“Can you hear that resonance? That’s what the heso is for - that and as a prevention against warpage,” Dog said. He took a black stone from his bowl and held it between his index and middle fingers, firmly snapped the stone onto the board. He handed me the bowl with the white stones. Feel that hole? It’s called a heso.”Īs he spoke, Dog produced bowls filled with stones shaped a little like mint candies. I’ll show you how you can tell how serious the manufacturer of the piece was. You believe that? The man had nothing… so I asked him about that and you know what he said? He said, ‘Would you sell your child for $20,000?’ Put your hand under the block. I heard someone offered him $20,000 for his goban and he turned it down. “I used to bring him MREs to pay for my lessons, that’s how poor this guy was. I learned this game from a Go master when I was stationed in Okinawa,” he said. A traditional Japanese goban is made from the Kaya tree, now rare and very expensive. The grain of the wood, the sharply cut corners. I enjoy just looking at it, touching it, can you see the beauty?” he asked. This goban, although plain and simply constructed, is a work of art. He sat cross-legged on one of the pillows and I did the same. He tossed two pillows on the hardwood floor on either side of the table. “I’ve seen it in here as I walk by, but never knew what it was,” I said. “Do you know this game?” Dog asked and diverted my attention to a piece of furniture nearby, a low table that looked like a small butcher’s block of blond wood sitting on very short, stubby legs. One evening during a period where conversation was forbidden between the trainees, when we were to read or contemplate the day, Dog directed me to the library and pointed at a low-slung table over in one corner of the room. Dog taught me many skills and I must admit that after almost three months of training, I was a greatly changed teenager. The group was under the auspices of the U.S. He was charged with instructing a group of 13 college-aged kids in the arts of deception and survival. He was an ex-Marine drill sergeant and a man of many talents. My teacher was a man who went by the name of “Dog”. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day. “Go” is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent.
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