Buying a Used Go Board: Damage You Can Undo, Damage You Cannot, and the Photos to Ask For

Old Japanese go boards turn up far from Japan: at antique dealers, on auction sites, in house clearances, sometimes with a note saying only “grandfather’s board, details unknown”. That note is usually not evasive. The seller genuinely does not know.

A wooden board is not a consumable. Well-kept boards are used for decades, so a second-hand board can be an excellent buy. What decides it is not the price, but the kind of damage. Some damage can be undone later; some cannot. Learn to tell the two apart in photos, and used boards become a realistic option.

The short version

• Surface darkening, shallow dents and faded lines can usually be put right by resurfacing and re-lining.
• Cracks in the ends of the board, serious warping and damage that goes deep are much harder to fix.
• Resurfacing removes thickness, so a thin tabletop board has little margin.
• The species of wood cannot always be confirmed from a photo.
• Compare “price plus the cost of repair” against a new board, not price alone.

Where used boards come from

• Dealers who buy and resell (antique and second-hand dealers). A dealer that has appraised the board will often describe its condition specifically; some have repaired it already.
• Private sellers on auction and marketplace sites. The widest range and prices, but the seller may not know how to judge a board. You have to read the photos yourself.
• Specialist board makers and dealers with trade-ins. Few in number, but the description of the grain and thickness is more likely to be accurate.

Whatever the source, the checks are the same. Look at the condition before the price. An overview of these routes for buyers outside Japan is in Where to Buy Go Equipment Outside Japan.

Six things to check in the photos

1. Cracks in the ends (kiguchi)

The most important thing on a used board is the sides, and especially the kiguchi (木口), the front and back ends where you see the end grain. A crack here means something different from a scratch on top. Deep cracks and damage that runs into the wood are the classic cases where repair is limited.

If the listing shows only the playing surface from above, ask for photos of all four sides and the corners. If the seller declines, or the photos never arrive, consider walking away.

2. Marks and darkening on the surface

Darkening on the playing surface, discoloration from hands and shallow dents from stones are normal on a used board. These are generally what resurfacing fixes, so there is no need to mark the board down heavily for them. They are evidence it has been played on.

3. Warping and twisting

A photo with a straight edge or a taut thread laid across the surface shows warping directly. Without one, look at whether the grid lines appear straight, and whether the reflection of light on the surface bends partway across.

Warping is a result of where the board was kept: a closed storeroom, next to a heater. For the same reason, decide where your board will live before you buy it.

4. The lines

Lines that are faded, uneven in width or darker in places may mean the board has been re-lined before. That is not a problem in itself, but the quality of the work shows in how the board looks and plays. Lines that are simply faint can be restored by re-lining.

Whether the lines are raised lacquer (applied with a blade in the traditional tachi-mori method) or printed is also worth asking; a photo at a low angle shows it. See How Go Board Lines Are Made: Tachi-mori.

5. Legs and underside (legged boards)

On a legged board, check the legs for wobble, chips and signs of being glued back on. Look at the underside too: the square recess in the centre is the heso (“navel”), also called the chidamari. It is one and the same hollow, not two. Its presence and the way it is cut are clues to how the board was made. See The Legs and the ‘Chidamari’ of a Go Board.

6. Mould, smell and storage

Photos cannot show this, so ask where the board was kept. A cupboard, shed or warehouse is a very different environment from a living room.

The wood cannot always be confirmed from a photo

The hardest thing to judge on a used board is the species. Hon-kaya (true Japanese kaya) and shin-kaya are different trees: shin-kaya is mainly North American spruce, marketed under a kaya-like name. They can be told apart by grain, colour and smell, but on an old board whose colour has deepened, or in a photo with a colour cast, it is often not possible to be certain. See Honkaya vs Shinkaya.

How much a description of “hon-kaya” is worth depends on who wrote it. A dealer who has appraised the board and a private seller describing a family heirloom are not saying the same thing.

