Edo Igo Quest

Seems like no-one was interested. That's fine.

>>384408
>>Go to the bar. There you can buy drink and perhaps find an opponent.

>>384408
>>Go to the bar. There you can buy drink and perhaps find an opponent.
Lets get into a bar fight

>>384408
>Get an early night. Tomorrow, you may want to apply to one of the igo houses and you don't want to be too tired.
Interest get! Even though I have no idea what any of this means.

>>384857
Here OP?

Thanks for showing interest in what is a rather niche quest idea that I didn't think would take off and I'm still not sure about running. The idea is that you play Go against other players of varying strengths, often to enter the next round of a tournament or win a drink, using an abstracted system of solving a series of (probably fairly easy to begin with) Go problems to represent your performance in the game. And you'll also do lots of other things, such as recreate at bars, travel, politick, and chase up rumours, all in the setting of 1801 Kyoto and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be reasonably able to write any more for quite a while. I'm on GMT so I probably won't be writing another post for at least 8 - 10 hours.

>>385245
So would it be like puzzles and problems we have to solve?

>>385288
Well, I've woken up again.

>>385288
Yeah, composed puzzles. But if no-one knows the rules of Go, then we can use some sort of dice-roll system instead.

>>384408

>>385024
>>385030
The pub is made of stone blocks, in a hexagonal shape, lit by small braziers around the room as, though it only late afternoon, the sun has already gone down behind the mountains. Around the edges of the pub are several windows with blinds looking out onto the city or upon orchards of bare trees. You walk to the bar - this, at least, being wooden. it looks to have been fashioned from a single great tree trunk, and on its lower part have been carved sturdy legs. You buy a large white ceramic cup of the inn's driest unheated, unspiced sake, and notice a young man who looks to be in his twenties also sitting drinking at the bar.

>"The snow's so thin here, isn't it?" he asks. Wouldn't come more than halfway up your boots."

You nod your head. "At least it won't be causing much disruption to the people of the city. From what I've heard, any settled snow in Kyoto is uncommon for much of the year."

>"I've come all the way from northern Honshu to visit a friend of mine. The travel has not been easy due to the snow and ice on the roads, but there was no harvest to reap and so I got bored and decided to have an adventure. This is my first time in the capital. What about you? Are you from this city, or did you travel here from somewhere else? The capital draws people in from far and wide, after all."

>I am from the great city of Osaka. Ah! Its bay is beautiful, scattered with islands and home to thousands of seabirds and and many fish.

>I hail from a town on the coast of the Inland Sea. There are many islands great and small, and forests and villages upon them. Looking out over the sea in the morning is an experience I have never tired of.

>I come from Tohoku in the north. I also know snow well; at this time of the year, it would come up to our knees and my family and I would sit together around the hori-gotatsu as the wind blew outside.

>I travelled here from a small island to the west of the mainland. We were not very close to the mainland, so we lived a mostly self-sufficient lifestyle, though now and again ferries would arrive, stopping at a more eastern island, and deliver supplies. The ferry boats also transported passengers between the islands and to and from and the mainland; this was how I arrived at Shikoku.

>>386870
>>I am from the great city of Osaka. Ah! Its bay is beautiful, scattered with islands and home to thousands of seabirds and and many fish.

Now you must write in Kansai-ben.

>I am from the great city of Osaka. Ah! Its bay is beautiful, scattered with islands and home to thousands of seabirds and and many fish.

>>386870

>>386887
>>386888
"I am from the great city of Osaka. Ah! Its bay is beautiful, scattered with islands and home to thousands of seabirds and and many fish."

>"Osaka, eh? Osaka's always sounded pretty nice to me. Good food, fresh fish all year round, a cool sea breeze in the morning... so what brings you to Kyoto?"

"Igo. I travelled down t't capital to play Nippon's greatest game against the greatest who had time to play me, for wager or no wager, to enter tournaments and to challenge masters."

