An Outline of Japanese Go

An Outline of Japanese Go (日本囲碁大系, Nihon Igo Taikei) consists of eighteen volumes, with each volume generally focussed on selected games of a single player from Honinbo Sansa to the early twentieth century (27 in all), commented in detail by a late twentieth century Japanese professional. Published by Chikuma Shobo from 1975 to 1977 (reprinted in 1992). Each volume is cloth bound hardback book consisting of between 250 and 300 pages with slipcover and dust jacket. See also An Outline Of Modern Go for books on later periods Japanese go history.

For some players, an annotator with a similar style was carefully selected. For example, Genjo's games were annotated by the "Cosmic" Takemiya, Chitoku's by the endgame expert Shimamura, and Shuei's by the calm and logical Takagawa.

• Vol 1 Honinbo Sansa, and Nakamura Doseki by Iwamoto Kaoru (9+17 games)
• Vol 2 Honinbo Sanetsu, Yasui Sanchi, and Honinbo Doetsu by Cho Chikun (10+5+8 games)
• Vol 3 Honinbo Dosaku by Go Seigen (33 games)
• Vol 4 Ogawa Doteki, and Inoue Dosetsu Inseki (Meijin) by Ohira Shuzo (9+14 games)
• Vol 5 Honinbo Dochi by Sakata Eio (27 games)
• Vol 6 Honinbo Satsugen, Honinbo Retsugen, and Hattori Inshuku by Kato Masao (8+8+7 games)
• Vol 7 Sakaguchi Sentoku I, and Yasui Senchi by Otake Hideo (6+19 games)
• Vol 8 Honinbo Genjo by Takemiya Masaki (27 games)
• Vol 9 Yasui Chitoku by Shimamura Toshihiro (27 games)
• Vol 10 Honinbo Jowa by Fujisawa Hideyuki (23 games)
• Vol 11 Inoue Gen'an Inseki by Hashimoto Utaro (22 games)
• Vol 12 Hayashi Genbi, Yasui Shuntetsu Sanchi, and Sakaguchi Sentoku I by Kajiwara Takeo (7+7+6 games)
• Vol 13 Ito Showa, Ota Yuzo by Hashimoto Shoji (11+11 games)
• Vol 14 Honinbo Shuwa by Sugiuchi Masao (22 games)
• Vol 15 Honinbo Shusaku by Ishida Yoshio (27 games)
• Vol 16 Honinbo Shuho by Rin Kaiho (26 games)
• Vol 17 Honinbo Shuei by Takagawa Kaku (26 games)
• Vol 18 Honinbo Shusai by Sakakibara Shoji (24 games)

• 第1巻 算砂・道碩 (岩本 薫)
• 第2巻 算悦・算知・道悦 (趙 治勲)
• 第3巻 道策 (呉　清源)
• 第4巻 道的・名人因碩 (大平 修三)
• 第5巻 道知 (坂田 栄男)
• 第6巻 察元・烈元・因淑 (加藤 正夫)
• 第7巻 親仙徳・大仙知 (大竹 英雄)
• 第8巻 元丈 (武宮 正樹)
• 第9巻 知得 (島村 俊廣)
• 第10巻 丈和 (藤沢 秀行)
• 第11巻 幻庵因碩 (橋本 宇太郎)
• 第12巻 元美・俊哲・仙得 (梶原 武雄)
• 第13巻 松和・雄蔵 (橋本 昌二)
• 第14巻 秀和 (杉内 雅男)
• 第15巻 秀策 (石田 芳夫)
• 第16巻 秀甫 (林 海峯)
• 第17巻 秀栄 (高川 格)
• 第18巻 秀哉 (榊原 章二)

Zengarden: This looks like a wonderful series for people interested in Go history. Can anyone suggest a way of finding (for example) volume 3 of Dosaku, either on Amazon.jp or via a bookshop which speaks a European language!

Bob McGuigan: Almost all of these books are out of print. Akashiya Shoten, a book store in Tokyo that specializes in used and old go books, probably has most of them available. The web site is in Japanese. Probably someone on their staff could respond to an English email inquiry. They list volume 3 on Dosaku for 4000 yen.