I was just finishing off the manuscript for my book on Shusai's Retirement Game, and one of the details I added in the biography of Kitani was his visit to the Hawaii Ki-in in the 1970s. There were several visits by pros, in fact. Fujisawa Hideyuki, in his biography, mentions a trip in which the free alcohol on the plane enlivened things a little (until his party drank it dry).

But it occurred to me that we never seem to hear anything from the AGA of what goes on in Hawaii. Has the Ki-in dissolved, or is it isolationist? Is it just too far away and exotic? Has the Humohumonukunuupua Kid struck again?

Of course, the Hawaii Ki-in must have been formed initially for Japanese settlers, who would have looked twoards Japan, and specifically Hiroshima, rather than the American mainland. But I know Matsuda Takao, a stalwart of American go, studied at the University of Hawaii, so that was one way a link with the AGA might have been established.

Any American insight into this little mystery?

There are a couple players listed in Hawaii on IgoLocal already. Maybe you can contact them

_________________
Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

I do not know what has happened with go in Hawai'i, but I lived there in the early 1970s. At that time I knew of two clubs, one that met in downtown Honolulu, where people played both go and shogi, and the one I went to, near the University of Hawai'i. It was, I was told, affiliated with the Nihon Ki-in.

I would not describe the Ki-in as isolationist. In '69 and '70 I lived near New York City, and was unable to find a go club there. I did find a chess bookstore/club where, the owner informed me, some people used to come and play go on Friday night from time to time. I mention NYC because it was, at that time and later, the center of AGA activity, such as it was. My friend, Terry Benson, became president of the AGA a few years later, succeeding a president who had been incommunicado for years. It was Terry's tireless efforts that launched the AGA out of its stupor. (As I have heard, it had had around 600 members for years.) It is not as though the West Coast clubs and Hawai'i separated themselves from the AGA. The AGA spread out from its base in NYC. It held its first West Coast Open tournament in 1978. Whether it has made inroads into Hawai'i I do not know.

_________________
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins

Visualize whirled peas.

Everything with love. Stay safe.

I just looked up Sidney Kobashigawa in the AGA ratings. He was the 1982 USA rep at the WAGC, placing 5th. According to his listing his membership expires in 2012 and he is a member of the Hawaii Ki-in so I suppose the Hawaii Ki-in is still a functioning entity. The Club listings show the Honolulu Go Club with contact person Sid Kobashigawa (shk@hawaii.rr.com ) Probably Kobashigawa can answer questions regarding the Hawaii Ki-in.

Thanks, guys. But at this stage I'm not specially interested in the Hawaii Ki-in itself. I was more interested in learning why the AGA *apparently* ignores what, on the face of it, should be a fantastic resource. Maybe it's just too far away and Americans tend to forget about it except at holiday time. We have a similar situation here with the much closer Channel Islands. On the whole, in such situations, it seems the islanders have too much sense to go to the mainland

What is the Hawaii Kiin exactly? I take it that this is something far beyond a regular Go club - but since I have never heard of it before I am a little confused as to its precise nature.

I don't know its precise nature, but the background is that in the late 19th century there was widespread immigration to Hawaii from Japan, most notably the Hiroshima region. Hiroshima, or more specifically the islands of Hiroshima Prefecture, is famous for the strength and passion of its go players (the name Honinbo Shusaku may ring a bell). In any event, they played go in Hawaii. I think they formed the Hawaii Ki-in shortly after the Nihon Ki-in was formed in 1924. Probably it was what the Americans call a chapter, i.e. a branch, of the Nihon Ki-in.

Given the likely strength of the immigrant players, plus the fact that they could afford to invite big parties of pros from Japan (and recall that one of their number returned to Japan and was rich enough to sponsor the Atom Bomb game), it seems likely that they were a fabulous - but untapped - resource for western players.

They may have kept to themselves, and/or they may have suffered discrimination during and after the war. I have a memory that many immigrants tried to return to Japan. One way or another, I'd expect the post-war institution to be somewhat smaller, but still with some strong players (viz. Matsuda Takao). In more recent times, with war memories fading, I'd expect some reaching out, from both sides. But I don't recall seeing any references to Hawaii in an AGA context, and that surprised me. I may just have missed them.

But a 2012 US Congress in Honolulu certainly sounds like a great idea

Sid Kobashigawa is still active in Hawaii, and I believe Frank Alejandro is as well. We had a USYGC Qualifier there a few years ago, but the local organizers tell me there isn't too much activity these days. They keep doing outreach though, and they have had a number of successful school programs at various points. There is a nice beginner's book, in both English and Japanese, that they published a few years back. I think Nihon Ki-in helped with the expenses, although I may be wrong. Hawaii appears to be much the same as any other state: local organizers trying to spread the word, some Asian players who often keep to themselves, repeated sporadic efforts to get something larger going, etc... I certainly wouldn't say we ignore Hawaii, but I also wouldn't call it an untapped resource.

