Segoe's Tesuji Dictionary

Jujube · #1

I've bought this from Ebay, it looks pretty old, in 2 volumes. How much Japanese is required for "getting the jist"? Can I get along with it by reading the headings and diagrams only?

Has it ever been translated into English?

I understand it'll be over my head even if it were in English but it's one for the future

I had to grab it while I could, along with an old copy of Maeda, an old 2-volume fuseki dictionary, and an old 1946 tesuji book printed in Occupied Japan. I guess it's time to brush up the massive 3 lessons I took in Japanese over the course of a few months...

アシュリー。

Cassandra · #2

Jujube wrote:

I've bought this from Ebay, it looks pretty old, in 2 volumes. How much Japanese is required for "getting the jist"? Can I get along with it by reading the headings and diagrams only?

Knowing the few "standard" Kanji (Black / White to move; Ko; solution; variation; failure) required for problem books is sufficient.

Understanding the "heading", and the descriptive text of the problem diagram is not really necessary. In a real game, there will be nobody to explain the current situation to you.

Quote:

Has it ever been translated into English?

No.

Quote:

I understand it'll be over my head even if it were in English but it's one for the future

I had to grab it while I could, along with an old copy of Maeda, an old 2-volume fuseki dictionary, and an old 1946 tesuji book printed in Occupied Japan. I guess it's time to brush up the massive 3 lessons I took in Japanese over the course of a few months...
アシュリー。

You might want to do the C-class problems first.

The problems are divided in chapters, using the kind of the first move of the solution (at least the key move) as sorting criterium. This makes the problems a bit easier, because you have already got a valuable hint what kind of move to look for.

Jujube · #3

Cassandra wrote:

Jujube wrote:

I've bought this from Ebay, it looks pretty old, in 2 volumes. How much Japanese is required for "getting the jist"? Can I get along with it by reading the headings and diagrams only?

Knowing the few "standard" Kanji (Black / White to move; Ko; solution; variation; failure) required for problem books is sufficient.

Understanding the "heading", and the descriptive text of the problem diagram is not really necessary. In a real game, there will be nobody to explain the current situation to you.

Quote:

Has it ever been translated into English?

No.

Quote:

I understand it'll be over my head even if it were in English but it's one for the future

I had to grab it while I could, along with an old copy of Maeda, an old 2-volume fuseki dictionary, and an old 1946 tesuji book printed in Occupied Japan. I guess it's time to brush up the massive 3 lessons I took in Japanese over the course of a few months...
アシュリー。

You might want to do the C-class problems first.

The problems are divided in chapters, using the kind of the first move of the solution (at least the key move) as sorting criterium. This makes the problems a bit easier, because you have already got a valuable hint what kind of move to look for.

Great! Nice info. It's surprising it's not been translated into English. It's better-known than other books which have crossed the linguistic channel.

gowan · #4

Here is a link to useful information for reading Japanese go (problem) books:

http://senseis.xmp.net/?BasicJapaneseForReadingGoBooks

Here is a link to the SL page about your book(s):

http://senseis.xmp.net/?SegoeTesujiDictionary

It isn't an exaggeration to say that these are classics and comprise one of the very best collections of tesuji problems. Congratulations on acquiring them. Perhaps the most troublesome aspect is that the answers are not collected at the back of the books but rather after each section.

John Fairbairn · #5

The two-volume Fujisawa tesuji dictionary is presumably still available from Slate & Shell. It covers the same ground, is arguably presented in a better way and of course is now in English.

Reading the Fujisawa book first also eliminates much of the need to read the Japanese of Segoe/Go's book, which you can then treat as a sort of spaced-repetition reminder exercise.

Charles Matthews · #6

Jujube wrote:

It's surprising it's not been translated into English.

Apart from Go Proverbs Illustrated, has anything by Segoe been translated? Perhaps something in magazines.

I'm aware of some pretty useful books by him. Of course he was never a very top-rank pro, and had difficulties with the Ki-in, but what has that to do with it, for Western players?

John Fairbairn · #7

Quote:

I'm aware of some pretty useful books by him. Of course he was never a very top-rank pro, and had difficulties with the Ki-in, but what has that to do with it, for Western players?

I disagree strongly. He had a good claim to be counted as the world's best player for a time. He lived in an era when tournaments with titles did not exist, when he was stuck at 8-dan because there could only be one 9-dan (the retired Shusai), and when he mostly had to give handicaps, but his results were good notwithstanding that.

And not only am I not aware of any significant difficulties with the Nihon Ki-in, hardly anyone could have done more for the organisation. On top of effectively sacrificing his own playing career to take up the administrative burden, he found sponsors, gave haven to the three geniuses Hashimoto Utaro, Go Seigen and Cho Hun-hyeon (thus indirectly also promoting go in the Kansai, China and Korea), provided the diplomatic mop to clear up the mess created by Shusai in China, bravely paid his and the Ki-in's dues to the war criminals in Sugamo when everyone else took the easy option, almost single-handledly rescued the Honinbo tournament during the war, and wrote tirelessly (and extremely well) for the Nihon Ki-in's magazine. With a record like that I can't imagine anyone in the Nihon Ki-in would have the gall to challenge Segoe there, especially since he never threw his weight around. His worst fault seems to have been name-dropping, but that's where the sponsorship came from.

Charles Matthews · #8

John Fairbairn wrote:

Quote:

I'm aware of some pretty useful books by him. Of course he was never a very top-rank pro, and had difficulties with the Ki-in, but what has that to do with it, for Western players?

I disagree strongly. [...] With a record like that I can't imagine anyone in the Nihon Ki-in would have the gall to challenge Segoe there, especially since he never threw his weight around.

I will have been thinking of what Peter Mioch wrote, re the spat with Shusai:

http://gobase.org/studying/articles/mio ... iew-2.html

kupus · #9

Quote:

Apart from Go Proverbs Illustrated, has anything by Segoe been translated? Perhaps something in magazines.

His book Gateway to Tesuji is serialized in Go Review magazine.

Segoe's Tesuji Dictionary

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