I am just wondering if these kind of ‘sets’, and I am most definitely using that term loosely here, have a name in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean? You know the type, every saloon or club in Asia has them. It’s the go set made from all of the leftover mismatched pieces and random bowls. Mostly glass, probably a lot of Jungstones and Jangstones in there, along with some paper thin yellow chipped clam-shell or slate, a few single-convex yunzi and plastic, and maybe even some random stuff thrown in to get close to the number you need to play with. Being among the weaker players wherever I have gone to play in Asia, I have a lot of experience with these, and actually enjoy them for many reasons.
In fact, I have an idea to double down on this patchwork quilt kind of collection: I want to make sets of these to use with my local club. Of course, the more diverse the better! I am also thinking to add other random things in there to make it more fun to play with, more confusing, and more surreal.
Things like smaller sized chess pieces, small mahjong tiles, Othello and backgammon pieces, bingo chips, and basic board game tokens. A random DnD figurine here or there, and maybe coins, river rocks, actual sea shells, dice, beads, and whatever else I can think of. So long as they are reasonably close to black and/or white it should ‘work’. I might even include some pieces that are too big or too small to play practically, or just kind of useless, like marbles that won’t stay put, for example.
Naturally, this kind of set absolutely HAS to be less than the required number for each player, otherwise the oddball stones can be avoided pretty easily, in preference of the actual go stones in the mix…
The problem is, the club I am sponsoring is very small with a short history. My own stones (and by extension those of my club) are just full sets. I think this would be a lot of fun to create and interesting for clubs to have as a fun option and a way to inject a sense of humor into play, and help people take it a bit lighter, not so seriously. Something especially critical for the kinds of advanced beginners or intermediate players that, like me, get frustrated and also end up stuck playing on the ‘hand-me-down’ equipment.
Does anyone else see the fun in this idea? Is there anyone who has done what I am talking about before, or seen it somewhere? Any ideas of things to add to this list? How can I get lots of this kind of stuff without spending tons of money?
Would I be stepping over a line by inviting people to message me privately for my address in case they wanted to send me some random “stones”, or short sets? I plan to post the results here and maybe even a video of a game played using them. If I could collect a significant amount of this kind of stuff, it would be really fun to give them to other clubs around here (California) or even send them to other clubs in parts of the world outside East Asia where they wouldn’t have experienced this. I wonder if there might be clubs out there that would send me raw materials in exchange for their own set?
Do not misunderstand me: I love ergonomic, proper Japanese Go sets. My size 33 Yukis feel fantastic in the Keyaki bowls that have aged nicely to a toasted caramel. They sound crisp on my Kaya table board and remind me of the many friendships I made when I lived in Japan and the people who helped me get better at Go, and make that purchase affordably when I was in my 20s. They were my reward to myself for demonstrating commitment to the game at that time in my life, when a Go game wasn’t as easy to find as it is now. Good for me and my nostalgia.
But let’s be honest, it is completely unnecessary to have fancy stuff like that. And, while stones that look and feel perfect can be comforting, what we really need is to be made uncomfortable in Go and in life. We need something to shake up our rhythm, break us out of our own mental ‘joseki’ so we can take a fresh look at the board, a fresh look at life.
Junk Drawer Go Sets, here I come! Are you with me?
