Japanese Go books available as PDF

[John Tilley]

I have been asked what PDF Go books do I recommend (easy question but difficult answer) - I suggest it all depends on:

How motivated are you?
Your knowledge of written Japanese - do you know the basics? Have you read Richard Hunter's "Just Enough Japanese" series?
Topic - does it excite you?
Your Go strength
Book contents - lots of diagams or lots of text

Main suggestion - start with something simple = "basic Japanese", easy Go and lots of diagrams.

You only need subsets of the kanji to read Go books - the question is how much? I found that I could use Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) to extract the text from some six Go book PDFs and I wrote some code to:
- check the extracted text
- extract the kanji
- check their frequency.
The number of different kanji ranges from 572 to 1254 in the books I have. You could get a lot out of the books with a subset of these kanji, so far I have only analysed single kanji in the text rather than compounds.

You are going to have learn hiragana, katakana and some kanji. You don't need more than a few hundred kanji, it all comes down to which ones. A knowledge of some 250 kanji will cover 90% of what is in a basic Go book.

Warning - Studying these books is still hard work - just buying a few PDFs won't make you a stronger player. You may well become stronger by <dare I say it> buying Maeda's Tsume Go, now in two volumes, and studying that or by buying "Games of Shuei" in English and putting in the same number of hours! <Studying Shuei on a real board can even help you find your glasses>

However MOST of the Mynavi PDFs allow you to select-copy-paste text, which opens up lots of opportunities. There are online translation services such as DeepL and Google, which are far from perfect <English understatement> but they will get you off to a quick start - which for many is what matters. I would describe myself as "linguistically challenged".

If you want to play around with select-copy-paste the text into either Google Translate or DeepL then it is much easy to buy a PDF that allows this, rather than having to buy OCR software as well.

Suggested book for starters - smallest number of kanji
Title = 石の効率がぐんぐん良くなる本 by 依田紀基 (A book that will make your stone efficiency soar!) by Yoda Norimoto

Yoda looks at the "basics" in 8 chapters, starts easy but moves up into things any strong kyu should recognise immediately, but...
Good first PDF book, text selectable, all diagrams labelled
572 unique kanji, first 275 kanji cover 95% of the book
第１章 アキ三角を考える
第２章 「三目の真ん中」が手筋の基
第３章 サカレ形の避け方
第４章 １から学ぶ「利き筋」
第５章 石の効率と「捨て石」
第６章 全ての基本は「弱い石から動く」
第７章 打ってはいけない危ない形
８章 石の効率が良くなる実戦手筋
https://book.mynavi.jp/ec/products/detail/id=22512
No sample pages

Hard Book - lots more kanji, but subject matter looks interesting
Title = 碁が強い人はどのように上達してきたか？by 洪清泉 (Hon Seisen)
The author runs a dojo in Japan and some 400 students have passed through, he looks at the 15 who made it to professional - what did they do?

First professional is Fujisawa Rina.
1245 unique kanji, 650 kani cover 95%.
<Spoiler> She did lots of tsume Go and later studied the Hatsutyoron </end spoiler>
Seriously the second part is 100 pages = 第2章 道場で教えていること (What we teach in the dojo)

Medium Book - will appeal to AI crowd
Title = 古碁×AI　秀和と秀策に学ぶ勝負術
AI and Old Go - Ohashi Hirohumi 6p and Terayama Rei 6p.

3 chapters, 229 pages - published July 2021
28 sample pages at https://book.mynavi.jp/ec/products/detail/id=123271
PDF costs 1574Yen
990 unique kanji, 475 kanji cover 95%

Authors uses KataGo6809 with 10000 playouts/move - handles appropriate komi/handicap for game

Typically each game starts with the key position (theme) followed by an AI analysis and comments. Then the whole game is presented.

- Red Ear game - 4 page analysis of THE move and AI analysis of next few moves using KataGo.

- Player Introduction 1 page on each of Shuwa, Shusaku, Genan, Sentoku, Showa, Yuuzou, Sanchi, Shuho plus historical timescale
- Honinbo Shuwa
- game against Yasui Sanchi 9th 1838-02-16 (GoGod date)
- Theme diagram at move White 100 with KataGo, followed by 9 page analysis with KataGo, followed by whole game at 30 moves/diagram = 10 diagrams.
- 8 further games of Shuwa (81 pages)
- Honinbo Shusaku

Summary - If you are prepared to make an effort to learn some Japanese then try the Yoda book and see how you get on. You have to start somewhere.I'll post a kanji list for the "easy" books later.

