Shibumi ebook

Hence Barbara Cartland is still the most popular English language writer in India. That although Shibumi was a best seller in its day, late seventies, now it would not survive, it is too intelligent and well written?

The point is not that they are reading blockbusters, but that once upon a time these blockbusters were well crafted things, at least if this book is any guide. In fact, Shibumi has been an eye-opener for me. I have been sticking up for some of these books lately when clearly I should not have been. But if Manny is correct in suggesting, as Trevanian is also observing, that English is going through a period of simplification and that this is the consequence, badly written tripe being lapped up by the reading public, what a tragedy.

I expect there will be more to come here after I have finished the book, but for now, I thought it was interesting to read what the author had to say later about his opinion on Israel and its neighbours: Q:Since I first read Shibumi and then reread it twenty years later, my opinion of the Israeli-Palestinian situation has changed entirely, as a result of becoming much better informed Has your opinion in this regard at all changed since Shibumi has been published?

A:I hope there are many Americans who can remain flexible through the fog of prejudice and fear about this issue. Nicholas Hel would not have lent his support to the current leaders of Israel. He would have wished the current rational leaders of Palestine all good fortune in negotiating towards peace with justice, now that Arafat is no longer in the way. Footnote: Arafat's end has all the marks of an inside job, almost surely with the assistance of the second bureau.

Israel, of course, knew what was going on, and it's likely that they informed the United States, but that's not sure. It's hard to put limits on the incompetence of American intelligence services. Each time we find a lower value, they prove they can fail even that; so Israel might not have informed us early enough for us to get our clumsy hands into things and mess them up.

What should America do now? Using such tatters of even-handedness as we still possess, we should guide drag, if necessary the Israelis into as fair and honest a sharing of land and water as is possible. Then we must open our hands and carefully step back, out of Middle East affairs, turning them over to the United Nations.

I wonder when this was written, it shows an unlikely trust in the United Nations, which in my opinion, is shamefully bereft of moral purpose. Oh, and this: I must take issue with all my friends who have reviewed this. It is not just a fun book, or a thriller. It is a very strongly felt position about how we are living and how we should live. This book manages to hammer and hammer and hammer this message home, whilst making you feel like you are 'just reading a best seller'.

That he has managed to write something so entirely enjoyable whilst doing this is such a feat, I am completely in awe of it.

Sep 19, Jim rated it really liked it Shelves: action , 1paper , mystery-thriller , 2fiction. My original review was wrong in a couple of respects, not bad though for the 25 years or so that had passed since I read it. Truly well done. Nicholas Hel is an interesting character, one of the most complicated I've ever read in a mystery-thriller. He' My original review was wrong in a couple of respects, not bad though for the 25 years or so that had passed since I read it. Not sure what book that was in.

Shibumi is the noun form of 'shibui' according to Wikipedia, although the book says at one point that the former is greater than the latter. As I understand Trevanian's definition in the book, it is the aesthetic of perfect function in or of something that is done in a simple and unobtrusively beautiful way or form. No one has any respect for anyone else, but it is often so artfully phrased that it's almost fun, especially since the insults fall on every nation.

Hel tells one American, "Generalization is flawed thinking only when applied to individuals. It is the most accurate way to describe the mass, the Wad. And yours is a democracy, a dictatorship of the Wad. The Mother Company is another cynical construct of such possibility that it is scary. Worse, this book from discusses a computer system that has so many facts about everyone that it takes an artistic touch to obtain a meaningful overview of a person.

All very well done, but there were some flies in the ointment. Trevanian made his excuses early as I pointed out above, but it still casts them in as 'magical fixes'. Life was a bit too cheap, too. Another is Hel's martial art skill. We never find out where or how he learned it, but he's legendary for killing people with whatever is at hand, including a drinking straw. We spend a good chunk of the book exploring Go, caves, even how he picked up his legendary skill at making love, but there is no mention of when, how, or where he picked up his deadliest skill.

Again, it comes off as neat, but magical, so severely weakened the novel as a whole for me. Very cool. It's set back during the Korean War, so before "Shibumi". I can't really explain without giving away too much of the book. Your mileage could very well vary, though. As I recall, it was well written. If you like David Morrell's or Stephen Hunter's spy novels, you'll probably like this. View all 9 comments. Shelves: go , audiobook , thriller , s , dude-lit , japan , spy , kinda-sorta-really-racist , conspiracy , pulp-adventure.

