Nissan Seminar: Ian Rapley (Cardiff), ‘A Way of Play for the 20th Century: Towards a Modern History of the Game of Go’

Convener(s): Professor Kristi Govella and Dr. Alice Baldock

Speaker(s): Ian Rapley (Cardiff)

The boardgame igo or go (weiqi in Chinese, or baduk in Korean) is of ancient East Asian origin, with a rich history across the region. During the early modern period, Japan emerged as the country with the strongest play and the richest cultural embedding as a result of institutional sponsorship by the Tokugawa shogunate. However, in the wake of the Meiji Ishin (1868) and especially during the 20th century, the game underwent a complete transformation in Japan. In the first half of the 20th century, players overhauled the game's institutions, moving from an Edo period iemoto system to a single centralised guild, the Nihon Kiin. Then, strategically the game was completely transformed, most notably by a new generation in the 1930s. And in the second half of the century, the Japanese looked to revitalise the game abroad, reaching out to South Korea, to communist China, to Taiwan, and even to the West. By using these and other themes, this presentation uses the game of go as a lens through which to reflect on the modern history of Japan. 

Ian Rapley is a senior lecturer in Modern East Asian History in the Department of History and Heritage at Cardiff University and the author of Green Star Japan: Esperanto and the International Language Question (University of Hawaii Press, 2024). His first engagement with Japan came as a Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Scholar, and before returning to academia he spent several years as a financial analyst focusing on the Japanese stock market.