Rating: 
Summary: Black Stones and White Stones
Review: I have read five of Kawabata's books now and I do believe that this on is my favorite which is pretty amazing since this book basically centers around two people playing a game of Go.Although the back of the book says that it is fiction, that is not altogether true. Yasunari Kawabata actually did write a series of articles for Tokyo and Osaka newspapers about the Master of Go and his last game against a much younger opponent. Although the opponent's real name was Kitani not Otake. Kawabata, however, did add abit of fiction to it. He changed his name and made the Master of Go a much nicer person. Why is this book a good read? That is hard to say, but the Go match seemed to me to be just as tense as the last game of the world series. It has been pointed out before, but I must say again that the underlying story is actually moe important than the actual story. It is true that the story is about a young man defeating the Invincible master, but it is also a book of change. As the reader reads through the pages he or she sees how Kawabata made this story of a Go match something much more. He shows us how the old Japanese order was slowly fadeing and something new was coming to take its place. Good Book.
Rating:
Summary: Record of a single game of Go
Review: If another writer has written "The Master of Go", a true story about the competition between the "invincible" Master of Go and a much-younger opponent in the Master's retirement match, and intense single game that lasted for more than six-months, perhaps they could have used the game to launch a sweeping metaphor of the fading Meji-era of Japan giving way to the modern era, or a struggle of youth and age or something of the sort. The game itself might have taken second seat to whatever greater picture the author painted. Instead, because this is Kawabata, we have an intimate portrait of three people, the two players and the author himself, basic and alive and honest human beings. Of course, there is a bit of metaphor and conclusions can be drawn, but ultimately the three people do not require any grandeur beyond there immediate status as human beings. It is enough. The Master of Go himself, the highest available rank in the official Go association, is a portrait of obsession and dedication. He is only comfortable playing games, and even amidst his failing health and the demands of his retirement challenge, he ensnares anyone around him in any game possible, be in Mah Jong or Billiards. His opponent, a young yet high ranking challenger, has fought his way through a year-long tournament for the honor of being the opponent in the Master's final match. High strung, and with health issues of his own, he brings everything he has to defeat the Master in his last game. The author, a newspaper reporter assigned to cover the match which is being sponsored by his paper, unable to penetrate the minds of the two players, lays open his own feelings and interpretations while retaining a newspaperman's eye for reporting facts rather than speculation. Kawabata, being the real-life newspaper reporter who covered the real-life game, uses his simple writing style and honest narrative to bring to life this competition in a more riveting manner than any metaphor. Charts of the games progress are used to explain the moves, details are brought forth regarding the health of the players, and the history of the match. In amazement, he manages to maintain tension in the story even though the outcome of the match is told in the first few paragraphs. The chapters are tiny, making the book as unable to put down as a bag of potato chips, as there always seems to be room for one more. Knowledge of Go is not necessary for this book, although a basic understanding of the rules will help put things into perspective. The translation is good, but I don't like Seidensticker translates Japanese games like Shogi as Chess, even though they are not the same game. The notes at the end are very insightful however, and help fill in some of the gaps of Go-knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Record of a single game of Go
Review: If another writer has written "The Master of Go", a true story about the competition between the "invincible" Master of Go and a much-younger opponent in the Master's retirement match, and intense single game that lasted for more than six-months, perhaps they could have used the game to launch a sweeping metaphor of the fading Meji-era of Japan giving way to the modern era, or a struggle of youth and age or something of the sort. The game itself might have taken second seat to whatever greater picture the author painted. Instead, because this is Kawabata, we have an intimate portrait of three people, the two players and the author himself, basic and alive and honest human beings. Of course, there is a bit of metaphor and conclusions can be drawn, but ultimately the three people do not require any grandeur beyond there immediate status as human beings. It is enough. The Master of Go himself, the highest available rank in the official Go association, is a portrait of obsession and dedication. He is only comfortable playing games, and even amidst his failing health and the demands of his retirement challenge, he ensnares anyone around him in any game possible, be in Mah Jong or Billiards. His opponent, a young yet high ranking challenger, has fought