The grain is easier to read from photos, as long as you have pictures of the ends. Straight, parallel lines across the end grain from top to bottom point to tenchimasa; straight lines only near the top surface, to tenmasa; and U-shaped or upside-down U curves to a flat-sawn board (kiura or kiomote). Grain and how it affects value are covered in How to Choose a Go Board.

Compare price plus repair, not price alone

A board that needs resurfacing and re-lining really costs its price plus that work. Compare that figure with a new board.

The cost depends on the wood, the size and the damage, so there is no fixed price. The practical approach is to send the photos to a board maker that does repairs and ask, before you buy, what it would cost to fix this particular board. Then your bid or decision rests on real numbers.

Resurfacing also removes wood. A board that is already thin may have almost nothing to spare, and buying it on the assumption that it can be resurfaced may not work out. Thickness is measured in sun (1 sun is about 3.03 cm); see Go & Shogi Board Thickness.

Outside Japan, there are two more costs to add: shipping a heavy board (legged boards are bulky as well as heavy), and, if it needs work, sending it to a repairer and back. Ask the seller for the shipping cost before you commit, not after.

What a used board is worth: compare like with like

Used prices move with the wood, thickness, grain, condition and whether it has legs, and no two boards are the same. There is no single table that says “this specification is worth this much”, and the market shifts over time.

The workable method is to decide the specification you want (for example, legged, hon-kaya, around 6 sun) and look at several listings of that kind side by side. Whether one price is high or low only becomes clear against others like it.

Stones and bowls: judge them separately

When a board comes with stones, judge the stones on their own. Check above all that the set is complete: 181 black and 180 white, 361 in total. Stones chip, wear and go missing. Clamshell white stones vary greatly in value by grade (see Clam-Shell Go Stone Grades and Suwabute or Mexican?), and black stones are judged differently if they are Nachiguro slate, which comes from Kumano in Mie Prefecture. Stone sizes are numbered by thickness; see Go Stone Sizes Explained.

For bowls, look for cracks and check that the lids fit.

Shogi boards and pieces

A used shogi board is judged in much the same way as a go board, but the pieces are a separate matter. A set must have all 40 pieces, and they must belong to the same set, with no later replacements mixed in. A single missing piece makes the set unusable for play.

When to pass on a used board

A new board, or a trade-in from a specialist dealer, will often be the more satisfying choice when:

• it is your first board and you are not confident judging condition
• you cannot get photos of the sides, or the storage history is unknown
• the price would take your whole budget, leaving nothing for repair
• it is a gift, where the condition on arrival is the result

FAQ

Should I avoid used go boards altogether? No. A wooden board is made to last, and good used boards exist. Judge by the kind of damage, not the price, and avoid boards with cracked ends or serious warping.

Should I avoid a board with surface scratches? Shallow surface marks and darkening are what resurfacing is for. Give much more weight to cracks in the sides and ends.

Can I tell hon-kaya from a photo? Grain and colour give some indication, but age and photo colour can make it hard to be sure. Several photos, and ideally seeing the board in person, are the reliable way.

Will a repaired board be as good as new? Resurfacing and re-lining can transform a board, but there is a limit to how much wood can be removed, and deep cracks or warping may not come back. What can be done varies by board, so ask a repairer before you buy.

Related pages

• How to Choose a Go Board: Wood, Form and Thickness
• Honkaya vs Shinkaya
• Where to Buy Go Equipment Outside Japan
• How Go Board Lines Are Made: Tachi-mori

This page sets out a general approach to judging second-hand go and shogi boards (checked October 2026). Repair options and costs depend on the board and the repairer; for a particular board, send photos to a board maker or specialist dealer before deciding. Kayajudo is an independent guide to Japanese go and shogi equipment, and we can also order boards, stones and pieces from makers and shops in Japan for you and ship them abroad — see Ordering from overseas.