A Very Brief History of Go

The origins of go are shrouded in the mists of ancient Chinese history, but the game is thought to have originated, at least 2500 - 4000 years ago. It is the oldest game still played in its original form.

Some say that the board, with ten points out from the center in all directions, may have originally served as a forerunner to the abacus. Others think it may have been a fortune-telling device, with black and white stones representing yin and yang. A prominent legend holds that the sage-king Yao created the game to teach his rebellious son discipline.

By 400-300 B.C.E., Chinese scholars such as Confucius were writing about wei-chi (a Chinese name for the game) to illustrate correct thinking about filial piety and human nature. By the 1600's it had become one of the "Four Accomplishments" (along with calligraphy, painting, and playing the lute) that must be mastered by the Chinese gentleman. This kind of sanctified thinking about the game has inspired people to play for millennia.

Wei-chi entered Korean and Japanese culture through trade and other contact between countries in the first millennium A.D. In ancient Chinese art, noblemen (and noblewomen!) can occasionally be found playing go (wei-ch'i or weiqi in Chinese).

Japan's Four Go Schools

We know that go was present in Japan at least since 1000 A.D., since it figures peripherally in Murasaki's The Tale of Genji, but it took a giant leap forward there in the 1600s. When the warlord Tokugawa unified Japan in 1602, he decreed that four schools of go would be established.

Each year representatives of the schools would play in a "Castle Game" series, and the winner would hold the Cabinet-level position of go-doroko (minister of go) for the following year. This system raised Go to a new level of skill and popularity.

With the Meiji restoration in the late 1800s, Go fell into a period of relative decline in Japan, but it was brought back to life in the 1920s with the formation of the Japan Go Association. Newspapers began to sponsor tournaments, a professional system was established, and today there are more than a dozen major titles, with columns and game analysis every day in the major newspapers. Top Japanese Go players are major celebrities.

Chinese Revival

The long, rich story of Chinese Go is well covered in John Fairbairn's Web page on Go in Ancient China. During the Cultural Revolution, Go was discouraged as a "bourgeois pastime," and players had to meet in secret.

In 1978 a modern professional system was established, and a few years later began the Japan-China Super Go Series, an annual event where each countries top players faced off in a knockout format. Japan dominated this competition, but in more recent international tournaments Chinese players have shown themselves to be among the best in the world.

Korean Pro System

The Korean professional system was established in the 1950s, when Cho Nam-chul returned from professional training in Japan. Today go (baduk in Korean) is more popular in Korea than anywhere else in the world. It is estimated that from 5 to 10 percent of the population plays regularly.

As in Japan, there are many newspaper-sponsored tournaments with a large, devoted following. In recent years, some of the top Korean players have scored impressive victories in international competition. Today there is little doubt that some of the world's strongest players live and play in Korea.

The Modern Era of International Go

As recently as the 1970's, formal games between Go masters from different countries were practically unheard of. The years since then have seen a historic proliferation of international championships, where the great players from Japan, China, Korea and elsewhere compete to be seen as the world's best player. The World Ing Cup, a quadrennial event with $1 million in prizes, tops the list. Annual events include the Fujitsu Cup and the Dongyang Securities Cup.

Other world championships on the amateur level include the World Amateur Go Championship, sponsored by the International Go Federation; the World Youth Goe Championship, sponsored by the Taipei-based Ing Goe Educational Foundation; the IGF-sponsored World Women's Championship; and the World Pairs Go Championship for male-female teams, sponsored by the La-La-La Go Club in Japan. The American Go Association selects U.S. representatives for these events.

Go in America

The earliest Go players in North America were probably Chinese workers toiling on the transcontinental railroad in the mid-1800s, but if so the game did not attract notice outside the Chinese-American community.

Go first came to the attention of Westerners in the early 1900s when a group of German mathematicians and game players stumbled upon it, including Otto Korschelt and Edward Lasker, a cousin of the legendary chess legend Emanuel Lasker and himself a well-known top player. With Lee Hartmann (editor of Harper's magazine) and a few others, Lasker formed the American Go Association in New York in 1937.

Today, with about 2000 members, the American Go Association remains a small, tight-knit national community that generally greets a new player as a long-lost member of the family. 

