1. Shogi, which shares a common Indian ancestor with the Western game of chess, is played on eighty-one squares with twenty pieces per side. Most pieces can be “promoted,” which is to say that they acquire greater freedom of motion upon penetrating deep into enemy territory. Captured pieces may be put back into play by the capturing side.
2. The counting of installments is not consistent throughout the narrative. The number sixty-four would seem to include sixty-two installments in the narrative proper plus a sort of entr’acte following the suspension of the Hakoné sessions and an epilogue at the end of the match.
3. A complex process of consolidating and simplifying the lines takes place at the end of an important match, to make the outcome clear to the most untutored eye.
4. The “throwing of beans” to drive out malign influences. The rites occur during the first week in February, midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. There is a touch of fiction here, for the sign of the zodiac under which Mr. Kawabata was in fact born fell in 1935 and not again until 1947.
5. The rest of the chapter combines, with some revision, the larger portions of two of Mr. Kawabata’s newspaper articles.
6. Nozoki, a sort of tentative challenge.
7. Though the rules are complex, the basic object of Renju is to line up five Go stones in a row.
8. The expression “star,” hoshi, refers to any one of the nine points marked on the board for handicap stones (of which there are none in this title match). Here it would indicate one of the corner stars, each three points diagonally in from a corner. An opening play on a star is bold and innovative. The komoku or “little eye,” the most conservative point for an opening play, is two points and three points in from any corner. See the diagram on this page.
9. Wu Ch’ing-yüan, born in Fukien Province in 1917. He is far more famous under the Japanese version of his name, Go Sei-gen; but he will be called Wu throughout this translation. The game of Go and Goi the newspaper reporter seem to introduce quite enough possibilities for confusion without Go the player of Go.
10. This is the storm so vividly described by Tanizaki in the second book of The Makioka Sisters.
11. The match, in point of fact, took place in 1933.
12. He did “jump,” playing at R-13, the second point from that occupied by his own Black 87 (see diagram, this page). To “swim” would have been to play at R-12, adjacent to Black 87.
13. A version of Renju (see note 7) in which stones may be captured.
14. From a schoolchildren’s song.
15. Boshi, two points in from an enemy position. Here (see diagram, this page) White 50.
16. Tsukiatari. White 52.
17. In actual fact the seventh session was held on July 31, and the eighth on August 5.
18. The “lance” (Japanese kosha, “fragrant chariot”) moves forward, and forward only, any number of spaces, and so corresponds to no piece in the Western game. At a one-lance handicap, the stronger begins with one lance to his opponent’s two.
19. Respectively: Confucian and historian, 1780–1832; statesman, 1836–1888; and critic, essayist, and student of Chinese, 1823–1909.
20. There are special celebrations upon entering the eighty-eighth year by the Oriental count, or on the eighty-eighth birthday by the Western.
21. A variety of Renju in which, after a limited number of stones have been used on one part of the board, play must jump to another part.
22. The puzzle requires an intricate rearrangement of rectangles in a very limited space.
24. The gold general and the silver general (kinsho and ginsho) are the king’s bodyguards in Shogi. Normally silver may, upon penetrating deep into enemy territory, be promoted to gold; but under certain circumstances the advantages are in having it remain silver.
25. “Korean Shogi” is played with pawns alone. Pieces are lost when caught between enemy pieces.
26. There is only one rook per side even in a no-handicap game of Shogi.
27. Upon “promotion” it may move one space diagonally, in addition to the moves permitted the Western rook.
29. Kyu, “Grades,” precede Dan, “Ranks,” and, unlike the latter, rise in descending numerical order. The foreigner thus has thirteen steps to go before he reaches the First Rank.
30. 1558–1623.
31. Nineteen squared, the number of points on the Go board.
32. All Chinese. The first is a Confucian classic, the others are neo-Taoist.
34. The twelfth Honnimbō, 1787–1847.
35. Which is to say, on completely equal terms. In no-handicap matches, Black is held to have the advantage. It will be apparent that “the invincible Master” has in fact been defeated, though only in practice matches.
36. A president of Waseda University, member of the Diet, and Minister of Education; 1860–1938. “Hampō” is a nom de plume or “elegant sobriquet.”
37. Student of Chinese, 1830–1919.
38. The hokkedaiko or “lotus drum” of the Nichiren (Lotus) Sect.
39. Ko (Sanskrit kalpa) is a Buddhist term for an enormous passage of time, the next thing to eternity. In Go it refers to a situation in which the two players could take and retake the same stones for all eternity without affecting the larger disposition of forces. To cut the exchange short, the player whose stone is first taken must play elsewhere on the board before returning to the scene.
40. Though the kō situation is not present, Black has withdrawn from the scene of action as he would be required to were it present.
41. Vacant points which, if properly placed, can keep a group of stones from being captured.
42. In actual fact, the Master died just over a year after the end of the match.
43. Hitoyogiri, “single section of bamboo.” The couplet is from a children’s song.
44. Rice mixed with vegetables and, commonly, the meat of crustaceans.
45. 1842–1913.
47. This makes little sense (see the diagram, this page). Perhaps R-9 is meant.
48. There are only one bishop and one rook per side in Shogi.