My Visit to the Nihon Ki-in
Posted by: roscivs, in Uncategorized
I’m not much for sight-seeing, but when I first learned that I’d be going to Japan, I immediately thought of the Nihon Ki-in. The full name in Japanese is 日本 棋院 会館, or Nihon Ki-in Kaikan—日本 literally meaning Japan, 棋院 literally meaning “Go institute”, and 会館 literally meaning “meeting or assembly hall”. The “Ki-in Kaikan,” as my Tokyo City Atlas had it listed, is the Tokyo Head Office for the Japan Go Association. It is where the insei study Go, where major tournaments are held, and is in general the hub of the Go world in Japan.
The major reason why the building is so interesting to me (apart from having a cool store where you can buy all manner of Go-related items) is because a significant part of the manga and anime series Hikaru no Go revolves around the Nihon Ki-in. In a way, I was stepping into the magical world of Hikaru.
When we first found the place (after taking pictures of the outside), we were looking for someplace I could play a few games. At first, we poked our head inside a room on the first floor that had dozens of boards but only a handful of people all huddled around a pair of boards, talking in Japanese with books in their hands. None of them acknowledged us, so we just stood at the door for a minute until I realized that this wasn’t a public area, but rather a place where inseis studied, so we quickly retreated.
We then headed up the elevator to the second floor (trying to decipher the kanji-laden directory), and discovered what appeared to be an information desk of sorts. “日本語が わかりますか?” the lady at the desk asked. “いいえ、すみません、” I responded, “英語が わかりますか?” She motioned and a younger lady came over and asked, “Can I help you?” in impeccable English. I told her I was looking for someone to play, and she explained that I’d have to come back on a weekday as they don’t have regular club play on the weekends. I thanked her, watched a few of the people playing, and then spent some money at the bookshop. (I bought an English book on joseki, a book of blank kifu for writing down my own game records, and a couple of Nihon Ki-in pens.)
Then we went exploring, trying out each floor of the building one by one, poking our head out of the elevator to see what we could see without being too nosy. On one of the floors, a couple of very young kids (probably younger than ten) were getting into the elevator. I’m sure they were insei, and could probably kick my butt at Go. I can only imagine how surprised they must have been, though, to see a couple of American gaijin on the elevator. That’s probably not something they see every day at the Nihon Ki-in!
The coolest floor was where, in Hikaru no Go, the insei study and the pro exam takes place. (I’m not sure how much of that actually takes place there in real life.) It was amazing to see how detailed the anime was in depicting the place. It was instantly recognizable, and even now when I compare the pictures we took to screenshots of the show, I’m astounded at how much detail was captured.
I’m glad we took time out of the one day I had for sightseeing to visit. It was definitely the highlight of my stay.
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