"Now that's a reason I haven't heard before," says the barman, polishing a cup. "Most Osakans want to sell me sake. That said, they do make a pretty good sake over there and I don't mind buying a barrel when they stop here. But if you've come to play igo then you're in the right place: there's nowhere better for it than Kyoto. We host the Nippon Igo Tournament every season except winter, when snow on the roads can hinder the travel of some of the players. But instead, we have the New Year Tournament, and this year we're calling it the Kyowa Tournament to celebrate the start of the new era. If you want to get a bit of practice, I could set up a little prize for a game here in the pub. It'd be worth it for the free entertainment."

>"No, but thanks for the offer. I have my studies to attend to."
>"A game, eh? Good! Count me in!"
>"Not today, but perhaps later."

>>386940
>>"A game, eh? Good! Count me in!"

>>386940

>>386943
>"A game, eh? Good! Count me in!"

Soon enough, you are sitting on a wooden chair in the middle of the pub, facing your opponent over your goban. He is a middle-aged man with a closely trimmed beard. Around you both have gathered a crowd of pub-goers holding drinks, the surrounding tables and stools having been pushed a little way towards the edges of the room; luckily, none of them look to be about to drunkenly slop anything over the board. The barman has come out from behind the bar and is standing in front of the board, facing the crowd. "Welcome, ladies and fishermen, to the Old Cat Ryukan's Kyoto - Osaka Igo Challenge!"
There is cheering and laughter from the crowd.

"The prize? Only pride. Pride... and a free dinner and drinks. Representing Kyoto, our beautiful city, the capital of Nippon, we have Fujisawa Rii! And, representing the coastal city of Osaka, we have... sorry, what was your name?"

>>386986
Alright, I am gonna read up on the rules of Go. It doesn't look too hard.

>>386986
Komachi Hiroko

>>387010
This seems good.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

[The Igo Manual:

>The goal and rules of igo
The goal of igo is to use your igo stones to surround more territory on the board than your opponent. Points can also be gained by capturing your opponent's stones and removing them from the board, placing them in the lid of your stones bowl. For a group of orthogonally connected stones to live and remain on the board, the group must have at least one ' liberty ', an unoccupied point on the board orthogonally next to the group. Much like an animal or plant, each group must have room to breathe in order to live. Immediately repeating a position seen on your last turn is banned: just as time flows on, people age and cities grow and dwindle, so must a game of igo change and develop until its end.]

>The goban
A goban is the board used to play igo. It is a square board, with 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines at equal distances along the sides. These lines run along the board from one side to the other, crossing one another to form 361 intersections, the number of days in a year.
The goban, like the night sky, is strewn with several bright stars: the star points. There are nine star points: four in the corners, four squares away from both edges; four halfway along the side, four squares from the edge; and one in the centre of the board. The centre star point is known as tengen, the origin of heaven.

>Nigiri
A process to determine which player takes the black stones and plays first, when the usual decision processes are not applicable. One player takes a handful of white stones from their bowl and holds them hidden in his hand. The other player guesses whether the number is odd or even. If he is correct, then he takes the black stones; if he is incorrect, he takes the white stones.]

"My name is Komachi Hiroko."

"Komachi Hiroko! Now then, Komachi-san is the junior player, but he is also the guest; and as Fujisawa-san holds no title, Komachi-tan is not the challenger. Neither is one of our players nominally stronger than the other. So, they will do nigiri."

>Roll 1d10 + 10 for how many stones you pick up from the bowl. This roll is for Fujisawa guessing whether the number is odd or even.

1: Odd
2: Even

>>387043
>-tan
-san

Rolled 9 + 10 (1d10 + 10)

>>387043
>he

Rolled 2 + 10 (1d10 + 10)

>>387049
Nice
>>387043

>>387043

>>387049
>>387055
You reach into the bowl and take a big handful of ceramic, white stones. As per custom, Fujisawa takes two black stones from his bowl and places them close to one another on his side of the goban, signifying his guess that there number of stones in your hand. Opening your hand and tipping the stones onto the board in a pile, you count the stones out into pairs. 2, 4, 6...14, 16, 18, and another stone: 19. You get to go first! You work with Fujisawa to put all the stones back into their proper bowls.

