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Dictionaries page
  Difficulty: Expert   Keywords: Books & Publications

If you want overviews on Go, rather than comprehensible fragments, one place to seek them would be the major reference works. This is not likely to be helpful to beginners, naturally enough.

The structure of the Nihon Ki-in's dictionary series is revealing:

Top Level

  • Great Fuseki Dictionary
  • Great Joseki Dictionary (2 volumes)
  • Great Tesuji Dictionary

These are anonymous corporate works, typically priced at 24000 yen for a large volume of 1000 pages in a slipcase.

Middle Level

These are all in two smaller-format volumes, about 500 pages per volume, typical price per volume 2300 yen. The Joseki Dictionary is the updated version of the Ishida Joseki Dictionary. Volume 1 of the Cho book has been translated as the two volumes All about life and death. None of the rest has been translated, The Rin book has some recent material but is mostly about fuseki theory up to the mid-1970s. Volume 1 of the Fujisawa book is one of the important books to study at dan level.

Introductory Level

There are ten Small Dictionaries. pocket size, about 220 pages and 900 yen. No authors, marketed also as 'Quick' guides. Topics:

  • Life and Death
  • Tesuji
  • Even Game Joseki
  • Handicap Go
  • Fuseki
  • Trick Plays
  • Hoshi Joseki
  • Endgame
  • Proverbs
  • Technical terms (?)

Of these the Fuseki and Proverbs books have been translated into English.

Fhayashi: I think the Hoshi one is translated as (The Nihon Ki-in Handbook of) Star Point Joseki, Y30 (Yutopian).


A previous series of dictionaries (from the 1970s, another publisher) comprises much very good material. It included

The Joseki Dictionary here is the Small one, a cut-down version of the Igo Daijiten.

Dave Sigaty: The Tesuji Dictionary by Segoe and Go is classic. Anyone who has the chance should grab it. The Fuseki Dictionary is quite different from Rin's. Where Rin's dictionary is a broad survey of fuseki practice up to the 70's, Takagawa's is much more an exposition of how he sees fuseki. Like all experienced pros he has tried all kinds of fuseki in his career. In this dictionary most of the example games are with him playing either Black or White.

This series also includes:


There is little enough in this material that tells one about the middle game. One series of books that addresses this is the Igo Dan Players Series, initially over eight volumes - but perhaps not quite up to the editorial standards of a dictionary.


The progression here seems clear enough: towards the top amateur levels, you can get something about openings and tesuji from books; for the rest you are thrown back on the abundant supplies of pro games and problem collections.


For comparison, the titles of a Korean dictionary-style series, probably on the same general level as the Small Dictionaries.

  1. Handicap Baduk
  2. Trick Plays
  3. 3-3 Invasions
  4. 4-4 and 3-4 Openings
  5. Middle Game and Strategy
  6. Invasion and Reduction
  7. Poseok (i.e. fuseki)
  8. Haengma
  9. Soksu (bad style)
  10. Endgame

This has a different feel entirely - certainly more pragmatic, oriented towards fighting. The contrast only goes to support the general argument put forward by John Fairbairn on the haengma discussion topic. There is new thinking coming out of Korea about the way to organise the material of Go/Baduk.


There have been a number of joseki dictionaries down the years. One that is cited elsewhere on SL is

There are certainly others, by Takagawa, Miyashita Shuyo. Of course the information in these compilations is uneven, and of limited value as a reference unless you want to make your own comprehensive study of some joseki.

A 1998 one-volume

seems not to be at all well known.

Charles Matthews

BobMcGuigan: A small dictionary-like text on joseki that should not be lost sight of is

three volumes, published in Japan by Koma Shobo in 1981. It has a lot of insightful Kajiwara-style thinking.


[1] Yose Dictionary Erratum1

[2] Sakusen Jiten in Japanese. AKA Fighting Dictionary.



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