Quotes from book
The Master of Go

The Master of Go
Yasunari KawabataOriginal title 呉清源棋談・名人 (Japanese, 1951)

The Master of Go is a novel by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. The novel was first published in serial form in 1951. Titled Meijin in its original Japanese, Kawabata considered it his finest work, although it is in contrast with his other works. It is the only one of Kawabata's novels that the author considered to be finished.


Yasunari Kawabata photo
Yasunari Kawabata photo
Yasunari Kawabata photo

“That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music.”

Yasunari Kawabata book The Master of Go

Source: The Master of Go (1951), Ch. 38, p. 164.
Context: That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music. Everything is lost when suddenly a false note is struck, or one party in a duet suddenly launches forth on an eccentric flight of his own. A masterpiece of a game can be ruined by insensitivity to the feelings of an adversary.

Yasunari Kawabata photo

“A masterpiece of a game can be ruined by insensitivity to the feelings of an adversary.”

Yasunari Kawabata book The Master of Go

Source: The Master of Go (1951), Ch. 38, p. 164.
Context: That play of black upon white, white upon black, has the intent and takes the form of creative art. It has in it a flow of the spirit and a harmony of music. Everything is lost when suddenly a false note is struck, or one party in a duet suddenly launches forth on an eccentric flight of his own. A masterpiece of a game can be ruined by insensitivity to the feelings of an adversary.

Similar authors

Yasunari Kawabata photo
Yasunari Kawabata44
Japanese author, Nobel Prize winner 1899–1972
Wolfgang Pauli photo
Wolfgang Pauli35
Austrian physicist, Nobel prize winner None
Yukio Mishima photo
Yukio Mishima60
Japanese author None
Kenzaburō Ōe photo
Kenzaburō Ōe43
Japanese author None
Makoto Kobayashi (physicist) photo
Makoto Kobayashi (physicist)3
Japanese physicist None
Kazuo Ishiguro photo
Kazuo Ishiguro76
Japanese-born British author None
Octavio Paz photo
Octavio Paz71
Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Lite… None
John Nash photo
John Nash23
American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate None
Desmond Tutu photo
Desmond Tutu85
South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Priz… None
Joseph Brodsky photo
Joseph Brodsky17
Russian and American poet and Nobel Prize for Literature la… None