黒木碁石店

Go board craftsman Mr. Keiji MIWA made China grown Hon kaya 1.9 sun Shihou-masa 1-piece 9*9-ro special dimension Table Go Board No.78020 *Tachimori finish lines

No reviews
¥53,000

Tax included. Shipping calculated at checkout.

Famous board craftsman Mr. Keiji MIWA made China grown Hon kaya 1.9-Sun Shihou-masa 1-piece special dimension of 9*9-ro Table Go Board.

The 9*9-ro board is quite thick and stable, as it is 1/4 scale of standard-sized board with 19*19 ro.
*Please check the "Size comparison" image.
It is engraved with a proof "Keiho" manufactured by Keiji MIWA.

The lines of a board are marked using "Tachi-mori", the skill of drawing lines using a Japanese sword.
This traditional technique highlights the beauty of natural grain patterns and the texture of lacquered line is smooth and has also a nice feeling.

■History
Miwa Gobanten is a long-established Go board manufacturer and shop in Nagoya, that was founded in 1917, with the history of more than 100 years. Now the workshop and shop are owned and operated by Mr. Keiji MIWA with his official artist name "KEIHO". He is the third generation owner, following Mr. Saburo MIWA as the first generation and Mr. Yasuharu MIWA as the second generation. The origin dates back to the first owner Mr Saburo MIWA, who was a craftsman of Hako Hibachi (box type brazier), loved Shogi and Igo very much. Saburo learnt from one craftsman in Osaka how to make Shogi and Go boards.

■Philosophy and Passion: Identifying wood quality and professional drying technique
We are highly proud of the quality of our boards but also all the process starting from selecting material wood through drying technique. Currently. The third generation owner Mr. Keiji MIWA has visited a lot of lumber markets all over Japan to see and feel as many as wood as possible with his own eyes and identification skill, even though many Japanese Go board manufacturers depend only on distributors to purchase material woods.
Supported by his long experience, Mr. Keiji MIWA acquired a special skill to identify the best wood to make best Go and Shogi boards, making their products truly valuable that we are able to proudly introduce to our customers. Especially we want to emphasize their splendid drying process. Miwa Gobanten has kept natural drying method, among them some of the wood are dried for more than 10 years long.

■Philosophy and Passion: Carving on legs
People say that carving on board legs always requires patience of craftsman. Carving work using a small knife is not a simple work. They finish carving and engraving just a few pieces in a day. Furthermore, it also requires additional polishing work that usually takes several days more to finish.

■Philosophy and Passion: tachimori
The symbol of high-end Go and Shogi board is Tachimori, making lines on board using a Japanese sword. Miwa Gobanten adopts a special Tachimori technique called ‘Yarai’. They apply Japanese lacquer on the tip of sword blade and gently press and print it down on the wooden board. This method enables them to make beautiful, gentle, smooth and elegant lines that can be only accomplished by a manual work. These boards with Tachimori lines are true value of Miwa Keiji as the top artisan in this field.

He has long experience in board making and knows how the weather and humidity will affect lacquer conditions. He accumulated all kinds of data so that he will able to fully utilize these information in his Tachimori process. Japanese lacquer as painting material is hard to handle as it is easily affected by temperature and humidity. By fully utilizing both of his experience and accumulated data, he always tries to produce the best of best quality Go and Shogi boards from his workshop.

This board's cutting style is "Shihou-masa", this cutting style is the most valuable cutting style among all cutting styles.

The bottom and both side has some knot fillings, but the grain of the top and bottom quarter-sawns is thin and straight, making it a beautiful board.
The bottom and both side has some knot fillings

Bottom has some color spots derived from the wood materials.

*Please check the photo images.
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.

*Go board materials are explained detail in "How to choose a board".
Please take a look.
Go to "How to choose a board".
"Shihou-masa" cutting style is the most valuable cutting style among all cutting styles !!!

"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.

*Go board cutting styles are explained detail in "How to choose a board".
Please take a look.
Go to "How to choose a board".
  • Product
    Board craftsman Mr. Keiji MIWA made China grown Hon kaya 1.9-Sun Shihou-masa 1-piece special dimension of 9*9-ro Table Go Board
    Shihou-masa 1.9 sun / 5.8 cm thick
    Item No.78020
  • Size : (height × width × thick)
    221 mm × 206 mm × 58 mm
  • Weight : About 1.3 kg
  • Included:Certificate

  • Please bear the actual cost for shipping charges outside Japan.
You may find small knots, burrs, rolled-in bark as all these products are made of natural trees.
There may be some small flaw or scratch, dent, chipping.

Only 1 piece in stock!

Recommendations for those who have seen this product

Recently viewed