This book is for people who like James Bond, Jason Bourne, and all those other super-ninja Gary Stu action heroes fueled by atomic testosterone. Except if you pay attention, Trevanian is laughing at you. Shibumi shamelessly exploits every single cliche in the genre and then sneers at them. Trevanian's mockery of American culture is acidly funny and not particularly affectionate. Sometimes the self-aware satire and the angry derision seem to blend together.

The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals. His mother was a Russian aristocrat, he was born in Shanghai, he was raised by a Japanese go master, and in the aftermath of World War II, he becomes the most ninjaest ninja ever.

He learns Basque while spending three years in solitary confinement and so he moves to Spain to hang out in Basque country with his Afro-Euroasian concubine who is lovingly described as a collection of all the best body parts from the sum of her ethnicities. The plot is your basic revenge thriller: Hel's ties of duty and obligation bring him into conflict with the Mother Company, which is the umbrella organization representing all the world's energy interests and pretty much controls the Western world.

In between snappy dialog in which Hel shows off how he is just so refined and Shibumi and shit with derision leveled at every Western country the Brits, the French, the Italians, and the Germans all get it in the neck at some point, but no one more than Americans , there are action scenes where Hel proves he can do everything from cave diving to killing people with playing cards, equally over-the-top sex scenes 'cause of course learning to kill and play go also makes Hel totally awesome at the sexing.

What elevated this book above the schlock it is pretending to be is the vicious satire and the clever writing. Trevanian could write some sophisticated literary pulp fiction.

He was having fun while poking his readers in the eye. He plays it straight all the way through: Shibumi reads like you are supposed to take it seriously, but you can kind of hear the author's snicker echoing in the main character's dialog. I suspect the racism and sexism was part of the performance. This is a Men's Adventure novel for the cynical hipsters of the 70s, back before appropriating Japanese culture was what all the cool kids did and the idea of structuring a killer thriller around the Oriental game of go yeah, Shibumi uses words like "Oriental" unironically, and also refers to Arabs as "goat-herds" and portrays all the Arab characters as cowardly gay terrorists made all the literati who wanted to read something a little more masculine than J.

Tolkien groove on Trevanian's way cool, like, deeep understanding of Oriental culture, man. Alas, I can't mock Trevanian nearly as wittily as he mocks me. This was a fun novel, entertaining on multiple levels. It really does have the tone of a literary author slumming in a chanbara cinema. View all 5 comments. Apr 08, David Lucero rated it it was amazing. Nicolai Nikko Hel is a one of a kind man caught in uncommon circumstances.

When he and his mother are trapped in China during the Japanese invasion, they are accepted into the home of a Japanese general of administration who takes a liking to Nikko known more commonly as Hel.

He teaches the boy many languages, including the art of Shibumi, which is more than simply the knowledge of things, but rather the 'understanding' of things. Over the course of the war and Japan's eventual surrender, Hel Nicolai Nikko Hel is a one of a kind man caught in uncommon circumstances. Over the course of the war and Japan's eventual surrender, Hel finds himself without a country.

Being half-Russian, he is suspect among conquering Americans, who learn to accept him because of his multi-linguistic capabilities. His knowledge of martial arts helps him during meditation periods after he spends a time in prison. Upon his eventual release, Americans use his skills to infiltrate enemy organizations, and Hel soon becomes an efficient killer.

But Hel takes revenge on those who have thrust him into this life of murder-for-hire. And when a man seeking revenge for the loss of his brother by Hel's hands, Nikko Hel's quiet, dignified life in the Spanish Basque mountains is suddenly turned upside down. It will take all of his skills to survive and possible seek to 'quiet' those who would dare challenge him. This book was recommended to me by my son, who has this copy in his collection. It's the sort of story one keeps for another read.

The characters are colorful and illuminating. I was left to wonder if this sort of person actually existed, and would not be all surprised if there are. Written in , this book like so many proves a story is timeless. Apr 04, seak rated it it was ok Shelves: audio , What piqued my interest was something I heard about this book being the basis for John Wick and I love me some John Wick. While I can see that being true, if it is true, this book was far from John Wick or, if anything, reverse John Wick.

It's all tell no show. I understand Nickolai Hel can do all kinds of fancy things, but it's shown maybe once. Even the final climax didn't do much for actual action.

