen on kirjasta nauttimiseen; minulle se oli ehdottomasti kiehtova ulottuvuus kirjassa ja se varsinainen syy, miksi kirjasta kiinnostuin. Suosittelen silti go-ummikoillekin, tämä on kaunis kirja. (15.11.2007)

Subjects

Modern fiction
Kawabata, Yasunari - Prose & Criticism
Fiction - General
Fiction
Asian - General
Literary
Fiction / Literary
Japan