With over 100 chapters, we may have one near you. If not, write or e-mail for help on how to start your own club! If you'd like to join the AGA, send us an application today.

To learn more about the fascinating cultural and hisptorical aspects of go, visit The Bob High Memorial Library. Many thanks to Peter Shotwell for his assistance in preparing this page.

[SOURCE] 

SEE ALSO:  The History of Weiqi

Incense Making -- Part Three

Mixing, Kneading, Extruding, Straightening, and Drying the Incense 

Each incense ingredient is carefully measured and then mixed together in the mixing container. Once they are completely mixed they are put through a sieve to remove impurities and sifted for uniformity. The powder should be very fine for the incense to blend, knead, extrude, and dry properly. You can do the same by using a flour sifter after you mix your ingredients. Makko is also added to the other ingredients for proper burning and binding. At least 10% makko should be used, and depending on the other ingredients, more makko maybe required for proper combustion.

Next the powder is put in a machine to knead it into a uniform paste called "Tama." Water is added to make the dry powder into tama. 

For making incense at home you can use a medium or large porcelain mortar and pestle. Be sure to add a little water at a time and knead the tama until it is consistent.

The next step is extruding the incense sticks in much the same way as pasta is extruded. Baieido uses a hydraulic extruder in Japan. It requires considerable pressure to push the tama through the extruder. When making incense at home you can either form the tama into cones at this point, or you can roll the dough flat and cut in thin strips. Then follow the same procedures in the rest of this demonstration.

What you see above is the extrusion of incense paste (tama) into long strands. These strands are captured on a board and cut to a fixed length. Next the incense sticks (senko) will be separated from sticking to the board and then straightened.

The next step is to cut the incense sticks to various lengths according to their uses. 

Once the incense sticks (senko) are cut to the proper length they are placed on drying trays and placed in racks to dry. It takes many days to dry the incense properly, and during the process the incense sticks are adjusted with a board to remove the space between the half dry incense, and make certain the sticks remain straight.

Finally the incense sticks are bound together in bundles to prevent any bending.

As you can see, Japanese Style incense is quite an art. Every part of the process requires careful attention and skill. There are ways to shortcut the process, but this is the method that produces the finest incense in the world!

Many thanks to Baieido Ltd. and the Sakai Small Business Promotion Association for information and photos used in this presentation.

[SOURCE]

Incense Making -- Part Two

Powdering Incense Materials

The picture above is a machine used by Japanese incense companies to powder ingredients. It pulverizes the materials instead of grinding them in an electric powder mill. This keeps the material from being overheated and losing aromatic integrity. This is very important because materials like Sandalwood will lose some ranges of aroma entirely, as well as generally weakening the overall aroma.

There are a couple of methods you can use at home that work well. One is the Mexican culinary Molcajete (shown below)

  

Another way is using a hand crank coffee mill like the one shown below. 

Sometimes you can find ingredients already powdered. Ingredients like Clove, Cassia, (Cinnamon) Spikenard, etc. can be obtained from Spice and Ayurvedic herb suppliers. Cassia is usually called "Vietnamese Cinnamon" and you should look for one with 4% oil content or better. Some Baieido incense retailers stock some of these ingredients.

[SOURCE]

Incense Making

Incense, has its roots back in mankind's first experiences with fire itself. It is unlikely primitive man would have missed that certain woods had more pleasing aromas and indeed varying emotional effects. Incense artifacts, thousands of years old, have be found in throughout the world, and appear to be a part of virtually every culture. The connection between incense, religions, medicine, and shaman practices is obvious, it would be impossible to separate them, or say which proceeded the other. Historically it is difficult to trace because it has always been largely an esoteric and oral tradition evolving in relation to both religion and medicine.

There are many myths regarding incense as well. Several modern sources include the use of Salt Peter (Potassium Nitrate) in making incense. This is undoubtedly a much later addition that arose in the commercialization of incense, primarily in the last 40 years.