>[Your performance in this game will be decided by answering a series of Go puzzles (known as tsumego). These will usually be about killing your opponent's groups by depriving them of the chance to get two unconditional liberties (known as eyes) or saving your own groups from being killed.

I'm going to give you four puzzles. If you solve 0 or 1 puzzles, you lose the game. If you solve 2 or 3 puzzles, you win the game.]

>>387069
> that there number of stones in your hand.
"that there is an even number of stones in your hand.

File: tsumego 1.png (4KB, 226x208px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 226x208px

[If you're confused about a term, make sure to check on Sensei's Library, a Go wiki at senseis.xmp.net]

You both play a somewhat dull opening, occupying the 3-4 komoku points in the corners of the board and using them to make small knight's enclosures around prospective territory. Fujisawa plays a high stone along the side of the board to your right, four spaces from the edge, extending from his corner enclosure to try to lay claim to more territory. Yet because his stone is high, his territorial claim - though large - is loose and insecure.

You could invade it now, or concentrate on building your own territorial framework instead - though then his framework would be harder to invade.

>Concentrate on extending your own framework
> With a small, secure move
> Or with a large, insecure move
>Invade Fujisawa's framework

>Here is the first problem to test your skill.

>>387094
Or if you don't want to do any problems, we can do the whole game on dice rolls.

>>387094
>>Concentrate on extending your own framework
>> With a small, secure move

>>387112
Problems are fine, just give us more time. No one here is a Go player it seems.

>>387094
C1. That way we create a group that, to be killed, requires white to fill all other spaces inside the white group and destroy potential eyes.

>Invade Fujisawa's framework
When the opponent presents vulnerability, you must capitalize on it.

>>387094

>>387142
Correct. I'm going to take >>387127 as the order, though, to give everyone a chance, Go-player or not. I hope you don't mind.

Problem #1 Solved

From now on, you'll only do puzzles when you do ' combat ' actions.

---

You ignore Fujisawa's move and concentrate on increasing your secure territory by playing a tight extension stone from your corner enclosure. Fujisawa, presumably seeing no clear way to invade, uses a stone to make his side territory more secure - though there is still some room for invasion, or attack to gain influential stones on the outside of his territory.

>Expand along the side
>Secure your framework
>Enter the centre
>Invade
>Attack
>Cap your opponent's influence and expansion
>Other

>>387158
>Cap your opponent's influence and expansion
It looks like there might be a few ways to box him in.

>>387158
>Enter the centre
I don't know if it's a good idea at all

File: tsumego 2.png (5KB, 264x286px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 264x286px

Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d6)

>>387158

>>387164
So far, so peaceful, so boring. While you don't think it's necessary to attack or invade Fujisawa's long side framework yet, you reckon it's time to cap it, put it in its place, condemn it to crawl along the sides, force it to live low whilst you hog the centre all to yourself. At least, that's what you hope will happen. You play a stone on the sixth line, stamping down onto the head of Fujisawa's framework, keeping it down.

>Solve Problem 2. If you solve it, Fujisawa will try to resist by getting 7 or more on 2d6.

>>387209
We are black, right? Well if we finish up going on the right with that one spot open, he has no where else to go, right?

>>387217
Sorry for the confusion.

These are abstracted tests of skill to represent your performance in the game. They don't represent the actual state of the board; they're composed problems. If you like, I'll make a map of the board state as well, though don't expect it to represent realistically good Go-playing as I'm not a very good player (about 18kyu OGS).

>>387224
Ah. Alright. So like sets of situations where we have to solve and win and we move on?

>>387230
Yeah. Like how some video games use minigames to determine a player's prowess at an activity. These puzzles are like isolated minigames. You just solve them to see if something the game that you're trying to do works.

File: komachi - fujisawa game.png (9KB, 960x960px) Image search: [Google]

9KB, 960x960px

[This is a fairly reasonable idea of the board state.

You don't have to solve the puzzles. That's just a bonus for people who want to. If you like, you can roll 2d6 instead and I'll use that as your performance.]

File: tsumego 3.png (4KB, 263x172px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 263x172px

Here's an easier puzzle as well as the other one.

>>387278
Alright. For this one, maybe can we fir through the crack so we can have an open area to expand?

