How to choose a Go board

These boards are designed to be placed directly on the tatami (Japanese-style straw and rush mats) or wooden floor. The board with legs is designed for the players to sit on the floor in front and behind the Go board, so the board surface needs to ensure a certain height.
The weight of these boards depends on the thickness, but they generally weigh between 10 and 30kg as they are often made of a single piece of wood (not the composite board) and are usually very thick, giving them an incomparably heavy and luxurious feel compared to a table board. We recommend a board with legs for those who want to enjoy playing Go earnestly and for intermediate to advanced-level players.
This board is not suitable for use on a table, unlike the table board. Most Go boards with legs are relatively expensive.

These are mainly used for playing Go games on a table while sitting on a chair or sofa. The thickness varies from 0.3-sun (approx. 1cm) to 4-sun (approx. 12cm), but the most common thickness for a table board is 2-sun (approx. 6cm). Table Go boards are lighter and less expensive than Go boards with legs, and they are the most popular these days.

The Ori-ban is a simple and compact board that can be folded in two when not in use, so no special storage space is required. It is inexpensive and lightweight, so it is convenient to carry around and widely used not only by beginners but also by intermediate level players on a daily basis. As the board has hinged metal fittings on the bottom it may wobble on the table or scratch the table. We recommend that you put a protective mat underneath before placing a folding Go board on the table. We also have "hingeless folding boards" with no hinged fittings.

Magnet Go board sets, cloth or leather boards are simple and perfect boards that can be used while traveling or playing Go games just for a short time. Most of these boards are inexpensive, lightweight, and easily portable.

Kaya is regarded as one of the best materials to make Go and Shogi boards, because of its good sound and feel when placing the stones, moderate elasticity, beautiful grain, color, gloss and luster, and aroma. Hyuga kaya is a special type of close-grained Japanese nutmeg tree grown and harvested in a mountainous area in the southern part of Kyushu, Japan.
The reason why Hyuga kaya from Miyazaki Prefecture is of the highest quality is because of the natural environment in which the tree grows. The climate in southern Kyushu and the Miyazaki area has relatively big temperature differences between daytime and night time, a lot of rainfall, and strong direct sunlight, all of which help trees to produce clear-grain grains. The wood grows on rocky terrain and requires several hundred years to grow into a tree large enough to be used as Go board material. This is why it is considered a top-quality product, due to its rarity as well as its wood quality. The grain of the wood is very fine and dense, so it rarely causes warpage or distortion.
Hyuga kaya boards are used in various title matches and famous tournaments. The sound of the placing of stones on the board is very clear. Moreover, as it is used over the years, it will take on a refined candy-colored luster, further enhancing its maturity.

In order to make a one-piece Go/Shogi board or board with legs, it is necessary to get a large tree between 200 and 800 years old. However, since logging is now prohibited except in some privately owned forests, large diameter Hyuga kaya wood is almost impossible to find on the market. The availability of close-grain grain is becoming more and more difficult year on year, especially for Hyuga kaya boards with legs made from one piece of wood. For these reasons, Hyuga kaya is a "top quality material" in terms not only of value and price, but also quality and rarity.

Kaya is regarded as one of the best materials to make Go and Shogi boards, because of its good sound and feel when placing the stones, moderate elasticity, beautiful grain, color, gloss and luster, and aroma.
There are three types of kaya trees: "Hyuga Kaya" which is grown and harvested in a mountainous area in the southern part of Kyushu, Japan, "Japanese-grown honkaya" which is grown in other areas of Japan, and "Chinese-grown honkaya" which is mainly grown in Yunnan Province, China. Generally, Japanese-grown honkaya is said to be better than Chinese honkaya in terms of quality.
The main difference between Japanese and Chinese kaya is the wood quality, caused by the natural environment where the tree was grown. Japanese kaya is usually lighter and more yellowish in color and has a unique wood aroma. Depending on your preference, Japanese kaya is generally more highly valued than Chinese kaya, and the value and price of Japanese kaya tends to be higher due to the rarity of the wood.

In order to make a one-piece Go/Shogi board or board with legs, it is necessary to get a large tree between 200 and 800 years old. However, since logging is now prohibited in many forests in Japan, large-diameter kaya wood is almost impossible to find on the market. The procurement of kaya is becoming more and more difficult and the Japanese honkaya Go board is getting rarer year on year.

Kaya is regarded as one of the best materials to make Go and Shogi boards, because of its good sound and feel when placing the stones, moderate elasticity, beautiful grain, color, gloss and luster, and aroma.
There are three types of kaya trees: "Hyuga kaya" which is grown and harvested in a mountainous area in the southern part of Kyushu, Japan, "Japanese-grown honkaya" which is grown in other areas of Japan, and "Chinese-grown honkaya" which is mainly grown in Yunnan Province, China. Generally, Japanese-grown honkaya is said to be better than Chinese honkaya in terms of quality.
Chinese kaya tends to be less valued than Japanese kaya due to its reddish wood color, wood quality, and rarity, but this material is often sold at a relatively affordable price for a high-quality board.

