This amazing goban came to Baduk Club from a go board dealer in Yokohama City.
The board is almost 20cm thick, and has the usual candy color that Kaya wood takes on with age, highlighting the dark red resin in the grain. It comes with a protective paulownia lid. It stands 30cm tall with legs on.
It looks like Kaya, with these indicators:
- The Cut: it is Cross Cut (Tenchi-masa style) which produces straight lines on as many surfaces as possible (only some crossgrains on the sides).
- The Grain: the lines are wavy, unlike shin-kaya and most matsu. They are also quite thin because Kaya is a slow-growing tree so there are hundreds of rings.
- The Weight: Kaya is dense because it retains its resin as it cures for 10 years.
- The Size (of the trunk): You can see that the rings are packed together incredibly tightly. This was an absolutely tremendous tree. While kaya isn't rare, it does take 500-1000 years to grow large enough to be used for a go board.
- The Color: a warm candy color, the heartwood is a uniform tone.
- The Scent: It should have a sweet smell like vanilla and cloves, but I have not been able to check it yet.
A quarter-sawn board like this produces beautifully-straight end-grain in the position where both players will sit, and straight lines along the top and bottom as well so it is easy on the eyes. Counting the tree rings could occupy you for hours. The sides have cross-grains in unique patterns. Usually we see quarter-sawn boards from Shin-kaya, so there is a possibility that this is the case. The two can be difficult to distinguish, but Shin-kaya would weigh much less overall, so we think it is Kaya - if the weight is not correct for Kaya we will apply a $500 refund.
The legs are a darker orange color and are probably Katsura. Their finish is quite good, and they have a Double Shoulder which is a very good indicator of the quality of the board. I would recommend that the board be oiled and re-waxed, especially if your climate is less humid than Japan. Visit my Care Instructions to learn more.
The edges are all quite good, though one corner has been impacted. The protective paulownia lid has lived a long time and may need to be reglued. There are a couple imperfections that can't be helped with a used board, please see the photos for details. A set of size 30 glass stones is included. Boxed up with the legs and the lid, this set weighs 23kg.
Please understand that this is a Vintage item. Purchased new, such an item would cost about $5000-$7000 today.
If you would like to add go bowls or stones, please use our Chat Widget or email us discuss pricing. It would be no trouble to bundle this item with other products from our warehouse in Japan.
Shipping Details:
FedEx International Priority shipping from Japan (to nearly anywhere) is already included. This service reduces the actual transit time to only 5 business days, and also allows more room for padding in order to avoid shipping damage. Please allow a week for Customs preparations, then a FedEx tracking number will be provided that you can use to sign up for notifications.