Take Care - John

[John Tilley]

Kanji List for five "easy" Japanese Go Books

The five books that I chose have between 572 and 660 unique kanji. I combined the lists and analsyed their frequency, with a knowledge of 356 kanji you will recognise 95% of the kanji in these books.

ISBN：978-4-8399-5347-8 僕が本当に伝えたかった上達の鉄則 武宮正樹 Takemiya
ISBN：978-4-8399-6253-1 世界一わかりやすい 石倉流 囲碁上達教室 石倉昇 Ishikura Noboru
ISBN：978-4-8399-5951-7 苑田流格言のすべて 苑田 勇一 Sonoda Yuichi
ISBN：978-4-8399-3815-4 石の効率がぐんぐん良くなる本 依田紀基 Yoda Norimoto
ISBN：978-4-8399-6299-9 依田流アルファ碁研究 ―よみがえる呉清源、道策 依田紀基 Yoda Norimoto

The last book by Yoda looks at AI and then compares the games of Go Seigen and Dosaku

So, learn one kanji a day for a year. You need to learn some grammar(!) - try Richard Hunter's books.

The online Japanese dictionary here is good

https://jisho.org/

If there is some interest I can easily look these kanji up in KanjiDic and provide the readings and meanings plus dictionary references in another file.

If you would like the file in another format please ask.

I am planning to analyse the kaji compounds and to add them to the frequency list.

Take Care - John

[CDavis7M]

Kanji List for five "easy" Japanese Go Books

Thanks for the list John. I've been collecting words and phases (with grammar) into a flash card deck for study. This list will be helpful in making more flash cards. By the way, I've found that many 2 character words can be figured out from the individual characters.

I use a computer and mobile device application called "Anki" to make flash cards. This application also lets you download other peoples published sets of flash cards (for hiragana, katakana, etc.). It enables spaced repetition. https://ankiweb.net/about.

I ended up learning kana using Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) on my phone. It is a decent app for learning the characters but it is apparently not so great for learning Japanese (from reviews of others, I stopped using it).

[Harleqin]

I ended up learning kana using Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) on my phone. It is a decent app for learning the characters but it is apparently not so great for learning Japanese (from reviews of others, I stopped using it).

I'm curious, what are the critique points?

[CDavis7M]

I ended up learning kana using Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com/) on my phone. It is a decent app for learning the characters but it is apparently not so great for learning Japanese (from reviews of others, I stopped using it).

I'm curious, what are the critique points?

Are you studying Japanese? Using Duolingo? What do you think of it? I found it helpful for learning the kana, though sometimes I forget certain katakana because I don't see it as much.

The main criticism I hear is that Duolingo allows you to "cheat" because you can tap to hear the word or you can tap to see the definition/spelling. But I did do it sometimes. Better to learn immediately than remembering to go back. Some people have a compulsion to get the answer and so learning is not as permanent. People also complain about the sudden steep learning curve. And people also complained about the word selection, grammar, and so on. Some of the examples being ridiculous enough to post to Reddit, but I forget what it was now. However, Duolingo did recently update their Japanese course. So it is better than it was. And most people do agree that Duolingo is good because it pushes you to continue -- which is the hardest part of learning Japanese for many people. By the way, almost all of this hearsay is coming from https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/

Personally, I did not appreciate the normal Duolingo course, learning words like house, room, winter, summer, teacher, student, red, blue, various greetings, and so on. So I can't comment too much on that. I only did the first "Unit", which doesn't cover sentences or grammar, as practice in reading hiragana and katakana.

Moving on from Duolingo, I used Richard Hunter's series of books called "Just Enough Japanese." I've read the first 2 multiple times and the third one I have read but it really deserves study and so I am studying it. I also have the Genki textbook and workbook which I have mostly used as reference at this point. I like this 10 minute podcast (and short textbook) by NHK: https://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/english/. And searching on Google for specific topics can lead to a lot of Japanese learning blogs.

[Kirby]

Duolingo is ok for getting some introductory exposure to a language you haven't studied before. The game format may help motivate you when you're starting out. But you won't get to a very high level of language ability by playing a few games on Duolingo.

There is no substitute for diligent study. Get a solid foundation on basic grammar. Then, memorize vocabulary. Review what you've already learned. Repeat. Repeat again. And again. At some point, start incorporating reading into a daily routine. Find words you don't know. Read more. Repeat.

These days, there are great resources on YouTube and Netflix to get listening practice. Start doing that - maybe with subtitles at first. Play on a slow speed if you need to.

iTalki is a great resource for conversation practice.