Hiba is an evergreen coniferous tree of the cypress family found almost everywhere in Japan, but it is different from hinoki (Japanese cypress). Hiba wood has a bright yellowish-white color and a fine grain, giving it a beautiful appearance. It has a distinctive aroma, and the wood is somewhat light and soft, making it resistant to water and moisture. Go boards made of hiba boast a good feeling when placing the Go stones, but the sound is subdued and discreet.
Hiba is known as a highly durable wood because of its resin content, which makes it resistant to decay and water. It is widely used as a board material because of its bright white color and inconspicuous grain.
Hiba is also famous for being used in the Golden Hall of Chuson-ji Temple, which is a historical building designated as a National Treasure of Japan. It is mainly used as a material for buildings, ships, civil engineering, and railroad sleepers because of its resistance to water and moisture. The bark is also used as a match cord or rope.
Hiba is also called "asunaro" (literally meaning "let's become a cypress tomorrow"). In recent years, this wood has also attracted attention for its antibacterial "hinokitiol" content.

Katsura is a deciduous tree of the Judas family, mostly from Hokkaido (the most northern island of Japan). It has been used as a board material since ancient times. It has a slightly hard feel when placing the stones, but the placing sound is good. The darkish-brown wood color gradually darkens as time goes by.

The Ginkgo is a tree that has been planted throughout Japan since ancient times and is so familiar in Japan as a garden tree and roadside tree that it has multiple names written in different Chinese characters such as 鴨脚樹, 銀杏, and 公孫樹. The fruit of the tree has also been eaten as Icho or ginkgo nuts since ancient times, making it one of the trees with which the Japanese people have a close relationship.
Ginkgo wood is light yellow in color with an indistinct grain. It is widely used for Go/Shogi boards and other utensil materials such as the abacus, cutting boards, etc., carving materials such as seals, woodblocks, and mokugyo (a fish-shaped wooden drum at Buddhist temples), building materials such as ceiling boards, and the base wood for lacquer ware.
Ginkgo grows very quickly, reaching a height of about 30 to 40 meters and a diameter of about 5 meters, so large trees with relatively large diameters can be harvested.

Shinkaya wood, also known as "new kaya", is a spruce wood grown mainly in North America, which is different from Japanese kaya. Spruce wood is widely used because it grows straight, is odorless, has low oil content, is easy to process, and is in good supply, making it relatively inexpensive to produce Go/shogi boards. Spruce board is sold at an affordable price but it has a similar grain and color to honkaya but is not as high quality as honkaya wood. The quality of the spruce is comparable to that of honkaya or Hyuga kaya, but it is less prone to deformation and cracking.
Spruce wood is also used as SPF (spruce, pine, fir) material for furniture and building materials, but unlike kaya wood, it shows significant deterioration over time, such as changes in wood color, and has a shorter life span.

Shihou-masa is an ideal cutting style with straight grain (masame)* on the top, bottom, and both sides (players' sides) of the board. This cutting style is only possible when the wood is cut out from a tree with a large diameter, so we can say that the word shihou-masa means the boards are made from trees with a large diameter or a well-aged tree. Therefore, it is regarded as the most valuable board with a higher price. Especially, a board made of kaya wood (Japanese Torreya) shihou-masa is very expensive, sometimes priced in the millions or even tens of millions of JPY (several thousand to several hundred thousand US dollars), because they are extremely rare and hard to get.

Tenchi-masa literally means the grain runs from the top to the bottom or from the sky (ten) to the earth (chi). As there is no visible itame (flat grain), you can see the beautiful masame (straight grain) from the top to the bottom of the board. When the top and bottom surfaces have masame (straight grain) but the side has itame (flat grain), the board is classified as tenchi-masa. Just like the shihou-masa board, the tenchi-masa board is made from a large-diameter, well-aged tree.
The kaya (Japanese Torreya) tenchi-masa board is synonymous with the finest Go boards made of valuable wood.
Also, most of the boards called tsugi-ban or hagi-ban (composition boards made from several pieces of wood joined together) have tenchi-masa or masame (straight grain).

Ten-masa has masame (straight grain) only on the top surface of the board. The bottom surface has itame (flat grain). The general masame boards belong to this type. The top surface is beautifully finished so the ten-masa board is highly valued.

The oi-masa board has itame (flat grain) on only one side of the top surface of the board. The center (core) of the log often has this grain pattern, which is cut out between masame and itame.

This cutting style applies to the center (core) of the log and itame (flat grain) appears on the top surface of the board. The top surface has masame (straight grain) at both ends and an oval or bamboo shoot-like pattern or irregular itame pattern in the center. Itame (flat grain) appears on the top surface. This is the most valuable cutting style of the itame wood.

This cutting style applies to the center (core) of the log and itame (flat grain) appears on the bottom surface of the board. The top surface has a bigger oval bamboo shoot-like pattern or irregular pattern than kiura. This cutting style is implemented only when the log has some problems such as knots or gum pockets that should be avoided to ensure kiura, so the kiomote board often has problems on the bottom side.

The Itame board has little or no straight grain (masame) on the top surface, but has big itame (flat grain) instead. Many thin boards have this itame, which is prone to cracking and deformation.

