Golden Era Of Go/ Discussion

I think this definition is clearly out of date. When I look at:

• The number of international tournaments,
• Teen-age pros winning titles and driving innovation at a great rate
• Go servers on the internet offering global venues available 24-7.

It is clear to me that the Golden Era of Go is NOW! :-) What does everybody else think? --DaveSigaty

Bob McGuigan: I don't know how the name "golden era" was decided but I agree with Dave. Back in Shusaku's time there were no tournaments and, really, very little competition between players from different schools. Now there are immensely more strong players and tournaments of all kinds. In Shusaku's time Japan was effectively culturally shut off from the rest of the world and almost nobody in the West played go. And even limiting ourselves to Japan I would say that the development of the Ki-ins and the involvement of amateurs has made the last century far more of a golden age than the mid 1800's.

Anonymous: I also agree. How about the period of Honinbo Dosaku when the professional ranking system and castle games were established? Or how about from the period of Honinbo Satsugen's rise to Meijin Godokoro to Honinbo Jowa's retirement in 1839, when the level of go and the castle games was revitalized; a string of tremendous players emerged, such as Yasui Senchi, Yasui Chitoku, Honinbo Genjo, the Tempo Four and Honinbo Jowa; and the Gokyo Shumyo, Genran and Gokyo Seimyo were published? There are so many more suitable periods for such a lustrous title. Also, it should be renamed to emphasis that it's Japan's period, not the rest of the go world's, which each have their own happenings going on.

Plop?: The golden era of cars was when they first started coming off assembly lines despite there being more and better cars now, the golden era of radio was pre-TV, despite there being more radio stations and music now. The golden era of go I'd say isn't now despite your valid points

Dave: I would agree with you on radio. It has since been supplanted by other media forms. If you Google on "golden age cars", I think you will find that most people list the 50's-60's the golden age. Since then the issues of polution, fuel costs, etc. have risen. But in the case of Go, I would be interested in why you think that the insular Go culture of Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries was "golden" compared to now (other than the fact that the Japanese Go houses themselves named it so in writing their own history :-)

Plop?: Two reasons really, Dosaku and Shusaku's days were probably when the largest strides in go theory were made, and because in those days Go had a lot more prestige

Migeru: There's nothing wrong with a "Second Golden Era", is there? We don't have the hindsight to see whether or not large strides in go theory are now taking place. I hear that young Korean players are revolutionizing the game not only in terms of titles but also in terms of style...

Stefan: Today we're in the Diamond Era of Go.

Dieter: Ask a Japanese, he'll answer yesterday; ask a Korean, he'll say today. Ask me and I'll answer maybe some day.

GodGinrai?: Many of you make valid points, but the truth is, you don't change history because you like the name someone else is using. You don't go back and change the name of a specific Civil War, just because a more recent one was more bloody. That era should stay the Golden Era of Go. And Stefan has the right idea, just the wrong direction. If you think now is better, name it better! Although Diamond does not go along the track of metals, you could call this era the Platinum Era of Go.

Fernobob: Didn't we change the name of The Great War, to World War One once we had had a bloodier one?

Velobici: The item referred to by the name 'The Great War' has not changed. That conflict is known as both 'The Great War' and 'World War I'. Sometimes additional names are used widely, sometimes within a single country. Have heard that the Soviets referred to 'World War II" as 'The Great Patriotic War' (ohhhh...Wikipedia agrees, it must be true!).

Hyperpapeterie: Names like 'the golden age of...' do change from time to time. But that's not our job here at Sensei's.

Anonymous: Arguably, the golden era of Go from a Korean perspective may well be the current one, since 1990, with the rise and shine of Lee ChangHo and the immense popularity of Baduk in his slipstream. Also, international matches between Chinese, Korean and Japanese professionals and the gradual penetration in the West could justify calling today's era the golden one. However, the name is not commonly used this way.

Bill: The main page has gone from bad to worse. It started out as a simple statement of opinion by Hu, who did not sign his opinion, BTW. Now it is spuriously exact in time, with a list of players and an air of authority and verisimilitude. All without warrant.