his way through a year-long tournament for the honor of being the opponent in the Master's final match. High strung, and with health issues of his own, he brings everything he has to defeat the Master in his last game. The author, a newspaper reporter assigned to cover the match which is being sponsored by his paper, unable to penetrate the minds of the two players, lays open his own feelings and interpretations while retaining a newspaperman's eye for reporting facts rather than speculation. Kawabata, being the real-life newspaper reporter who covered the real-life game, uses his simple writing style and honest narrative to bring to life this competition in a more riveting manner than any metaphor. Charts of the games progress are used to explain the moves, details are brought forth regarding the health of the players, and the history of the match. In amazement, he manages to maintain tension in the story even though the outcome of the match is told in the first few paragraphs. The chapters are tiny, making the book as unable to put down as a bag of potato chips, as there always seems to be room for one more. Knowledge of Go is not necessary for this book, although a basic understanding of the rules will help put things into perspective. The translation is good, but I don't like Seidensticker translates Japanese games like Shogi as Chess, even though they are not the same game. The notes at the end are very insightful however, and help fill in some of the gaps of Go-knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: Japanese Culture à Go-go
Review: In 1938, a go match was played over six months in 14 sessions at several different locations in Japan. The opponents were the grand master, Shusai, and Otake, a younger professional challenger. Kawabata, then 39 years old, was the newspaper reporter who covered the match for Tokyo and Osaka newspapers. After the war, he turned his reportage into a novel which still retains much of the feeling of reports. If you don't know the game of `go', played with white and black stones on a board, or if you are not at all familiar with Japanese culture, then this book is probably not a good place to begin. However, if that is not the case, then Kawabata's subtle depiction of many themes in Japanese culture and in human life, may give you pleasure. The sick old man versus the young one. Life versus death, even. The author wrote"From the way of Go, the beauty of Japan and the Orient had fled. Everything had become science and regulation." (p.52) Players worried about points, not elegance or dignity. Otake represents the new, the ambitious, the unrefined; the old master all that was vanishing, all that Kawabata mourned. As a novel about an arcane contest which still can bring out all these important, even universal, themes, THE MASTER OF GO is an amazing feat. If this sounds interesting, give it a try. You definitely won't find another novel like it ! Kawabata certainly deserved the Nobel Prize.
Rating:
Summary: Japanese Culture à Go-go
Review: In 1938, a go match was played over six months in 14 sessions at several different locations in Japan. The opponents were the grand master, Shusai, and Otake, a younger professional challenger. Kawabata, then 39 years old, was the newspaper reporter who covered the match for Tokyo and Osaka newspapers. After the war, he turned his reportage into a novel which still retains much of the feeling of reports. If you don't know the game of 'go', played with white and black stones on a board, or if you are not at all familiar with Japanese culture, then this book is probably not a good place to begin. However, if that is not the case, then Kawabata's subtle depiction of many themes in Japanese culture and in human life, may give you pleasure. The sick old man versus the young one. Life versus death, even. The author wrote"From the way of Go, the beauty of Japan and the Orient had fled. Everything had become science and regulation." (p.52) Players worried about points, not elegance or dignity. Otake represents the new, the ambitious, the unrefined; the old master all that was vanishing, all that Kawabata mourned. As a novel about an arcane contest which still can bring out all these important, even universal, themes, THE MASTER OF GO is an amazing feat. If this sounds interesting, give it a try. You definitely won't find another novel like it ! Kawabata certainly deserved the Nobel Prize.
Rating:
Summary: profound, honest masterpiece of style and subtlety
Review: In my opinion, this is the most complex of Kawabata's books. Kawabata's presentation of the eternal conflict between rapidly vanishing Japanese traditional culture (accelerated by opening of the country after Meiji restoration) and the newly Western-inspired way of life is treated in a bit more complex and conflicting ways in comparison with his other books and those of Tanizaki and Mishima. It is not clear where Kawabata stands. On one hand his admiration for the Master's of Go way is evident, on the other he admires Otake, Master's opponent in the game and the representative of the new. Kawabata's treatment of generational conflicts reminds me of Tolstoy in "Anna Karenina" and Robert Musil in "The Man Without Qualities". Overall, this book is a delight, regardless of whether one understands Go or Japan. This book is as ecstatically pleasing as the finest Japanese calligraphy, and as such has a universal appeal.