And don't get me wrong, I believe this is all intentional, the more I've read up on this. But he's so anti it wears you out just as you're getting interested. I don't know if I'm even close to making myself clear here.

My expectations were completely off with this book, but at the same time it was definitely compelling and I found myself enjoying this book mostly about this guy, Hel's, life. His interests and how he developed his "shibumi" theory or essence of life.

I loved his Basque friends, they definitely made this book worth reading alone. But in the end, Hel gets annoying. He's so anti-American, which is not unwarranted mind you, that it gets tiresome.

At one point he thumbs his nose at barbeques. I can understand going after American consumerism, but barbeques are amazing unless you think you're better than everyone.

And that's the rub for me, Hel is so elitist it just gets frustrating. Hearing about his life his adventures, all very good an interesting, but when his voice is heard, it's annoying. Plus he's hypocritical as well since it clearly takes a lot of materialism to become anti-materialist or do mansions and hectares of land in Wyoming just fall in everyone's laps by being good little anti-consumers?

Materialism is bad except when anti-materialists do it. Are there seriously no other names? View 2 comments. Feb 12, Darwin8u rated it really liked it Shelves: , american , espionage. I might have given it 5-stars or 4. My favorite parts were the conversations on GO, his time in prison, spelunking, and the various Basque characters.

It was fun more than it was important. Other reasons I didn't give it 5-stars? Again, this all really pivots on whether or not Trevanian was coming at this as a farce or playing it straig I might have given it 5-stars or 4.

Again, this all really pivots on whether or not Trevanian was coming at this as a farce or playing it straight. But I'm afraid a lot of those who love it view it more in the James Bond which I think also sinks into a satire soup model.

I recall seeing Shibumi on paperback stands when I was in elementary or middle school, and it seemed like a typical thriller like the Robert Ludlum and Erik Van Lustbader novels I was starting to graduate to after tiring of the Mack Bolan "The Executioner" action series. I never did pick it up even though it did seem like something I would have read at the time.

I'm glad I didn't, because it would have been over my young, callow head. I wouldn't have picked up on the fact that it is a witty, i I recall seeing Shibumi on paperback stands when I was in elementary or middle school, and it seemed like a typical thriller like the Robert Ludlum and Erik Van Lustbader novels I was starting to graduate to after tiring of the Mack Bolan "The Executioner" action series.

I wouldn't have picked up on the fact that it is a witty, intelligent spy spoof more the film version of The Manchurian Candidate or a less arch Dr. Strangelove than Our Man Flint or those Dean Martin "Matt Helm" movies , and the digressions to things philosophical and arcane would have bored me.

He's an international assassin, but he hardly ever kills anybody! He just sits around and plays Go, and disparages westerners, and meditates, and occasionally has tantric sex!

And then he goes spelunking for a hundred pages! And he has basically what amounts to Spidey-Sense?! And it would be, if Trevanian weren't a prose writer practically without fault, with an acid wit that doesn't belay his ability to exhibit deep feeling when called for.

For one who is ostensibly a writer of "airport paperbacks," Trevanian takes his time and lets the story build up slowly over the long haul. He avoids cliches and takes narrative turns that the reader won't necessarily suspect, but are nonetheless satisfying. He is also remarkably prescient regarding world politics and finance, and what probably seemed mere fancy to readers in will strike a chord of plausibility in those of us today who sometimes wonder who's really running things.

Plus, he taught me about "Volvo-bashing". View all 3 comments. Oct 01, Arun Divakar rated it it was ok. The name reminded me of a Samurai and of what he would have faced during a life time of combat. There can be parallels to this idea in this book but what it is in reality is a totally different beast. Trevanian creates an elaborate joke which scorns at the 'Super Assassin' genre in Shibumi.

Shibumi in simple English means Casual Elegance tells the author. A way of life which in itself sets the dudes aside from the dunderheads. The story is about a man named Nicholai Hel who the author repeatedly The name reminded me of a Samurai and of what he would have faced during a life time of combat. A mystic, a sexually hyper charged alpha male, able to kill with bare hands, world renowned underground cave explorer, well read and a polyglot with a command of over seven languages, able to think in mathematical abstractions owing to his refined state of play in the Japanese game of Go etc.

