Yugen no ma
Yugen no Ma (幽玄の間 Yūgen no Ma) is a special room in the Nihon Ki-in used for high-level professional matches.
Yugen no Ma is quite large and elegantly decorated, with a beautiful miniature rock garden set into a little alcove facing the entrance. The name "Yugen no ma" means something like "Room of Mystery" or "Room of Great Darkness", these ideas being for Japanese synonymous with artistic inspiration. This chamber is featured in the anime and manga series Hikaru no Go. In the series, a budding Go player named Akira Toya and the holder of the Oza title, Zama Oza, play Go in the room.
Malweth: Does anyone know what the scroll on the far wall of Yugen means? Image is below:
深奥幽玄 でしょう? the first half looks like shin'ou, the second half is yugen (Yuugen for ViciousMan :-), I suppose it is a quote from some ancient classic - does the shudan page tell more? (no.)
Bob McGuigan: 深奥 means "esoteric principles, mysteries, secrets" according to my dictionary, but the first character, 深, means "deep", while the second character, 奥, means "interior" and is the root of a verb meaning "lie deep in". So I think the scroll characters mean something like "Deep, subtle mysteries". The calligraphy, by the way, is by Kawabata, the author of Meijin
MyrCyn?: The online shop at
http://kiseido.com (home of KGS) depicts a kaya go board with a similar scroll in the background. The meaning is given as "subtle and profound mysteries".