The thickness of a board with legs is the thickness of the board itself, not including the legs. Generally, it ranges from 3-sun (approx. 9cm) to 8-sun (approx. 24cm) thick. Depending on the material, the value of the board becomes higher from 5-sun (approx. 15cm), and the board over 6-sun (approx. 18cm) thick is considered to be high-grade and high-value.
A board with legs boasts sublime beauty and great presence, and the high-end and expensive board always refers to a board with legs. The weight of the board is proportional to the thickness of the board, in general, a 3-sun (approx. 6cm) board weighs about 3-4kg, and heavier boards sometimes weigh from 10kg up to over 30kg.

Table Go boards are mainly used for playing Go games on a table while sitting on a chair or sofa. The thickness varies from 0.3-sun (approx. 1cm) to 4-sun (approx. 12cm), but the most common thickness for a table board is 2-sun (approx. 6cm). Table Go boards are lighter and easier to handle than boards with legs, because the weights range from 1kg to 4kg and up to 6kg for a typical 2-sun board.

This is a traditional technique in which urushi lacquer is applied to the edge of the blade of a Japanese sword and a line is drawn on the surface of the board using the curve of a Japanese sword blade.
The term tachi-mori (drawing lines with a Japanese sword) is often thought of as "cutting into the board with a Japanese sword and coloring it with lacquer," but in reality, the edge of the Japanese sword used for tachi-mori is curved, so it cannot cut the board. The correct expression would be "the edge of the Japanese sword is used as a brush to draw lines by heaping up the lacquer". If you touch a line drawn by tachi-mori with your fingertip, you will feel that the line is heaped up. This is why the expression "heaping up" should be used.
In the case of a regular 19 x 19-ro board, there are 19 vertical lines and 19 horizontal lines, for a total of 38 lines. Lines of the same thickness cannot be drawn unless they are drawn at a constant speed. After the lines are drawn, nine hoshi (stars) are written at the end, including the tengen center. The tachi-mori process cannot be redone, so if a mistake is made, the top surface must be re-planed and re-drawn.
Urushi lacquer, which is the main material used in tachi-mori, is an ancient Japanese paint that is difficult to handle and a bit troublesome because it can cause a rash in some people and temperature and humidity control is essential. Normally, in order to dry commonly-used paints, the humidity should be lowered, but in the case of lacquer, it should be totally opposite. Lacquer does not dry when the humidity is low and dries too much when the humidity is high. This is because the moisture in the air causes a chemical reaction with the lacquer's components, causing it to harden. However, if the humidity is too high, the lacquer will wrinkle and lose its luster, which is one of the charms of lacquer. The temperature for drying lacquer is also important, and it is essential to control the temperature and humidity to ensure that the lacquer dries properly.
However, once thoroughly dried, the lacquer has excellent resistance to water, moisture, acid, alkali, thinner, alcohol, strong acids, and hydrogen fluoride, which melts the glass and other substances. It also has an excellent luster, which is one of the characteristics of lacquer. It hardens year by year, so it becomes more beautiful with age than immediately after it is applied.
Another reason why lacquer is used for drawing lines on the boards is that once it hardens, it is strong enough and never melts or softens again. This tachi-mori technique can only be mastered by a professional craftsperson who has been trained for many years. The lacquer selection, the mixing method, the thickness of the lines, the Japanese sword, and the drawing speed vary from each artisan, resulting in the unique characteristics of each artisan in terms of the line fineness, color, luster, and height of the lines.
*In some cases, urushi lacquer is not used for tachi-mori.

This method is used for relatively inexpensive table boards and some reasonably-priced boards with legs. As the name suggests, lines and stars are printed on the board and lacquer-like paints or lacquer compositions are mainly used. Recently, some boards are printed with heaped lines and stars, so that it looks like tachi-mori style.
Screen-printing is a type of stencil printing in which ink passes through the mesh of a screen mask made of synthetic fibers, such as polyester or metal fibers or stainless steel, and is printed on the object. Using this screen-printing method, the lines of the board are printed on the top surface of the board.
This method is used for relatively inexpensive boards because it does not require the same amount of time and effort as the traditional tachi-mori method.

His workshop was founded in 1916. He is a board master who has devoted himself to all processes of board making, from the purchase of wood to the production of the boards.
Mr. Yoshida's boards bear the inscription " 一如 Ichijo" (meaning "oneness" in Japanese) as proof of his craftsmanship. The word "ichijo" is derived from the phrase "Busshin Ichinyo," which means "matter and mind are one". This is his belief that in making a Go/Shogi board, the board and the mind must be one and the same. Therefore, the "Busshin Ichinyo 物心一如" is written on the board as proof that the board and the mind are one and the same when making the Go/Shogi board.

The features of a board produced by Mr. Yoshida Torayoshi are the materials that are carefully selected by a reliable connoisseur, the cutting style (how the board is cut out from woodblock), the finish that is based on a thorough evaluation of the properties and features of each piece of wood, and the tachi-mori, a thin, delicate line drawn with Japanese genuine lacquer that creates elegance and beauty.