Yes, I am talking about one man and he is not a computer. The back story fills a big chunk of the book and then for about a hundred pages we are given the details of how he discovers an underground cave. Being an assassin, his core competency is examined in roughly about 15 pages towards the end. For a man of such fine tastes, the way he overcomes his enemies is something that made me blanch. I strongly believe that the final pages of this book was the biggest bunch of hogwash I have ever read in recent times.

There are culture comparisons and then there is bitching. A good part of the comments offered here fall into the second category. For a book that was recommended as a master piece among thrillers, this one was a dud! Jun 19, Marius van Blerck rated it did not like it. I must really be missing something. A quick internet search locates many favourable reviews of both this book, and of its author, Rodney William Whitaker aka Trevanian , who apparently positioned himself as someone who read Proust, but not much else written in the 20th century.

Consider this statement from Wikipedia: Shibumi is elaborately written, using a very extended vocabulary, based on a sound knowledge in history and geopolitics, switching easily from pessimism to wry humor, Shibumi is mo I must really be missing something. Consider this statement from Wikipedia: Shibumi is elaborately written, using a very extended vocabulary, based on a sound knowledge in history and geopolitics, switching easily from pessimism to wry humor, Shibumi is more than a mere thriller, and may be compared to other works such as Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-four and Fahrenheit However, I have seldom read or listened to a more inept, poorly-written thriller, and the comparison to the three great works referred to is ludicrous.

The characters in Shibumi are absurd stereotypes, the writing-style is awkward clearly if the author indeed read Proust extensively, he absorbed little , and the plot-line is as weak as cheap coffee. View 1 comment. Less a novel than Trevanian's expansive personal shitlist of people he hates in novel-form.

A partial list of said people includes: Arabs, Americans, young people, some Jews, women who aren't concubines, feminists, Texans, Russians, Prussians, merchants, Andy Warhol, modern Japanese, Arabs seriously, Italians, French, Brits, some Basques, Cowboys, War Criminals Japanese ones excluded, Christians, chess players, wine snobs, Clint Eastwood, bankers, airport security, gays this despite his see Less a novel than Trevanian's expansive personal shitlist of people he hates in novel-form.

A partial list of said people includes: Arabs, Americans, young people, some Jews, women who aren't concubines, feminists, Texans, Russians, Prussians, merchants, Andy Warhol, modern Japanese, Arabs seriously, Italians, French, Brits, some Basques, Cowboys, War Criminals Japanese ones excluded, Christians, chess players, wine snobs, Clint Eastwood, bankers, airport security, gays this despite his seeming-penchant for the rippling thighs of young Basque lads, salespeople, Stage 1 lovers, and Arabs.

He really, really hates Arabs. He sure seems to be down with assholes, though. Ahh, Shibumi: you're exquisite trash. Don't ever change. Dec 07, Austin rated it it was ok Shelves: fiction. The first warning sign was that the author goes by only one name.

Any guy who attempts this little bit of artifice not doubt has an ego that impedes upon gentle ingress and egress of doors, automobiles, sweaters, etc. Even the people who have pulled off the single moniker still have full names that are known to their most ardent fans e. Still, this was enough to have me determined to root against the guy's protagonist out of sheer spite, but I digr The first warning sign was that the author goes by only one name.

Still, this was enough to have me determined to root against the guy's protagonist out of sheer spite, but I digress The only reason I didn't give it 1 star is that there are brief passages that are well written and offer keen insights into either the human condition or the American personality in as much as either truly exists. Of course, there are passages where he tries the same and misses or just beats the Americans-are-shallow angle to death.

In the end, I am embarrassed to admit, I did end up rooting for the protagonist and don't entirely regret the time I spent reading this one, so it I'll let him keep the second star for the time being.

The rankings have likely been adjusted in more recent years. Proof that not all hive-minds are created equal If you think it's a spy thriller, you're a fool. If you think this is a spoof, you're slightly more enlightened but you're still narrow minded.

It's the masterpiece, the time-defying work of an enlightened soul with democratic intentions. Trevanian is a literary writer, yet he sturctures his stories in a way for most people to feel intelligent and enlightened. Most important, it's a vehicle for his opinions and passions. To keep it simple, it's structured around the principle of the Japanese game of GO,which has been known to be a framework of thoughts of the great warlords.