Through all of it, you have to keep practicing. And keep reviewing. And keep repeating.

Duolingo is cute for its games, but no substitute for real language learning...

Maybe most important is to be passionate. If you are passionate, it's a lot of fun to keep learning every day. Practicing every day is important, too.

[Harleqin]

Yeah, well, I am now doing Duolingo for over a year, every day. I have my own way to get something like spaced repetition out of the courses: there are three bubbles on level 1, then four oun level 2, then five on level 3 etc. I am writing down every question (the japanese part, question or answer) to get familiar with kana and kanji.

Additionally, I use an app to practice only kanji (it's called »write japanese«), and I have a JLPT N5 app with some more exercises (but somewhat sloppy content). These I use a bit more irregularly, though.

Finally, I try to decipher some real texts, such as japanese twitter accounts that I'm following, an old »Go Club« magazine, youtube videos etc. There is definitely some progress.

I was worried that duolingo did something fundamentally wrong. I'll check that reddit link for more info. Thanks!

[John Fairbairn]

It is my experience that almost all go players who show an interest in Japanese are doing so because they want to read Japanese go texts, and that's all. Or, as a variation, primarily to read Japanese go texts and, if that goes well, learn a bit more general Japanese later on, perhaps including how to speak.

For that kind of student, I think most of the advice above is misguided and/or makes study far too slow, burdensome and inaccurate. I am not familiar with Duolinguo or any other such package, but the descriptions above tell me enough. As to spaced repetition, the latest language cult, it's quite unnecessary if you just read go texts.

And you don't need grammar in the traditional sense. Imagine a note in English from you mother: "Dinner in oven. Back soon." You understand that without most of the usual grammatical apparatus, or even a verb. In a context-rich go text, a go player wanting just to read can minimise grammar in the same way.

The best advice for such people is to buy a Nelson, preferably the original version, not the Haig re-hash. Memorise the 214 radicals as much as you can. Learn how to look up words. Learn also katakana then hiragana. This whole process will take you about 12 hours. That's nearly all the hard work done.

Then start looking at go texts, but concentrate on the headings and crossheads.

I am aware that the usual reaction to radical advice on L19 is to pooh-pooh it. But if a decent number of people are willing to give this approach a go (pun intended), I'd probably be willing to supply some study material and tips here. You should be able to understand more than a reasonable amount of go technical texts in around 50 hours. Your postilion will be struck by lightning. DeepL may then be able to fill some gaps for you.

If you want to do much more than just read, and learn the general language, I would recommend the Alfonso books.

[Cassandra]

Memorise the 214 radicals as much as you can. Learn how to look up words. Learn also katakana then hiragana. This whole process will take you about 12 hours. That's nearly all the hard work done.

From my own experience, which goes back several decades, I can only support this assessment.

I had first worked through a German Japanese textbook, and consequently learned hiragana and katakana first.

After that, I had a Japanese Go book (that was either Life-and-Death or Tsume-Go, the details have slipped my mind in the meantime) completely translated for me -- Kanji for Kanji.

After that, I had to take a break from Japanese for several years for professional reasons. After this break, I was very surprised at what knowledge I still had at hand, especially about the most frequently used radicals (i.e. their numbers).

Comments on diagrams remained easy to understand.

More general texts in prose, on the other hand, continued to be far more difficult. However, in my estimation, these are not necessarily needed for technical topics such as Life-and-Death, Tsume-Go, and also Joseki, Fuseki and Yose.

[Harleqin]

Yeah, well, I am not that narrowly focused. I am also not giving advice, I just tell what I'm doing, and that it works for me, as I (1) have fun, (2) see progress and (3) see that I'm sticking to it.

[CDavis7M]

The best advice for such people is to buy a Nelson, preferably the original version, not the Haig re-hash. Memorise the 214 radicals as much as you can. Learn how to look up words. Learn also katakana then hiragana. This whole process will take you about 12 hours. That's nearly all the hard work done.

If only it were that easy for me. I spent around 12 hours over a few weeks just to learn hiragana and katakana, practicing with simple vocabulary. Memorizing the radicals would probably take me an equal amount of time. Maybe 12 hours of intense study is sufficient, but I suspect that 12 hours might be an underestimate for most people, especially those with a job and possibly kids.

As to spaced repetition, the latest language cult, it's quite unnecessary if you just read go texts... I am aware that the usual reaction to radical advice on L19 is to pooh-pooh it. But if a decent number of people are willing to give this approach a go (pun intended), I'd probably be willing to supply some study material and tips here.

