“I think you might.”
“They have the potential.”
“But it won’t happen overnight. They do have some good players,
though, and I gather that they like to play for stakes.”
“They have the material.”
“They must, when they can produce someone like Wu.”
I meant to visit Wu of the Sixth Rank soon. As the retirement match took
shape, much of my interest turned to the shape his commentary was taking.
I thought of it as a sort of aid and supplement to my report.
That this extraordinary man was born in China and lived in Japan
seemed symbolic of a preternatural bounty. His genius had taken life after
his remove to Japan. There had been numerous examples over the centuries
of persons distinguished in one art or another in a neighboring country and
honored in Japan. Wu is an outstanding modern example. It was Japan that
nurtured, protected, and ministered to a genius that would have lain
dormant in China. The boy had in fact been discovered by a Japanese Go
player who lived in China for a time. Wu had already studied Japanese
writings on Go. It seemed to me that the Chinese Go tradition, older than
the Japanese, had sent forth a sudden burst of light in this boy. Behind him
a profound source of light lay buried in the mud. Had he not been blessed
with a chance to polish his talents from his very early years, they would
have lain forever hidden. No doubt in Japan too, remarkable Go players
have remained in obscurity. Such is the way of the fates with human
endowments, in the individual and in the race. Examples must be legion of
wisdom and knowledge that shone forth in the past and faded toward the
present, that have been obscured through all the ages and into the present
but will shine forth in the future.
