The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata

The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata

From the Nobel Prize-winning author and acclaimed writer of Thousand Cranes comes the luminous chronicle of a match of the Japanese game Go played between a master and a younger, more modern challenger that serves as a suspenseful elegy for an entire society.  

Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other's black or white stones. Simple in its fundamentals, infinitely complex in its execution, Go is an essential expression of the Japanese spirit. And in his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and heretofore invincible Master and a younger, more modern challenger, Yasunari Kawabata captured the moment in which the immutable traditions of imperial Japan met the onslaught of the twentieth century.

The competition between the Master of Go and his opponent, Otaké, is waged over several months and layered in ceremony. But beneath the game's decorum lie tensions that consume not only the players themselves but their families and retainers--tensions that turn this particular contest into a duel that can only end in death. Luminous in its detail, both suspenseful and serene, The Master of Go is written with the poetic economy and psychological acumen that brought Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker

Yasunari Kawabata was born in the city of Osaka in the year 1899. He was the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. He published his first pieces while still in high school and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924, making him one of Japan's most renowned novelists. The Izu Dancer, a short story he initially published in 1925, was reprinted in The Atlantic Monthly in 1955. Snow Country (1956), which consolidated Kawabata's status as one of the leading voices of his period, as well as Thousand Cranes (1959), The Sound of the Mountain (1970), The Master of Go (1972), and Beauty and Sorrow (1975), cemented his reputation as one of the preeminent voices of his time.

He was the chairman of the People's Environmental Network (P.E.N.). He was a member of the Japan Club for long years and was awarded the Goethe-medal in Frankfurt in 1959. In 1972, Kawabata passed away.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780679761068
ISBN 10	0679761063
Title	The Master of Go
Author	Yasunari Kawabata
Series	Vintage International
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	1996-05-28
Number of pages	208
Prizes	Winner of Nobel Prize 1968
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.