What happens to Nicholai Hel in this movie is filtered through his state of mind and separated like the movements of a Go game. Enlightening, stimulating read for the curious mind. Very impressive character study. In fact, it might be the most impressive I have ever read. A stunning work. Dec 02, Leftbanker rated it it was amazing Shelves: novels. I can justify reading absolutely anything in Spanish so I don't feel like an inculte for reading this half-assed spy novel. Anything to improve my Spanish.

For some reason the dust jacket has a picture of an ante-bellum southern mansion on the front cover—talk about random. They could have put a photo of just about anything you could imagine and it would have made the same amount of sense or complete lack of it. The actual plot is pretty weak and the author's constant racist, sexist, and bigoted commentary about the lesser races—whatever the fuck those are—is annoying, but I appreciate what he tries to say with his central character, the assassin Nicholai Hel.

For as outrageously silly as the book is at times, he does get the message across that human beings are capable of much more than we give ourselves credit for if we only apply ourselves. Most people are just too lazy or too content with their own mediocrity. Then there is the Japanese minimalism which shapes the character of the protagonist. I have never particularly admired Japanese culture or values—not that I know much about them. They seem uptight and constipated to my Western way of thinking.

I'd much rather look at a ratty patch of weeds than a tortuously-sculpted Japanese garden, but I can appreciate the beauty and comfort of their brand of minimalism—something the protagonist attempts to perfect in his life of Shibumi. The word is Japanese, so everything Japanese is highly superior to the lesser mongrels, like me, who wouldn't understand minimalism if it took a seat on the sofa in my front yard and started playing the banjo.

The protagonist is such a damn minimalist that he lives in a remodeled chateau with not even one old sofa or junked car in his yard. There are a couple of long sections in the book in which the author describes spelunking expeditions—a hard thing to do and keep it interesting. I think he pulled it off rather well. I learned a lot of great vocabulary in Spanish as I read through these portions which may come in handy if I do any mountaineering in Spain.

All are from the paperback copy. Use them after your first read of the review or as you go. You choose. Originally published in Trevanian is one of the pen names of Rodney William Whitaker He notably wrote The Eiger Sanction. My Satori comments. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, …it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity.

In philosophy, …is spiritual tranquility that is not passive, it is being without the angst of becoming. Winston Churchill. Proverbial , proverb , epigram , maxim. In my opinion the cover endorsements on the paperback edition get it wrong about the book.

Airport paperbacks?!?! Sounds like a barely polite euphemism for pulp fiction. Writers of all genres including pulp fiction should be offended to be categorized as being merely worthy of filling airport shelves with illiterate works for passing travelers. But what do you expect from the New York Times and their singular evaluation of their own self-importance.

What are they smoking, but not reading, up there in Wisconsin? The rest is back front, and side story, equally excellent in its own right, but not spy story per se. Herein lies the riddle, mystery, and enigma. The caricature shell of a spy story is his method of presenting it. A fictional novel about the game Go is a brief part of the story in Shibumi. The lead character is a fictional master assassin. The outright philosophical fiction of Ayn Rand not withstanding Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, et al , I have never highlighted so many passages in what I thought was going to be light, pure entertainment, reading.

Ayn Rand on the other hand is neither light nor pure entertainment reading. Recognizing this, we must see them as innocent. As innocent as the adder, as innocent as the jackal. Dangerous and treacherous, but not sinful. You spoke of them as a despicable race. They are not a race. They are not even a culture. They are a cultural stew of the orts and leavings of the European feast. At best, they are a mannered technology. In place of ethics, they have rules. Size functions for them as quality functions for us.

What for us is honor and dishonor, for them is winning and losing. I admire Jews and American Indians for theirs. As an Indian guide once noted on a tour I did of pueblo ruins, "You have no roots".

No grounding, no foundation, no guideposts. Advantage, or disadvantage? Still contemplating. Do not fall into the error of the artisan who boasts of twenty years experience in craft while in fact he has had only one year of experience—twenty times.

And never resent the advantge of experience your elders have. Recall that they have paid for this experience in the coin of life, and have emptied a purse that cannot be refilled. This is not to say that he came to like them, or to trust them; but he came to realize that they were not the amoral, depraved people their political and military behavior suggest they were. True, they were culturally immature, brash, and clumsy, materialistic and historically myopic, loud, bold, and endlessly tiresome in social encounters; but at the bottom they were good-hearted and hospitable; willing to share—indeed insistent upon sharing—their wealth and ideology with all the world.