Incense has appeared in many forms: raw woods, chopped herbs, pastes, powders, and even liquids or oils. What most of us think of as incense today is joss-sticks or cones. Cones as we know them were an invention of the Japanese and introduced at the World's Fair in Chicago in the late 1800's. I cannot say, at this time, when the Joss Stick or Masala incense first appeared. We do know that it was brought to China by Buddhist monk's around 200 ce. as both incense materials and Buddhism traveled the various routes of the Silk Road. The process of extruding incense sticks and coils from finely ground incense materials seems to have begun in China, as well as the use of these types in time measurement. 

Herbal Incense 

Herbal incense is blended primarily for effect. Scent is the secondary consideration in many cases, but in "all" cases, the scent is designed for the burn. Many natural incense ingredients have almost no aroma until they are heated. Notably, Aloes wood as well as many other resins have little or no aroma until they are smoldered over the incense fire.

Incense and Herbalism go hand-in-hand, and the oldest sources we have regarding herbalism and incense is the Indian Vedas. The primary references are in the Athar-vaveda and the Rigveda. This is commonly considered first phase of Ayurveda and deals with the subject in a more magical and religious approach to healing. Examination of early Vedic texts indicates that the herbalists, or healers were a second tier of Hindu priest that emerged out of the agrarian areas. They appear to assimilated their knowledge of herbalism with the rituals and beliefs of the orthodox or "Sacrificial" priests. However, they remained two distinct classes and were scorned in the later days of this phase by the sacrificial priests who considered them unclean because of their association and medical treatment of all classes of people. Around 200 bce. They were excluded by law from participating in sacred rites. Even before this, the medical priests had begun associating with wandering mendicants and ascetics who were renouncing sacrificial rites and orthodoxy, and among these were the Buddhist or bhikkhus. Pali sources indicate that the Buddhists were the principal means by which these emerging physicians organized, developed and disseminated their emerging art. This begins the classical phase of Ayurveda and the great healer Atreya emerges among others at the medical university at Taxila. Among his students were Jivaku (Buddha's Physician).

Later, Brahmanization of certain medical texts amends the heterodox practices in light of a more orthodox view, and Buddhist medicine appears to split with Ayurveda. From this point, incense evolves in both traditions in association with medicine and herbal remedies, and becomes even more a closely guarded secret passed down primarily in the oral tradition and apprenticeship. 

Incense Ingredients 

Breaking down the five elements and their Ayurvedic relationship to plants and common incense ingredients we find them falling into five classes. The following chart shows the relationship: 

            1. Ether (Fruits) Star Anise 

2. Water (Stems & Branches) Sandalwood, Aloeswood, Cedarwood, Cassia, Frankincense, Myrrh, Borneol 

3. Earth (Roots) Turmeric, Vetivert, Ginger, Costus Root, Valerian, Spikenar

4. Fire (flower) Clove 

5. Air (leaves) Patchouli

By Buddhist traditions, the 5 primary ingredients are:

1. Buddha Family

Vairocana (Transmutation of Ignorance) Aloeswood

2. Vajra Family

Akshobhya (Transmutation of Aversion) Clove

3. Padma (lotus) Family

Amitabha (Transmutation of Desire) Sandalwood

4. Ratna Family

Ratnasambhava (Transmutation of Pride) Borneol

5. Karma Family

Amoghasiddhi (Transmutation of Envy) Turmeric

Making Incense

The process of making herbal incense without the use of salt peter, or even charcoal is actually quite easy. However, perfecting the art is another matter. Perhaps the easiest way is by using a binder commonly called Makko. Makko not only serves as a water soluble binder, but as a burning agent as well. Makko is a natural tree bark from an evergreen tree and contains no synthetic chemicals, charcoal, or salt peter.

To make incense, simply mix the desired ingredients, in powdered form, with makko, and add some warm water. Knead the incense-dough thoroughly and form into cones or sticks and let them dry slowly. Japanese makers have ways to control the drying time. About a week in the summer and ten days in the winter.

Sandalwood is common to almost every incense formula, and serves as a wonderful base aroma as well as a burning agent of its own right. If you were making an incense of sandalwood alone, the amount of makko required may be a little as 10%. However, resins like Frankincense are more difficult to burn and must be used in much lower percentages to burning agents such as sandalwood or makko. Otherwise, your incense won't burn properly, and may me too smoky or keep going out.

What is Makko?

