This thick goban set came to Baduk Club from a vintage shop in Akita, Japan. It includes a Matsu (pine) go board, slate and shell stones, and Keyaki (zelkova) go bowls.
The go board is 12.8cm thick. It stands about 25cm tall with legs on. It looks like Matsu (pine). The plain-sawn style shows off the endgrain of the tree where the players sit, and results in parallel lines on the sides. Heartwood forms patterns under the playing grid. This kind of cut is the most preferred when the tree is not large enough to be Quarter-sawn. The corners and edges are quite clean, so it is in excellent shape. Some white wax residue on the underside is a good sign that the board has been cared for, but a new wax paste coating will help it adjust if your climate is less humid than Japan. Visit my Care Instructions to learn more about caring for this board.
The underside of the board carries a calligraphic inscription. The board appears to have been a gift to celebrate the birth of a first child, on an auspicious day in February, 1985. The legs have been marked and numbered so that their tenons can be matched properly with the mortises on the board.
The brown bowls have great lines, and are likely Keyaki or Cherry, but could be something similar. They carry a maker's mark of a highly respected craftsman named Kaishi. Although they were not measured, they appear size XL based on their footprint on the board as well as their ability to hold the stones with some room to spare.
The stones are slate and shell, but were not measured or counted. They appear to be size 30-34, about 8-9mm and moon-grade. When the shipment arrives, please count the stones and measure them with calipers so that we can help complete the set for you.
This is a Vintage product.
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Shipping Details:
FedEx International Priority shipping from Japan (to everywhere) is already included in the purchase price, a service that reduces the actual transit time to only 5 business days. This is expensive but necessary to provide sufficient room for padding, and the Customs Declarations will not include this shipping fee in the item value.
It may be possible to downgrade the shipping service to save on shipping cost, if your country accepts Seamail parcels from Japan Post. This is done at your own risk, so please contact us with the chat widget to request this.
In either case, please allow 1 week for the board to be packed and to clear Customs, then a tracking number will be provided that you can use to sign up for notifications.
