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The Master of Go

Part of Vintage International

Author Yasunari Kawabata
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Paperback
$17.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
On sale May 28, 1996 | 208 Pages | 9780679761068
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Winner of the Nobel Prize 

Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other's black or white stones; it is also an essential expression of Japanese spirit. In his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and invincible master and a younger, more modern challenger, Kawabata captures the moment in which the immutable traditions of Japan meet the onslaught of the twentieth century. 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.
  • WINNER | 1968
    Nobel Prize
Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka in 1899. In 1968 he became the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of Japan’s most distinguished novelists, he published his first stories while he was still in high school, graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924. His short story “The Izu Dancer,” first published in 1925, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1955. Kawabata authored numerous novels, including Snow Country (1956), which cemented his reputation as one of the preeminent voices of his time, as well as Thousand Cranes (1959), The Sound of the Mountain (1970), The Master of Go (1972), and Beauty and Sadness (1975). He served as the chairman of the P.E.N. Club of Japan for several years and in 1959 he was awarded the Goethe Medal in Frankfurt. Kawabata died in 1972. View titles by Yasunari Kawabata

About

Winner of the Nobel Prize 

Go is a game of strategy in which two players attempt to surround each other's black or white stones; it is also an essential expression of Japanese spirit. In his fictional chronicle of a match played between a revered and invincible master and a younger, more modern challenger, Kawabata captures the moment in which the immutable traditions of Japan meet the onslaught of the twentieth century. 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.

Awards

  • WINNER | 1968
    Nobel Prize

Author

Yasunari Kawabata was born in Osaka in 1899. In 1968 he became the first Japanese writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of Japan’s most distinguished novelists, he published his first stories while he was still in high school, graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1924. His short story “The Izu Dancer,” first published in 1925, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1955. Kawabata authored numerous novels, including Snow Country (1956), which cemented his reputation as one of the preeminent voices of his time, as well as Thousand Cranes (1959), The Sound of the Mountain (1970), The Master of Go (1972), and Beauty and Sadness (1975). He served as the chairman of the P.E.N. Club of Japan for several years and in 1959 he was awarded the Goethe Medal in Frankfurt. Kawabata died in 1972. View titles by Yasunari Kawabata

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