Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other’s black or white stones. Simple in its fundamentals, infinitely complex in its execution, Go is an essential expression of the Japanese spirit. And in his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and heretofore invincible Master and a younger, more modern challenger, Yasunari Kawabata captured the moment in which the immutable traditions of imperial Japan met the onslaught of the twentieth century.

The competition between the Master of Go and his opponent, Otaké, is waged over several months and layered in ceremony. But beneath the game’s decorum lie tensions that consume not only the players themselves but their families and retainers—tensions that turn this particular contest into a duel that can only end in death. Luminous in its detail, both suspenseful and serene, The Master of Go is an elegy for an entire society, written with the poetic economy and psychological acumen that brought Kawabata the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker

川端康成（1899-1972），日本小说家，新感觉派代表作家之一。他的作品有印象主义色彩，意境新颖，同时由于受佛教影响较深，作品常带有消极悲观情调。代表作有《雪国》、《古都》、《睡美人》、《伊豆的舞女》等。川端康成获1968年诺贝尔文学奖，是继泰戈尔之后第二个获此项殊荣的东方作家。