Dieter: I have an interesting tsumego book in my possession. I can't read kanji nor can I reproduce it here. The book contains 210 problems. It reads from left to right, like Western languages, unlike the Kanazawa Tesuji Series book. The cover foil displays seventies-like brown-white figures on an orange background. Inside the foil I see a familiar face, presumably a professional player, who should also be the author. He has a high forehead, his thick Black hair is combed to the back and falls onto his neck. His lips are full, his eyes gentle, his whole expression mildly earnest. He's wearing a coloured (grey on the picture) traditional (non-Western) dress. He is past his fourties when the picture is taken.
Any help to find out more about the book will be appreciated;
Andrew Grant: This sounds like a volume of the Maeda three volume tsume-go set. Volume 2 has 210 problems.
The series was published in 1965. Apparently Japanese publishers were experimenting at the time with using Western conventions for printing Japanese, but it didn't catch on.
The author was Maeda Nobuaki, who was famous for his tsume-go problems - he composed one a day for 40 years. Volume 2 contains 1-5 kyu problems. (Vol.1 was 10-5 kyu and Vol.3 was 1 kyu to dan-level).
Charles Yes - agree with all that.
Dieter Thanks a lot Andrew and Charles. The volume indeed indicates 1-5 kyu level for the exercises.
Richard Hunter Well Dieter, if you can't read kanji, you should definitely check out BasicJapaneseForReadingGoBooks.
rmsp I was recently told by a 5d that I should get "Maeda's Life and Death books in Japanese". Are these the volumes that I'm looking for? I found them on Amazon.co.jp (I think), along with a 350 page Tsumego Dictionary (I think). Could somebody confirm that I have the books identified correctly, and perhaps give me a recommendation? Thanks!
My guesses from Amazon's kanji:
置碁検討録〈上〉 First volume?
置碁検討録〈中巻〉 Second volume?
置碁検討録 下 新装版 (3) Third volume?
置碁辞典 Tsumego dictionary?