>>387291
Up in the right corner I mean

File: tsumego 3.png (3KB, 263x172px) Image search: [Google]

3KB, 263x172px

>>387278
If I understand correctly, here we want to play to the marked point so we create an eye and two more potential ones, of wich white can only destroy one.

>>387291
That's an idea, but you can't connect new stones to your group diagonally. So where should you play to keep two empty spaces orthogonally next to or inside your group, regardless of how white attacks it? It's illegal to play a stone in a place where it will instantly die or kill its own group. If you look, there is some space underneath the black group - but you'll need to divide into two separate holes.

File: tsumego 2.png (5KB, 264x286px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 264x286px

>>387209
As for this, here. If the resulting group is killed, a square hole is created which white can't turn into one more eye if the don't distract black somewhere else on the board.

By the way, 7 is the average roll on 2d6. Isn't it a bit unfair to give Fujisawa so high a chance to resist when previously you said that 2 solved puzzles mean our victory?

>>387316
So to capture a stone, you have to surround it on all sides?

>>387331
[I'm still composing the mechanics at the moment. It depends upon the players' skill level and how long you players want each game to last in posts.

I'll have you go through two more activities and puzzles to give the game some narrative. Then we'll go back to more traditional questing.]

File: last move.png (10KB, 960x960px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 960x960px

>>387265
Fujisawa sees no point in immediately contesting your cap and instead plays a framework reinforcement move. Hmmm.. his framework is lying low and flat on the other side of the board like a great white eyeball, staring you down. It won't be easy to invade it. Without much nearby support, it'll be hard to cap it either.

>>387315
Correct!

Hiroko's next move:

>Expand along the side
>Secure your framework
>Enter the centre
>Invade
>Attack
>Cap your opponent's influence and expansion
>Other

>>387349
>Enter the centre
I seriously don't know if it's a good idea.

>>387315
Good job.
>>387349
I say enter around the sides so we can get a handle on our opponent.

File: tsumego 4.png (5KB, 238x240px) Image search: [Google]

5KB, 238x240px

How many more actions do you want to take in this game before I write that we won?

>>387335
Yes, or surround its whole group. It's like an insect - if a group of stones has one empty square where it can ' breath ' (that's my own term), then it can live. But if you play an stone onto an opponent's group's last empty space, even if that space is inside the group, killing that group takes priority in the rules over the stone not being allowed to be played in an opponent-surrounded square. That means that to live securely, you need to have two holes ( 'eyes' ) in your group.

>>387361
Want to solve this puzzle?

>>387377
So if you were to completely surround a group and they have only one hole to breath, they will have to fill that hole and they will lose?

File: suicide diagram.png (4KB, 215x218px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 215x218px

>>387395
No, because they can play somewhere else on the board. In fact, a move that kills a group directly is called suicide and is illegal under Japanese rules and Chinese rules.

I'm going to go with >enter the centre..

File: tsumego 4.png (4KB, 238x240px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 238x240px

>>387377
Ummm... On red then on green or, if green is blocked, on cyan. Am I right?

>>387447
That's right.

>>387349
Enough pissing around on the sides. The sides are just one part of igo - the other is the anabasis: exploration and conquest of the centre of the board. You notice that Fujisawa has a habit of running fingers through his short beard whilst he thinks. Like a bamboo plant ever eager for sunlight, growing ever taller, you advance from your territory past the star points, towards tengen. Your stones rise high, high above the edges of the board and through the centre; like one of Japan's great forests, they cover great swathes of the board You engage in some combat in the centre, but nothing particularly sharp or difficult. After 150 moves, Fujisawa says "You played a good game. Good enough to get the better of this old man - this time. Maybe you should enter the New Year's Tournament."


>What do you say?
And then:

>Offer to review the game with him
>Claim your free dinner and drinks
>Look for a new opponent

>>387462
Thank him for being such a great opponent and maybe go over the game a little with him.

>>387462
>I will be glad to play with you again sometime

>Offer to review the game with him

>>387462
"You were a great opponent, " you reply. "I enjoyed our game very much. If you are the standard of amateur play Kyoto capital, then I am impressed. The other patrons of this fine ryokan should be thankful to have a player of your calibre against which to test their wits - if they're not too kaylied, that is."

