The Direction Of Play
The Direction Of Play is a book by Kajiwara Takeo.
First published 1979 by the Ishi Press, a translation of Go Super Books volume 12 from the Nihon Ki-in series. The book was reprinted by Kiseido.
In the English versions of the book, the author's name is in the Western order (given name, then family name), Takeo Kajiwara.
Over six discussion chapters, a problem section and a detailed game analysis, we have Kajiwara's theory - 'a stone has power', 'move two lost the game', 'living go', 'no real improvement unless you ...'; and so on. This is an artistic rather than a technical theory of go. Or the master chef bawling out the kitchen underlings for lack of committed perception.
Plenty of interesting ideas here. I don't know where one does pick up the concept that good go depends on feeling. Some people might find it in these pages.
See also David Carlton's review.
Halfling: At which strength should one read this book? It is a little confusing for me and I often don't understand when the author makes remarks like "It's clear that ..." : (
HolIgor: It is definitely a dan level book. High dan level even as it discusses planning the game as a whole. I remember Kajiwara saying "Give me this ponnuki and I won the game". Man, you gave your enemy 20+ points of territory for this ponnuki and you've won the game!?
Malweth: I like to think of this book as: read this book, but ignore it. It may be useful at the strong SDK level if only read with the subconcious.