601-YCB-01 Board craftsman Mr.Miura of Yachimata Gobanten made Japan grown Hon-Kaya Table Shogi board Ten-masa (Masame) 2.0-Sun / 62 mm thick 4-piece composition board Haguruma-mori finish lines No.85001

This table Go board is crafted by board craftsman Mr. Miura of Yachimata Gobanten.
It is made of Japan-grown Hon-Kaya wood, featuring ten-masa (Masame grain), 2.0-Sun (62 mm) thickness, a 4-piece composition structure, and grid lines finished in the Haguruma-mori style.
The lines feature a Haguruma-mori* finish, created using a specially formulated lacquer blended in-house with genuine Japanese urushi, resulting in a beautiful glossy finish.
On the underside of the board, there is a seal mark reading "Yachimata Goban" (meaning Yachimata Go board workshop), certifying that it was crafted by Yachimata Gobanten.
*"Haguruma-mori" is a line-drawing technique that uses a uniquely developed tool created specifically for this purpose.

This is a beautiful board with no particularly noticeable defects.
*Please check the photo images.

Founded in 1971, this Go board workshop has been making Go and Shogi boards for over 50 years in Sanmu City, Chiba Prefecture.
The first generation trained as a traditional joinery craftsman before pursuing the path of a board craftsman.
Today, the craft is carried on by the second-generation board craftsman Mr. Katsumi Miura, who continues to create boards every day.
For more than half a century since its founding, we have devoted ourselves wholeheartedly to Go board making, pursuing nothing but the highest quality with unwavering passion.
From procuring the timber, to sawing, drying, and finishing it into a product—every step is carried out consistently in-house.
This is because we believe that the Go boards delivered to our customers must embody the highest quality, a pursuit that requires facing the material with sincerity and refining our skills day after day.
We sincerely hope that you will see and feel for yourself the craftsmanship cultivated over many years and the passion we have poured into each board.

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.

*Go board materials are explained detail in "How to choose a board".
Please take a look.
Go to "How to choose a board".

When the material itself is too large in diameter to make a one-piece board, or when the board cannot be made from a single piece of wood for any reason, it is sometimes made by joining pieces of wood together.

A board made in this way is called a "tsugi-ban" or "hagi-ban" (joined or composite board).
There are several types of these boards and the ones with a fewer number of pieces, with less variation in color and grain, are regarded as more valuable.
When using a composite board, we collect material wood that is as close as possible in wood color and grain in order to make the board as consistent as possible.
Then, the joints are precisely calculated and bonded together so that the lines are placed right over the joints as much as possible. (Not ensured in some cases)

In fact, we spend more time and effort to produce tsugi-ban boards, which are slightly less valuable than one-piece boards.
The composite board also has some advantages: since multiple pieces of material are joined in parallel, each piece is narrower and less prone to warping.

* "composition board" is explained detail in "How to choose a board".
Please take a look.
Go to "How to choose a board".

• Board craftsman Mr.Miura of Yachimata Gobanten made Japan grown Hon-Kaya Table Shogi board Ten-masa (Masame) 2.0-sun / 62 mm thick 4-piece composition board Haguruma-mori finish lines
  Product No.：No.85001
  Size (height × width × thick)：約366 mm × 336 mm × 62 mm
  Weight：About 3.8 kg
  Included：Certificate
• 1,000 JPY flat rate shipping within Japan, free shipping for purchases totaling 20,000 JPY or more.
  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.