Above all, he came to recognize that all Americans were merchants, that the core of the American Genius, of the Yankee Spirit, was buying and selling. They vended their democratic ideology like hucksters, supported by the great protection racket of armaments deals and economic pressures. Their wars were monumental exercises in production and supply.

Their government was a series of social contracts. Their education was sold as so much per unit hour. There marriages were emotional deals, the contracts easily broken if one party failed in his debt-servicing. Honor for them consisted in fair trading.

And they were not, as they thought, a classless society; they were a one-class society—the mercantile. You can recognize the victim by his constant ifforts to get in touch with himself, to believe his spiritual feebleness is an interesting psychological warp, to construe his fleeing from responsibility as evidence that he and his life are uniquely open to new experience.

This American-born author certainly has his opinions of his fellow countrymen! All of them are still applicable to todays mores. Recall the book was published in , 32 years ago.

Having a lot of time on my hands at the moment, I inhaled the book in a matter of a few days, which is fast for me. Airport paperbacks. Tsuru no Sugomori. This is a crafted book. No, not crafty, though it is that, but crafted. Hand-crafted even. Carefully built and constructed.

Like the paperback cover says: "The only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe, and Chaucer. The book held my interest and intrigue as much or more as the first time. I had earmarked numerous passages on the first read, something I don't do for 'regular' fiction very often, and I re-emphasized or added new earmarks. The philosophical insights into various cultures, including my own superficial, American one, are superb.

All the loose ends are tidily cleaned up by the end, even though you don't think there will be enough pages left to do so. How an author learns so much about disparate subjects such as language, cultures, and caving, is beyond me.

Alas, this author has passed away. Wikipedia enlightens a little bit, but only a little. I still very highly recommend this book.

Jun 25, Rosalind Hartmann rated it it was amazing. My high school senior year literature teacher gave me this book to read during a post graduate visit. It's an amazing book about a hired killer with a zen like outlook on life and death. One of my favorite books ever.

Intense and intelligent and incendiary--if you're fool enough to take offense at a book that dishes out offense at everybody. May 27, Brian R. Mcdonald rated it it was amazing Shelves: books-with-go-references , fiction-with-major-go-content. In the Fall, , issue of the American Go Journal, the late Bob High printed a number of random facts gleaned from a survey of American Go Association membership forms.

Among the items was a mention of how members reported having been introduced to the game. According to Bob's list, a significant number first discovered Go by reading Shibumi -- more than from any other book or popular cultural reference [this was, of course, long before Hikaru no Go, the manga and anime that introduced many y In the Fall, , issue of the American Go Journal, the late Bob High printed a number of random facts gleaned from a survey of American Go Association membership forms.

According to Bob's list, a significant number first discovered Go by reading Shibumi -- more than from any other book or popular cultural reference [this was, of course, long before Hikaru no Go, the manga and anime that introduced many younger players to Go].

Shibumi, like many of Trevanian's works, is an espionage thriller. Protagonist Nicholai Hel is the world's most highly paid assassin. The main plot is a fairly commonplace sort for the genre: Arab governments, American oil interests [linked in something called the Mother Company] and elements of Western spy agencies are all working together for nefarious purposes, which require them to kill the members of an Israeli special ops unit.

The sole survivor contacts Hel and persuades him to involve himself. Stuff then happens, and more stuff follows, in general spy novel fashion. What makes the book important to Go players lies in Hel's life before he becomes an assassin. Born in Shanghai, he learns go at a young age and is later taught intensively by his mother's lover, a Japanese general who is an excellent player.

After the death of Nicholai's mother, the general sends him to live in Japan at the home of a famous go professional, Otake 7-dan. According to the acknowledgements at the front of the book, Otake is based on a real life individual.

Biographical parallels would suggest that the model was the great player and teacher Kitani Minoru. For what it is worth, Otake is also the name given to the character based on Kitani in Kawabata's great novel The Master of Go. Hel spends six years living the life of an insei, a student professional. The game of Go is intimately connected to his lifelong pursuit of Shibumi, great refinement underlying commonplace appearances, and authority without domination.

Many specific plot elements involve Go; for example, after the war, when the general is imprisoned by the US, he and Hel are able to talk in front of his guards by using Go terms as a code. Your Comment:. Home Downloads Free Downloads Shibumi pdf. Read Online Download. Great book, Shibumi pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone.

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