"I just did my best," he says.

The crowd seems to approve, and various friendly drunks slap you both on the back before returning to their seats, not bothering to move the furniture back.

"If you like," you offer, "I'll review the game with you, talk you through it. While I eat my free dinner. Why don't I buy you a drink as well?"

"No need," says the barman, "he's earnt a free drink for giving the customers something to watch. Double the vision is double the entertainment, right?"

[Eating dinner.]

>>387506
You're served a bottle of sake and a wooden bowl of brined tsukemono pickles, and you set about reviewing the game with Fujiwara, pointing at intersections on the board, which shows the game's final position, explaining defences and variations. He doesn't seem upset, angry or sullen at his defeat - rather, he's friendly and interested in exploring the game with you whilst you eat a grilled trout steak on the house, and then a plate of mochi.

>Wander around the pub
>Go to bed
>Leave the Ryukan

>>387506
* amateur play in Kyoto

>>387676
>Wander around the pub

>>387724
Writing.

>>387676

>>387724
You get up from the board, leaving Fujisawa to puzzle over the effectiveness of his groups, and wander around the pub, looking around and glancing at the people sitting on stools at the round tables, drinking, laughing, eating and playing games. Among the more interesting patrons are a couple of old men playing some variety of shogi; a long-haired girl doing origami, folding pieces of plain white paper into cranes and flowers and populating her table with them, many seeming not to follow well-known designs; and a teenaged boy studying an igo game record.

>Talk to the boy
>Talk to the girl
>Talk to the old men

If you want, I can introduce some fantastical elements to make the quest more interesting. I always intended fantasy to be a possible component.

>>388469
>>388252
I am sure we can combine our world with some fantasy where it fits. Lets go talk to the girl.

>>388252

>>388514
You approach the girl, surrounded by paper cranes in slightly different positions and with slightly different proportions; and pieces of paper, some square and some rectangles of varying width and length.
.
"Hello. I'm Hiroko. May I sit with you? Your origami looks champion."

>"I'm glad you like it. I'm Aoi."
"So," you say, sitting down next to her, "how do you make this stuff?"
>"Do you want to try?"
"Sounds great."

Roll me 1d20 for your skill at making an origami crane.

Rolled 20 (1d20)

>>388572

>>388593
You pick up a square piece of paper, plain white like all the others, and start following the instructions Aoi gives you. Fold here, fold there, it doesn't seem so hard... you relax and find it quite easy to form the head, the body and the wings.with sharp, straight creases. At the end, you have a perfect origami crane, its wings slightly tilted, as if being readied for an imminent flight.

>"Wow! Great job!"
"Thank you. I think it looks great; I'm well chuffed. I think I'll keep him."
>"You're welcome to. So, you're from Osaka, then?"
"I am. I was both born and grew up there, as perhaps you can tell from my speech. It is a beautiful and lively city, but I left to come here, to the capital, to pursue a career playing igo."
>"I wish you good luck. I don't play it myself, but there are some bookshops around here which might sell some books about it. I can give you some directions if you want."

>"No, thank you."
>"Yes, please."
>"I don't think I'll need any books. Practice and regular play are the best teachers."

>>388698
>>"Yes, please."

>>388698
"Yes, please. I'd love to know a place or two where I could pick up some learning materials."

She gives a list of directions based on street junctions and local landmarks, which she claims will take you from the ryokan to a streetside bookshop which she says sells poetry compilations and game strategy guides. She also gives directions to an ' igo bar ' used as a meeting place for local igo players. It apparently also serves alcohol and rice.

>Talk to someone else
>Go to your room
>Leave the ryokan

>>388776
>>Go to your room
One win tonight seems enough

>>388785
You return to your room, collecting your igo equipment and taking it back with you, and drinking a last free cup of sake from the bar.

You get back to your room and sleep well. Waking in the morning, you find that the snow has not melted in the night, and more snow has fallen and piled upon it. A little strange - you'd be told by several people that snow usually quickly melted in Kyoto. Well, what of it? It is Mutsuki, the middle of winter: it is no surprise, even here, that snow falls upon the ground, nor that it does not melt by morning,.

