The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata: Breaking (and lamenting) the stalemate between tradition and modernity

Confronted with a changing world, there is the great temptation for a writer to use symbols to portray the ongoing change - to reminisce about the old times and somehow contrast the worlds old and new. In the case of Kawabata, a journalist who actually covered the events tht form the basis of The Master of Go, it would have been quite natural to use the battle between Old, invincible master and the young challenger to symbolize the changing world. But instead, Kawabata masterfully crafts intimate portraits of the people involved: the obsessed Master, the driven challenger, and the people around them. They then create the sense of change without telling about it, succeeding in what writers ought to succeed: showing, not telling, the message they wish to convey.

The story begins at the ending: the old Master is defeated, and eventually succumbs to death. Perhaps there is no plot at all to speak of, since the climax has already come. Yet the delight in reading the story does not lie in its plot, but they way each event is told: there is the narrator's sympathetic view of the Master, the sequence of scheduled games written in sparse prose, yet set in the most poignant of Japanese scenes: a hot spring inn and its old designs, the cherry blossoms, the trees... Minute details are very important in this short masterpiece.
The mental burden of defending his title proves too much for the Master, and his sicknesses force delays on the matches -- delays which the young challenger is not too keen to accept. This conflict causes headaches for the organizers, but the match pushes through. Mention is given of the old times when the master sets the rules; there is no need for strict regulations to govern the game. There are subtleties that a Go player may be able to appreciate more and of course there will be a lot of things that are lost in translation, but a reader who has no background of the game will still understand and appreciate the novel.

Even though it is a 'sad story', there is another theme, more subdued but equally overwhelming: that of beauty. No Western author will be able to beautify a game of chess, say, between . But for the author and his characters - the game is an act of beauty and regardless of how much Japanese culture has changed since their times, it remains so. Thankfully, Kawabata has given us a window to glimpse at it.