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Ancient Chinese and Japanese "Go" game

Ancient Chinese and Japanese "Go" game: territorial conquest, subtle strategy, deep reflection and exquisite style

This game is truly fascinating: not only did it appear in the mists of time (more than 2,500 years ago), the rules of it are deceptively simple (to surround the larger area and capture more "stones" than your opponent), and the terminology of the game is epic and profound in scope (Life vs. Death - your stone group can be either "alive", "dead" or "unsettled") - but also it is a game without a set ending - it will continue for as long as your opponent is willing to fight and not throws down the towel.

Interestingly, this is a "no-chance" game, i.e. there is no dice or any other provision for intervention of chance. Everything is premeditated, everyone begins with an empty board and with no limitations, all moves are visible to all players, and (similar to chess) you can only blame yourself for your faulty strategy and subsequent loss.

This is the essence of "Go": a long, passionate duel... with less victory in end than in other strategic-domination games

The origins of the game are obscure and hidden deep in the past: even today, there are certain tribes in Mongolia (for example, around Hargyaz-Nuur lake) which engage in a sacred activity of placing little stones on a larger stone plate. These holy structures are called "obwo" and in many ways they are similar to "go" boards, though no one knows what are the origins of this sacred tradition...

Rock Flowers '72

Mattel cranked-out some super groovy toys for boys and girls in the 70's, and here we see them teaming up with Whitman to release Rock Flowers paper dolls based on the ultra fab fashion figures of the same name (click HERE to read more info about 'em; then see my all time favorite doll commercial HERE; and listen to a couple of the rockin' bubblegum 45's they came packaged with, just click HERE and HERE to kick-out some jams!) The paper dolls came with 3 of theRock Flowers: Heather, Rosemary, and Lilac, plus an assortment of wild concert "costumes" --the back cover even doubles as a stage for them to perform upon! Print these scans on thick stock paper and just cut 'em out with scissors-- now you can have some Rockin' Flowerpower fun of your own!

Jenga

Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill created by Leslie Scott, and currently marketed by Parker Brothers, a division of Hasbro. During the game, players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then balanced on top of the tower, creating a progressively taller but less stable structure.

The name jenga is derived from a Swahili word meaning "build"

Rules
Jenga is played with 54 wooden blocks. Each block is three times longer than its width, and one fifth as thick as its length 1.5 cm × 2.5 cm × 7.5 cm (0.59 in × 0.98 in × 2.95 in). Blocks have small, random variations from these dimensions as to create imperfections in the stacking process and providing additional challenge to the game. To set up the game, the included loading tray is used to stack the initial tower which has eighteen levels of three blocks placed adjacent to one another along their long side and perpendicular to the previous level (so, for example, if the blocks in the first level lie lengthwise north-south, the second level blocks will lie east-west).

Once the tower is built, the person who built the tower gets the first move. Moving in Jenga consists of taking one and only one block from any level (except the one below the incomplete top level) of the tower, and placing it on the topmost level to complete it. Only one hand should be used at a time when taking blocks from the tower. Blocks may be bumped to find a loose block that will not disturb the rest of the tower. Any block that is moved out of place must be returned to its original location before removing another block. The turn ends when the next person to move touches the tower or after ten seconds, whichever occurs first.

The game ends when the tower falls, or if any piece falls from the tower other than the piece being knocked out to move to the top. The winner is the last person to successfully remove and place a block.

Origins
Jenga was created by Leslie Scott, the co-founder of Oxford Games Ltd, based on a game that evolved within her family in the early 1970s using children's wood building blocks the family purchased from a sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana. A British national, Scott was born in East Africa, where she was raised speaking English and Swahili, before moving to live in Ghana, West Africa. Scott launched the game she named and trademarked as "Jenga" at the London Toy Fair in January 1983 and sold it through her own company, Leslie Scott Associates. The blocks of the first sets of Jenga were manufactured for Scott by the Camphill Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire. The V&A Museum of Childhood has exhibited one of the original sets of Jenga since 1982.

In 1984, Robert Grebler, an entrepreneur from California who was the brother of a close friend of Scott, contacted her and expressed interest in importing and distributing Jenga in Canada. In April 1985, Grebler acquired from Scott the exclusive rights to Jenga for the United States and Canada, and then in October that year, Scott assigned the worldwide rights in Jenga to Grebler, which he in turn assigned to Pokonobe Associates. Convinced of Jenga's potential, Grebler had invited two cousins to form Pokonobe Associates with him in 1985 to increase distribution of Jenga. Pokonobe then licensed Irwin Toy to sell Jenga in Canada and to be master licensees worldwide. Irwin Toy licensed Jenga to Schaper in the United States and when that company was bought by Hasbro, Jenga was launched under the Milton Bradley banner. Eventually, Hasbro became licensee in most countries around the world.

Today, according to Leslie Scott, over 50 million Jenga games, equivalent to more than 2.7 billion Jenga blocks, have been sold worldwide.

Let's "Go!": Ancient Chinese Game Board 2

The "go" stones lore is just as sublime: the ancient Weiqi stones (shown on the left) are dating from Ming or Song dynasty (from the collection of the Russian Go and Strategy School)... some stones are easily carved from seashells (see right image)... also, historically, "go" stones do not necessarily have to be black or white, but may come in various colors

The following "go" artifact (displayed at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent) comes from the collections of Denys Bower - a beautiful lacquer Beckford Casket, 1635-1640. "The arched panel on the front contains a relief of a samurai, with a stave (noginata) and two swords, standing on a decorated goban (go-board)":

Cool Electronic Go Boards from the 1980's

Panasonic came up with the electronic goban setup back in 1982

For the connected age, there is a NetGoban company which can connect your board to a laptop for a hybrid classic/modern experience.

"Go" game is extremely popular today all over Asia; there is of course, an obligatory manga tie-in (see below) and many championships (some are performed with live players instead of stones)

"In chess you start with everything you have on the board. In go you start from nothing and build." -- Tim Klinger

"The Room of Deep Contemplation"

Coming back to the traditional way of playing "go", the atmosphere and ambience is all-important; the strongest Go masters are playing their games in a specially designed rooms (sporting top-notch minimalist Japanese interiors, rock gardens and ikebana arrangements).

Let's "Go!": Ancient Chinese Game Board part1

"While the Baroque rules of chess could only have been created by humans, the rules of go are so elegant, organic, and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe, they almost certainly play go." -- Edward Lasker, chess grandmaster

The "go" boards traditionally used in this game are no less fascinating. Today we are going to see the most profound examples, full of ancient wisdom and delicate craftmanship - the full range of styles, from the most ancient ones, to fancy electronic boards from the 1980s.

The following go-board (or, "goban"), which comes together with the "Mr. Kuroki's Go-Cart" to lift it off the floor, displays perhaps the most interesting way of playing - smacking your stone pieces (with a satisfying click) on a very thick slab of wood... And not just any wood, but the beautiful ancient Kaya wood, some slices being 500 years old. These slabs are patiently dried for more than 15 years and display perfectly the wood grain and tightly-packed tree-rings of considerable age.

Playing on these ancient wooden boards is like placing your bets on a solid foundation of unyielding, impersonal time! Truly a perfect arrangement.

"The board must be square, for it signifies the Earth, and its right angles signify uprightness. The pieces of the two sides are yellow and black; this difference signifies the yin and the yang... scattered in groups all over the board, they represent the heavenly bodies." -- Pan Ku, 1st century historian