The Master of Go
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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
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The narrator of the novel is a journalist writing about the last game of the Japanese master of go for their newspaper audience of laymen who probably like many a reader is not familiar with the game and thus care more about the personalities. Although it is based on real events and people, this final match is also an allegory for the then-popular topic in Japanese literature, the clashing of traditional Japan with modernity, the old and the young. And though not explicitly intended for non-Japanese readers, it also manages to describe the meaning and ties the game has to Japanese culture.
All of this is done with Kawabata's characteristic style where often we see focus shift on describing the natural world around the protagonists that sometimes, if read into deep enough, also serves to describe the feelings and relationships of the characters in a very obscure way.
I started reading this very uninterested because of the seemingly heavy focus on the game I know virtually nothing about, but Kawabata managed to wove an intricate tale (with some help from history) that's more about the underlying culture and people, and I ended up liking it a lot. This has also been an overall experience of mine with all his stories so chances are if you like his style, you'll probably like any of his writings regardless of topic.
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