Rating:
Summary: Change of an era
Review: In this book, the game between the Master and the challenger symbolizes the real-world friction between the older Japan--rooted in tradition, honor, and culture--and the emerging modern Japan--espousing rationality, the letter rather than the spirit of the law, etc. The personification of these traits, in the somewhat fictionalized players of a real, famous Go match, rivets the reader to the page. The writer's style--the author won a Nobel Prize for another work--connotes these complex themes with simple prose. Translating this work must have been a challenge. To read it in the original Japanese would be rewarding. No background in Go is necessary to understand the novel. For those who are curious, however, the version of the Go in the Yahoo! Games section gives a suitable introduction to the game. If you play a few beginner, 9x9, games prior to or during your reading of the book, it will help you visualize the scenes. The human power of this book stirs the reader; some scenes I shall never forget. For anyone who has strived to master something--even if only themselves--this book will prove a poignant reminder of the tug-of-war between teacher and student, defender and challenger, the retiring and the upcoming generations.
Rating:
Summary: Sense of reality
Review: Kawabata is more difficult to translate into english than say someone like Mishima. He lets us view a pre-war Japan mind set that can sometimes seem a little alien to the westerner. This is his difficulty and his genius. The courtly aristocratic Go master playing against the much younger more modern challenger lets us see in microcosm the change in Japan from the pre-war aristocracy to a more egalitarian society. Kawabata is careful to show good and bad sides of both these individual Go players. Much is lost and a little is gained in this transistion for Japan. That is the impression Kawabata gives in this narrative of a late 1930s Go championship game. This novel is mostly non fiction and is told in a light aesthetic style. In reading this I am reminded a little of the 1972 Fischer vs Spassky Chess match in Iceland. I was a teenage novice chess enthusiast at the time and the reports of the many disagreements kept me glued to the nightly news. The disagreements in this Go match of course were nothing to compare to that famous Chess match. The author was covering this Go match for a newspaper and he was on the scene as an eye-witness, because of this the narrative carries a sense of reality not often found in fiction. Quite simply a mesmerizing read.
Rating:
Summary: Slow moving but spiritually rewarding
Review: Kawabata's 'The Master of Go' is a moving, at times agonizing, cultural depiction of the old v. new in Japan. The descriptions & emotions are purposefully understated, which may make it hard to follow, but in the process of discovering the clashing characterizations of Otake & the Master, many powerful themes emerge.
Rating: 
Summary: "Go Figure" Excellent Concept; Poor Execution
Review: This could have been one of the best books to ever emerge from Japan: If the author had interpolated each chapter with reminsces by the aging player, Shusai ("Grand Master" or "Master of Go" if that can be the proper transliterative title) upon his life events and upon the whole of the history of Japan. The embodiment of all: Perfect! Instead, while the reader would like there to be some interest, drama, focus, or even something which might sustain the interest provided by the otherwise simple, one-dimensional confines unique to the game of Go, it reads much like a magazine article. If one wanted truly to be a Grand master Sensei, here, they would rewrite the whole with the above description while having the game be played in multidimensional (or level) gameboard format set during contempoary period against a computer convention as backdrop. "Master of Go," one of the last of the author's works to appear in bound form (1968-1972), is best known as a book of interest to first-year students of Japanese lit and suffers from the burden of having appear far more interesting (or substantive) than it actually is. Unlike those works more exemplary of his larger talent ("Snow Country" and "The Sound of the Mountain" are here recommended while "Thousand Cranes" is a fair intro to the author), Kawabata's "Master of Go" reads like a National Geographic article; great idea, poor execution, dry style yet of great interest. There are some elemental (sic) problems with this edition: 1) Based largely upon the author's coverage of an actual Go match for the newspaper, Mainichi, in 1938, the story is said to deviate only very slightly in its descriptives from the real-life event; an artful -and convenient- misrepesentation as fiction (The earlier edition appeared in longer form in the earlier Fifties and is said to of interest.) 2) I believe the translation may be of differing representation than other of the author's books and as such offers the new reader of the writer a limited introduction to his broader oeuvre. 3) Urigami's narrative approach is very distinct from Kawabata's fictional in that it slights only seldom into introspection or artful observation. I truly believe this book was directly derivative from the earlier match as represented in the 1938 match. It reads stagey and fiarly wooden in tis decriptiveness (Secretly, I believe a real-life game was being played out between Kawabata and Tanziaki; yes and Mishima, too)
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