This board came to Baduk Club from a private home in Saitama, Japan. The edges and corners are in great shape for a used board.
The board is Katsura, with a warm, orange heartwood color throughout. Katsura is slow-growing so the rings are quite dense. But it is a soft wood, so the sound of played stones is more muted than on hard wood like bamboo or agathis.
This is a plain-sawn board, a center-cut that shows the rings of the tree. This cutting style is called Kiura (Itame) and is the highest-valued style when the tree is not large enough in diameter to be quarter-sawn. The result provides heartwood ripples on the playing surface in a unique pattern, like a fingerprint. It has a raised-lacquer Tachimori grid.
The legs are also Katsura. It comes with a paulownia lid and a yellow cloth cover. There is white wax residue on the underside and legs, which is a good sign. This wax can be cleaned off with a dry cotton cloth and a new layer applied, if you wish. A fresh coat of our Monkey Butter would really make the board glow and deepen the red color. Please visit our Care Instructions for learning more about preserving our vintage products.
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.
Because of the quality of our equipment, Surface shipping is not recommended, but it is possible if you wish to reduce the cost by about $80 (and increase the transit time to 2-3 months). Contact us with the chat widget to make such arrangements.
