Life In 19x19

I saw recently that a new book is going to be published in France. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be possible to directly buy it, you need to find it in a library, but it's still great to see a new book. The title is "Go : à toi de jouer . Découvrir le jeu de stratégie des samurai". That led me to thinking, just how much weight should we put on that subtitle.

We know that samurai liked to play the game, I trust the SL text is accurate "In the beginning of the thirteenth century we find that Go was widely known in the samurai class, and was played with zeal." But was it simply one of many board games that Samurai might like to play, or did it have some kind of special place in their culture. Is it, for example, any different to shogi in that respect?

We know that samurai liked to play the game, I trust the SL text is accurate "In the beginning of the thirteenth century we find that Go was widely known in the samurai class, and was played with zeal." But was it simply one of many board games that Samurai might like to play, or did it have some kind of special place in their culture. Is it, for example, any different to shogi in that respect?

You can make lots of points against it.

There were no samurai as such in China or Korea or Taiwan or Timbuktoo.

Not all samurai were soldiers (most were civil servants) and since samurai just means servant, they were not normally likely to be in charge of strategy.

You might as well say it's the game of barbers. They liked to put boards in their shops for customers. Hence also the proverb: always cut where you can.

Hence the need for Go for Asset Strippers.

I read it was particularly enjoyed by 3 generals, is that the spark for a tenuous link?