Intermediate Japanese for Reading Go Books
Once you have mastered Basic Japanese for Reading Go Books, you are ready to move on. This page aims to help you get a bit more out of your Japanese go books and point you towards some techniques and resources for learning Japanese.
Recap and Pronunciation
黒番 kuroban Black to play
白番 shiroban White to play
黒先白死 kuro sen shiro shi Black to play and kill White
黒先生き kuro sen iki Black to play and live
白先劫 shiro sen ko White to play and make a ko
Types of Go Books
詰碁 Tsumego
手筋 Tesuji
死活 shikatsu Life and death
次の一手 tsugi no itte next move
問題集 mondai shu problem collection
基本 kihon basic, fundamental
Here's an example of a Japanese go book.
You should be able to spot several key words on the cover.
Books Grades
Many books of problems are graded and the grade may be given on the cover. Here are a few common examples.
入門 nyumon (nyuumon) introductory (for beginners)
初級 shokyu (shokyuu) elementary
中級 chukyu (chuukyuu) intermediate
上級 jokyu (joukyuu) advanced
有段 yudan (yuudan) dan-level
高段 kodan (koudan) high-dan-level
三、四、五 級 3, 4, 5 kyu
初段 shodan
The famous Maeda tsumego series has three volumes labeled 初級, 中級, 上級.
Note pronunciations shown in parentheses are wapuro romaji. For an explanation, see under Romanization on Japanese Go Pronunciations.
Japanese for Diagrams
図 zu diagram
正 解 図 Solution diagram
参 考 図 Reference diagram
変 化 図 Variation diagram
点 Spot, point (example: at
:
(1 の 点))
右 Right (example to the right of
:
(1 の 右))
左 Left (example to the left of
:
(1 の 左))
上 Above (example above
:
(1 の 上))
下 Below (example below
:
(1 の 下 ))
隅 corner
辺 side
Modern books usually label points with roman letters: A, B, C. Old books use the Iroha (いろは) to indicate additional moves. The first seven additional moves in order based upon the Iroha are: イ, ロ, ハ, ニ, ホ, ヘ, ト
Japanese for Results
正解 seikai correct
失敗 shippai failure
セキ seki
double ko, nakade, jigo,
Hiragana and Katakana
It's worth learning the two syllabaries. Many Japanese go terms are written in katakana. Hiragana is used to provide the grammar. It's useful to know when the meaning is negative. There are many resources online to help. Here are a few examples. Please add any good ones that you find yourself.
Yoshida Institute
kanachart.com
thejapanesepage.com
nihongoweb.com
List of resources
Jim Breen's Japanese page at Monash University
NN: richard, you listed different kanjis for tsumego and life & death. i am kind of puzzled, isn't that the same thing, tsumego = life and death? thanks in advance for your answer.
Richard Hunter: That's an interesting question. Let me answer in two parts. First, on my bookshelf, I have many 詰碁 books and several 死活 books. My intention was to ensure that people looking for suitable Japanese books don't look only for tsumego and tesuji and overlook 死活 ones because they lack the right key words in the title. They are worth reading too. Tsumego has a wider meaning that includes life&death. Basically, tsumego refers to a restricted position rather than full board but can include semeai, connecting out, etc. The problems can be realistic or contrived ones unlikely to occur in a game. Japanese books on life&death tend to focus on the shape of standard corner positions like the L+1 group and how to live/kill. They may follow a series of variations on a shape with a leg, hane, open liberties etc. Tsumego tends to focus on the killing/living technique.