So, what technique would you recommend to learn the Kanji radicals? You're the only one I've seen that is against spaced repetition. Thousands of Japanese language learners have found flash cards with spaced repetition to be the best way of learning vocabulary. Those people are working to learn 2000+ kanji, not just radicals and Go terms. But people also find spaced repetition to be helpful in learning the limited number of kana.

And what about the radicals would you suggest memorizing? Just recognition of them, their meaning, and their pronunciation? Or actually writing them with proper stroke order?

----------

By the way, just to recap my own studies. I'm using flash cards with Go terms/phrases from Just Enough Japanese supplemented with terms that I find in Go World or books, including non-Go terms like 読売新聞 (Yomiuri Shimbun), etc. Then I also review/study the grammar in Just Enough Japanese 3. And then I practice by reading the game commentaries in Go World or other books, looking up terms and grammar as I go. I have the Maeda Tsumego book I read here and there and I've found many hints and solutions to be readable for me.

[kvasir]

The best advice for such people is to buy a Nelson, preferably the original version, not the Haig re-hash. Memorise the 214 radicals as much as you can. Learn how to look up words. Learn also katakana then hiragana. This whole process will take you about 12 hours. That's nearly all the hard work done.

You are basically saying "learn how to use a dictionary" or what?

I don't want to pooh pooh the suggestion but this is not really the hard work, but I suppose it is a starting point if you want to be able to read a foreign language. Some typical beginner lessons would also be in order, if for nothing else then just to get a basic feeling for how to put all that dictionary wisdom together.

When people talk about grammar for languages it often seems to revolve around some higher concepts but grammar is also just how you put together the simplest sentences and how you parse them back in. This kind of simple grammar is usually a huge weak point of dictionaries. So I'd again suggest that taking a real course (not duolingo) could be helpful for anyone motivated enough to take this dictionary approach.

[John Fairbairn]

You are basically saying "learn how to use a dictionary" or what?

Read what I wrote: "for such people".

I don't want to pooh pooh the suggestion but this is not really the hard work,

Still sounds like pooh-pooh to me. It is the hard work. Learning to use Japanese dictionaries is a big task. A further point is, once you can look words up you can start reading the texts you want to read - and only those texts are needed. You expect to enjoy them. That's why you want to read them. Enjoyment is not what most people understand as hard work.

To repeat, because you read only what you want to read, you encounter only the words you want to encounter and in the exact proportion that is useful to you. That's why spaced repetition of the Anki type is unnecessary. You can say that the kind of reading I describe is spaced repetition, and it is, in a way. But it's more efficient because you don't waste time on words you don't encounter. Furthermore, you encounter the words in their proper go contexts, so you are learning contexts (and go concepts) as well as words. Which is why "such people" want to read Japanese in the first place.

This is not just an idea in my head. I successfully taught a 49-hour course of this type at Newcastle University's School of Naval Architecture. I also devised such a course for myself to read Korean go books in about 20 hours.

Some typical beginner lessons would also be in order, if for nothing else then just to get a basic feeling for how to put all that dictionary wisdom together.

Yes. Which, with the exception of the word "typical", is precisely what I offered ("study materials and tips."

Maybe what we really need is not a Japanese reading course but an English reading course.

Offer now withdrawn.

[Kirby]

Another thing I'd add is that, at least for me, if I just put some kanji into an Anki deck, it takes awhile to learn them well. But if I take a pencil and paper, and keep repeating the new characters, I remember them for longer.

I think there's something to the physical sensation of writing the characters that helps me to remember them for longer.

So sometimes I will learn a new character the "old fashioned way" by writing with pencil and paper several times until I've memorized it. Then I can throw the already-learned character into Anki to repeat later.

Typically it also seems better to review newly learned words by reading those words in context. A flashcard can be OK, especially if you have words as parts of sentences, but it's more natural to review by reading.

That being said, it can be hard to keep reading all of the new characters you've learned, so maybe there's a place for the flashcards.

But again, flashcards seem to work best for me when I first memorize the character with pencil and paper prior to entering it into a flashcard app.

---

Also, my way of learning may not be efficient, but I get enjoyment from doing it. There is something that makes me feel good about sitting down for an hour, writing new words. I don't know exactly what it is, but I feel happy doing it.

[Cassandra]

I think there's something to the physical sensation of writing the characters that helps me to remember them for longer.

This reminds me of the time when I manually copied out the text of the Go book, with two lines between each. One line for a "word" by "word" translation, the other for a final, fluent, translation.