Will these somewhat modified images help?

[/quote]

I think it says this on the right side. The left bottom is still not legible for us.
It is like saying, it is "special wood, high quality hikimono". Hikimono is a special process for making wood. Like this: http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/49/ ... c4c658.jpg

銘木高級挽物

Uhm <scratches head>

TBH, I have no idea … I just thought it would be “too good to be true”.

No, but as said, it has only been used once, and only for re-playing a pro game … but well, there actually is one tiny little dent (perhaps 2mm long and 1 mm wide) outside the playing area, between the edge of the board and the edge of the grid, but I’m quite sure that this is not from playing and may have happened during some transport or something. If you visit the imgur album I linked to in the other comment, there is a photo of a textile jacket (sleeve? envelope?) for the board, maybe you can recognize it, I think it may be a certain vendor who sells these together with their boards?

Mh… I know close to nothing about all this, and you definitely know a LOT more, so I’ll just take your word and go <wow> and again <wow> …

Suddenly I feel “rich” as I never have felt before (OK, that’s not totally true, happened similarly in 2013 with that olden Goban, S&S and Yunzi stones which also were a steal; see below [and another comment above], and sort of undeservedly so … I mean, I’m almost 59, how can I ever fully appreciate all this—and do it justice—in my remaining lifetime?

I cannot say that I feel totally at ease … on one hand I have a little bad conscience b/c I spent a LOT more money than would have been “wise” for a person in my life situation, and OTOH I got a LOT more for the money than “appropriate”, very odd. Can anybody understand? Maybe it’s just a question of self-esteem or something. I know I have some issues. Yet I know (do I?) that I’m not amassing these “riches” to increase my “worth” or something, it’s rather that I enjoy the beauty and want those who play with me resp. play under my roof (I “am” the local Go club) to enjoy just the same, I hardly ever re-play or exercise IRL alone for myself, all this is only used whenever other Go players (or people interested) turn up.


Ah well, never mind, you have helped me SO MUCH already, thank you!

awesome … just a few weeks ago somebody posted a video of the process, here or in one of the Go groups on FB or in the Go community on G+, and I watched it open-mouthed, wishing I had learned woodworking instead of acquiring a flat butt while being the lonely ape in front of the computer … especially the repeated waxing and polishing of the bowls at the end, wow … I believe that every real good artisan also is sort of a philosopher … at least I personally respect them as if it were so.

________________________________

I have created another imgur album for some images I found on my HD, from 2013 where I was lucky to acquire … (EdLee, since you asked above and I wrote a little bit in reply, this is what I was talking about.)

• a well-used Katsura goban,
• size ~30-31 (8,2 mm) similarly well used shell/slate stones in wooden bowls (both have a vertical crack, you can see it in one of the photos), and …
• single convex green Jade Yunzi stones in straw bowls.

all about 45–50 years old

The album als has a few pics of my “Go salon”; meanwhile there are a LOT more books, while I haven’t yet “acquired” enough time to read them all … though I have read in quite a few. BTW, did I ever mention that I really like Robert Jasiek’s books, every single one I read or read in?

_________________
“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?

Yes, this makes a lot of sense.
Most of the characters were my guess, too, but I wasn't sure, so didn't guess the other four. The cursive 銘 was unclear to me;
高 was too much -- if it was written like that, stand alone, out of context,
it'd be nearly impossible to guess.

Hi Tom,Yea, to each his own; but this seems a little strange.
If the gap was huge -- say, everyone else was 7-dan, and he was DDK..., still... --
but if there were both high dans and people slightly better,
that could be a nice environment. Alas, education is very difficult.

It is hard to tell really. I thought if you saw a bunch of very small dents in the board, it would be obviously shin-kaya. But if it doesn't have them, it doesn't mean that it is kaya, I think.

The old bowls in that album look like kuri maybe, chestnut. Hard to tell, but usually those bowls are pretty cheap, like some of the cheapest wood you can get about 5000 yen new.

http://www.maekawa-kayagoban.co.jp/SHOP/gh00095.html
http://control.kurokigoishi.co.jp/updir ... 1463902643

Beautiful.
Table board looks very much like a board I have which was sold as being kaya.

Can you press your fingernail in it (on bottom site) without putting too much pressure, making a small scratch?
If so, probably kaya indeed. Kaya is fairly soft wood, shin kaya is harder.
But it does look like it could use some TLC. Probably, if you oil it correctly, its appearance will improve even more.