By the way, I really love your books John, and I am glad Slate and Shell is publishing more of them. Very cool stuff, it seemed quite popular at Congress too. I think they sold out of them actually ^_^

Aloha, I was glad and bit surprise to read tread here about Hawaii Go, it was interesting to read some of the history of Hawaii ki in and how many strong Go players used to play in Honolulu! I can say the ki in you mention continues; they like staying low key and enjoy their many strong games with one another. I know others like Sid who also are doing their best to teach and promote Go via various schools. Normally as part of Japanese culture groups and so yes we have some strong go players. But they are not rated by AGA at this time although they do mention having rating by whom they may have played and won against.

I am the Oahu Go Club director its small group with 5 kyu to beginner players that started in Feb 2005 and we normally meet at Starbucks Coffee in Kaneohe (the one across form the post office), and have moved around a bit most recently meeting at Kahala Mall along side chess and scrabble players on 4th Wednesday from 6pm to 8:30pm at Kahala Center court area. As a chess player as well I attend with go boards in hand and end playing both chess and go as we have limited Go players and I hope we can change that. We need also on 2nd Tuesday from 6pm to 9pm at Starbucks in Kaneohe , its best to refer you to our Meetup website. http://meetup.com/oahugoclub/ so you can see where we are meeting when you visit Hawaii.

By the way we are the only AGA Chapter on Oahu at present time and we are using http://Igolocal.net as well http://Goclubs.org to promote our group many of players have moved to mainland and we do get visitors form Asian countries and once in awhile form Europe and have a few players attending our meetings.

Unfortunatally due to family concerns I can only manage twice a month meetings for Oahu Go Club as I also promote other clubs and groups I have an interest in. As I learn go back in 1975 while in Okinawa and enjoyed playing the game of igo and and noted that Hawaii had no active AGA clubs on Oahu. There is another group on the Big Island (also listed at AGA website) and I hope one day to visit them too. So in the mean time we play our casual games and give beginner lessons and when stronger players comes we learn from them, as well as mention the Ki in we had running here for a long time.

I suggest you contact Sid, he's listed at AGA as the Honolulu Go Group director so he can fill you in on his progress and programs.

So yes Hawaii does have an AGA club and some AGA members and we plan a Quad rated by AGA on Sept 14 covering one round per meeting, when we grow we try to secure a venue and start having regular AGA rated tournaments and hope we can continue as we tried to do in 2007 when I ran the USYGC Qualifier.

And yes Hawaii being between Go plating Asian countries and America you would think Go would have a Go hub here, hm!

Mahalo,

Paco

Much closer indeed. True Americans do frequently travel to Hawaii but it is a bit of a trek to do with any frequency. I live in Los Angeles, CA, as close as the mainland gets to Hawaii and, if I'm reading my maps right, it is as far from my house to Hawaii as it is from your house to Tobol'sk, in the swamps of Western Siberia. It is the same distance again from AGA's birthplace at Chumley's in New York.

That said, I suspect geography was not the only reason the Hawaii Ki-in wasn't a large feature in the AGA landscape. In my brief period trying to be a shogi player and the last few years of being a go player, I went a number of times to the Rafu Ki-in, or Los Angeles Go Association. The gentlemen there would welcome a player who came often, perhaps knew the culture and the language, or were experts at the game ... Richard Dolen and David Dows and a number of others were regulars there over the years, but the casual visitor, the youth or the beginner was not particularly solicited. In club pictures, the men (all men) looked young or middle aged in the 1940s, just back from the camps, and 1950s, middle-aged and old in the 1960s, and old thereafter. When I lasted visited the club, the surviving players were very, very old indeed. They were quite welcoming to me, if typically gruff, in the last year, but the youngest of them was in his 60s and I think he was a good 20 years younger than the next one up. I sat down to play with one fellow and was stronger than he expected. He asked where I had learned to play and when I said "Santa Monica Go Club" his eyes flew open. He had no idea there was a go club there. I think the Rafu Ki-in was a place for immigrants to play with one another, and Richard Dolen was the exceptional figure, the American they'd heard of who played. Anyway, I put up posters for our events and told the guys about them, but only the comparative youngster has ever come to our things.

At the beginning of last year, I got a call from the youngster, who was by default in charge of the club because there was getting to be no one else. Some of the last few members had died so he was closing the club and did I want some of the stuff, he asked. I took a few nice thick club boards, I gave away the mismatched, stained and chipped stones via godiscussions.com so they'd have a home and be played with, and I took the club lares and penates ... wooden sign, photos, calligraphies ... home. Not sure what I'll do with them yet. I can't read Japanese but I think one of item is a Nihon Ki-in branch certificate of some sort. Perhaps my hall closet is, technically, a Nihon Ki-in outpost. Probably the whole group should be a donation to the Japanese-American Museum in LA, if they'll use it and when I get to organizing it.

Anyway, that's all by way of saying that, as an actual AGA person, I tried to take advantage of the presence of the Rafu Ki-in and, while it was a cultural treasure its own way, it was a not a current practical help. It might have been different when Richard frequented it, but not lately. I imagine the same might have been true for the Hawaii Ki-in ... that you could learn and play if you had the time and patience to attend, but it was basically a place for immigrants.

John, can I send you some photos of the stuff I have in my closet? I'd be curious if you could tell what any of it is.

Andy