Traditionally, bowls (go-ke in Japanese) are made of wood. In general, they are quite dark, and are made with a highly polished finish. Woods used for this kind of bowl are:
Of course, bowls can also be made out of plastic, and suitable fridge-organisers will fulfill the function as well as anything else. To ensure that the stones can be reached as the container gets empty, it's better to choose containers that are low and wide rather than tall and narrow (just like your territory on the board :-).
Most of the bowls I find here in China are actually wicker baskets. I find they have an aesthetic appeal all of their own. Ironically the few wooden bowls I've been able to find have been cheap and shoddy, usually paired with nasty plastic stones. -- Michael Richter
My bowls, bought in Tokyo about 12 years ago at considerable expense, are a beautiful medium-brown wood that smells like camphor -- I think the wood may be "kusunoki", a kind of laurel. When I first got them the odor was rather overpowering, but now you don't notice it unless you get your nose right in there. -- Scryer
Bob McGuigan: Kusunoki is known in the West as camphor wood, which would agree with your description of the odor. It has a nice grain and color and is widely used for decorative things like screen frames or sculpture.
If you go in search for non Go related bowls, keep in mind that the volume should be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6.5 dl (0.65 L) to be able to fit all the stones. -- Urban Nilsson
just in case there are people out there who want to turn their own bowls out of blocks of wood- don't use oak, it contains natural tanning agents which will destroy the lustre of shell stones and turn them matte. we once had problems whith a shell collection stored in oak cabinets, it was terrible, all the surfaces turned chalky white -- grimalkin?
see also Go Terms Used for Go Equipment