Tsumego/Etymology

Bill: Perhaps the original meaning was something like go within a circumscribed area. The go classic, Guanzi Pu, (known in Japan as Kanzufu), has both life and death and yose problems, for instance. But it has come to mean life and death problems. Similarly, tsumeshogi refers to shogi mating problems. Perhaps the shogi term came first, where the king is contained and killed, and came to mean life and death in go by analogy. John Fairbairn would probably know.

JohnF I don't know which came first but, yes, tsume means abbreviated or compressed in this case. It shares the same root as -tsum- in damezumari but even in the case of tsumaru/tsumeru the meaning is one of compressing the space available, packing something in (e.g. canning is kanzume). Kanfuzu is wrong. It should be Kanzufu, but really as it's a Chinese book we should refer to it as Guanzipu (or Guanzi Pu). I put in kanzume as a tease - the kanzu here has nothing to do with kanzufu :) It's the aberrant Japanese reading of guanzi.

Bill: Thanks, John. Kanfuzu corrected. ;-)