After dressing and eating a satisfying and varied breakfast in the pub, it is time to leave and explore the capital by the fresh morning light. Before you leave, the barman tells you that the venue of the Kyowa tournament has been chosen, though there is disagreement over who announced it, and everyone seems to have heard it from a friend, who heard it from someone in a bar. It is said that the tournament will be held in the ancient and towering To-Ji pagoda.

>Visit To-Ji
>Visit the bookshop
>Visit the igo bar
>Visit a bar
>Visit the mountains
>Just wander around Kyoto

I think this will be my last update for tonight. Thanks for playing.

>>388934
Oh, and you take your paper crane with you as well.

>>388934
>>Visit the mountains
Maybe we can battle some monk

>>388934
>Visit the bookshop

Rolled 2 (1d2)

1: >>388969
2: >>389934

>>388934

You decide that you shall go to the bookshop. You leave the ryokan and begin to walk along the flag-paved street. The night's snow is being cleared away from entrances with spades, pushed into piles in the centre of the path. As you walk along, you pass many pinewood buildings: houses with hanging pots of flowers; bars and cafes with tables and chairs outside their entrances; modest shrines built in the classical Nipponese style, with roofs gradually sloping outwards; shops and street stalls selling many goods - sacks of rice, cups of sake, hot ramen, tamagoyaki omelette...
After some time of wandering in the chilly air, you exhaust your list of directions. Looking around, you hear an uncertainly-played flute melody you've never heard before float towards you from your left. Following your ears, you discover a building, its entrance surrounded by hanging pots of flowers and herbs. A large sign flows vertically down the wall beside the door, reading ' HIgashiyama Bookshop '

「
東
山
書
店
」.

cont. later.

[Updates might be at unreliable times.]

>>393178
You open the door and enter a room lined with bookcases around its sides, lit by sunlight streaming in through the windows. A girl with medium-long hair is sitting underneath the quilt of a hori-gotatsu is playing a bamboo flute, fashioning a relaxed melody; she doesn't notice you until you cough politely, whereupon she quickly places the flute back on the table and stands. She bows to you in a typical gesture of commercial respect and hospitality, and you return the bow.

"Good morning, traveller. What brings you to my humble shop? Would you like a cup of tea?"

>"I'm looking for any books about igo. Your shop was recommended to me."
>"I'd love a cup of tea, thanks."
>"That was an interesting tune you played. I enjoyed it."

>>393852
>"That was an interesting tune you played. I enjoyed it."

>>393852
>>393937
"That was an interesting tune you played. I enjoyed it."

The girl blushes slightly. "Thank you. It's just a little folk song, nothing classical or anything. I practice the flute when business is slow."

"Well, I thought it was smashing. Just the thing after a walk. Does it have any lyrics?"

"Yes, it does. It's a sort of travelling song, about wandering around the countryside. The first verse goes:

' Winter's snow is on the ground,
the stream is frozen in the glen;
I'll don my coat and leave the town
to take a walk - and wither then?
' "

"I like it. Did you write it yourself?"

"No; I learnt it in in the mountains around the city. I've brought a few flowers and herbs from the slopes down to the shop; they don't mind it at this altitude in the winter - I guess all this snow makes them feel right at home."

"Looks pretty good to me. Anyway, what books do you have here?"

"We're a fairly general bookshop, so there's quite a few different subjects. There's poetry - classical compilations and some more recent works -, game guides, histories, religious texts, cookbooks, travelling logs, farming and gardening manuals, maps and quite a few books covering other areas."


>"I'm looking for any books about igo.
>"I'd love a cup of tea, thanks."

[captcha: select all tea]

>>394103
"Oh! Excuse me for asking this question, but how literate are you? Quite a lot of people, even in the city, can't read many kanji, or the characters are written in an old-fashioned or quickly written style that they don't recognise; or the jukugo words themselves are old-fashioned and have just been mindlessly copied and haven't been updated, and some of the books aren't in Japanese - they're in Classical Chinese. I ask all the new visitors, so I can help them find books right for their reading level, or sometimes they want . Or are you looking for a present for somebody else?"