 

Tabu no ki (Makko)

Makko really just means "Incense Powder," but when we refer to Makko we are talking about a specific incense powder called Tabu no ki. It is the bark of a tree that grows in Southeast Asia, the Machillus Thunbergii tree. Makko comes in four grades, and the the higher grades have less aroma than the lower ones. What makes this powder so special is its water soluble adhesive properties, an almost odorless characteristic that seems to be entirely lost when mixed with other ingredients, and its abilities to burn smoothly and evenly.

[SOURCE]

Astro Turf

The Brothers Koch -

The secret origin of the so called Tea Party movement.

Corporate Machinations in the guise of Grass Roots Anger

New Yorker Article By Jane Mayer:

Covert Operations

Interview with the author on NPR/Fresh Air

NPR FULL Story

Interview Transcript

CONFOUNDING FATHERS

Exposing the extremism of Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, and the resurgence of radical anti-government Right Wing paranoia

CONFOUNDING FATHERS
The Tea Party's Cold War Roots
By Sean Wilentz


NPR Inerview with the Author

Freedom To Offend

I recently received an email from someone who is apparently irritated by all the blustering and fustigation emenating from the obnoxious Right Wing Populists crowds these days, as are we all. Anyway, the message contained a comment to a quote. The comment, some people take this concept to the extreme, was followed by the quote, "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist",  by the writer Salman Rushdie.

And although I can understand his view on the matter, that of extending free speech to even people who are altogether scruple-less, I also apprehend the urgency for which this valuable attribute of a free society  must stand uncompromised.

So I replied:

Freedom of expression implies that someone somewhere is going to be offended.
The unpopular or controversial instances of expression are the very things that need to be protected; Popular or pedestrian instances of expression are never in danger of censorship.

Censorship of any kind poses the biggest threat to a free society.

Salman Rushdie knows better than anyone the threats from quarters "offended" by another man's views.

As soon as the "offended" make the rules, or decide parameters of what is acceptable, it is only a matter of time before you are the target of their hysterical attacks.

A free society is predicated on freedom of expression. There can be no compromise to this essential egalitarian idiosyncrasy. One compromise leads down a slippery slope

I hesitated to warn him to never speak such heresy again.

Petition to End Unconstitutional National Day of Prayer

Oppose the National Day of Prayer — 
God & Government a Dangerous Mix

Dear Mr. President and Governors of the 50 States:

We, the undersigned, applaud the federal court ruling by Judge Barbara Crabb declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional.

Our secular nation was founded in part by refugees seeking freedom of conscience and freedom from religious tyranny. They wanted a land where government could not tell them which church to support, what religious rituals to engage in or what to believe or disbelieve. They knew there can be no true religious liberty without the freedom to dissent. Whether to pray, or believe in a god who answers prayer, is an intensely precious and personal decision protected under our First Amendment as a paramount matter of conscience.

Congress, in 1952, abridged that freedom of conscience when it designated a National Day of Prayer: "The President shall set aside and proclaim a suitable day each year, other than a Sunday, as a National Day of Prayer, on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.” (Public Law 82-324)

Rev. Billy Graham asked Congress to declare an annual National Day of Prayer so “the Lord Jesus Christ” would be recognized across the land. Sen. Absalom Robertson, father of Rev. Pat Robertson, introduced the bill to instill "faith in an Almighty God." Influential evangelicals lobbied Congress in 1988 to designate the first Thursday in May as the annual National Day of Prayer so they could better organize prayer events uniting religion and government.

Our founders did not pray when they adopted our Constitution, which shows their intent to separate religion from government. The Constitution's only references to religion are exclusionary. The U.S. President and elected officials have neither the moral nor the constitutional authority to dictate to Americans to pray, much less to tell citizens what to pray about, to set aside an entire day for prayer every year, and to gather with others “to turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.”

As Judge Crabb ruled, "In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.”

Don't let Christian evangelicals hijack our secular Constitution.

SIGN THE PLEDGE 

If you care at all about Freedom and the protection from religion and its dangerous influence as spelled out in our Constitution, then you should fill out this form and send it in. Believers already have the freedom to believe and practice their chosen religion. We also have the right to be free from its influence. Atheists are the biggest minority in this country, its time to start making our views part of the dialogue.