>How literate are you?

>Mostly illiterate, save for ' shopkeeper's literacy ' of the numeral system and the written words for various market goods.
>You have both practical simple-vocabulary literacy and more advanced but selective literacy, but you are not familiar with many written words, especially more obscure ones.
>You are totally literate in contemporary Japanese

>>394184
* want books with pictures or diagrams.

I think I'll finish this mini-session here; I'm been on an irregular schedule over this quest's whole run.

>>394103
wHither

>>394184
>You are totally literate in contemporary Japanese
'Cause we are cool like that.

>>394184
>>395603
"I can read anything fine, not that there's anything wrong with a diagram here and there. I'm looking for some books about igo."

"I see. We do have a few books about igo. Please sit down under the hori-gotatsu and I'll bring them over."

Thanking her for her hospitality, you sit down on a cushion under the quilt and lower your legs into the square irori trench beneath, where they are warmed by the contained, heated air. Your host is examing some books on the second shelf of a four-shelved bookcase about her own height, but as wide as it is tall; the top three shelves hold books, mainly bound in leather but some in bamboo or thin slabs of wood. The bottom shelf is empty, and on top of the bookcase are paintings and charcoal sketches of mountain paths and views, as well as pots of small wildflowers and fragrant plants.
The girl returns with three books, which she lays in a tower on the hori-gotatsu's table platform.

"When I was looking for the books, I remembered I had forgotten to introduce myself. I am Hinata Yamamoto. Pretty convenient name, I know."

"I'm Hiroko. Nice to meet you."

Yamamoto-san sits down opposite you. "I found these for you," she says picking the books off the pile one by one and laying them on the table:
' The Fundamental Guide to Igo ',
' Four-Stone Games - Japanese Translation ',
and 'Records of the Kyoto Castle Games of the Tenmei Period '.

You've never heard of any of these books, though you know that the Tenmei period was an eight-year period that began ten years ago; and that the Castle Games, called oshirogo, are games played between representatives of the four great igo houses in front of the shogun. Imagine the excitement!

>Look at one of the books (which one?)
>Buy one of the books now
>Politely decline the books and leave the shop

>>396469
>Look at one of the books
The Fundamental Guide. How fundamental is it? Can we glean much new from it?

>>396923
Picking up the Fundamental Guide to Igo, you note that it's a medium-sized book covered by a couple of thin, rectangular slabs of light pine wood, connected by a strip of leather. The title and the name and rank of the author, 「Yamada Ryuichi 2-Dan」, are written vertically on the left of the book; the centre and right of the cover are taken up by an ink drawing of a sapling growing out of a stones bowl.

"Do you mind if I take a look at a few pages?"

"Not at all. If you buy it, though, you're welcome to read it in here for as long as you like. I'll even make you a cup of tea."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'd like to examine them a bit first."

"Feel free to look at the books, but please be a little restrained in your reading. Not to be too blunt, but... er... I have a business to run, you know? But if you do buy a book, then I can give you a direction to another igo book which I think you'll be interested in. It's not mine, but I reckon you'll get to see it if you mention that I sent you. It's my grandfather's."

"I see."

Turning the book over, you see that there is another ink drawing showing the sapling having grown into a blooming flower. How metaphorical. A blurb, written in the vertical manner of Japanese text, reads: 「In this book, I aim to enlighten new players as to the fundamental principles of igo and the most productive topics to which to direct their study. In addition, I hope that experienced players may gain from taking a fresh look at the basics of the game.」

The first page is a list of chapters:

Chapter 1: An explanation of the rules and object of igo
>Chapter 2: Opening strategies and defences
Chapter 3: Taking and defending territory
>Chapter 4: Attacking groups and invading territory
Chapter 5: Becoming competent in the endgame

>Look at another book
>Buy a book
>Leave the shop

>>397457
What a nice girl. But, alas, we're married to the game! For now, at least.

>Look at chapter 5, see if there's something new there.
>Look at both the other books.