Pair Of 2 Go Game Stones Jujube Bowls Dragon Design

When I first looked at these Jugube Bowls for holding stones in the game of Go, I thought the product picture looked pretty dull and uninteresting. Worse, I saw a review saying that the dragon images of these bowls have ripples in what look like decals. The reviewer concluded that these bowls aren't worth $30. That negative review and the dull picture put me off to the point that I considered rejecting this product.But then, with reference to the fourth image below, I got to thinking, the price of Go bowls of this size can range from a low of maybe $20 for plastic bowls to a high of $200 or more for special wooden bowls of antiquity, excellent quality, or carved from rare wood. And the average price of decent quality modern wood Go bowls can range from about $50 to $100. So I realized that the price here of $30 is at the low end of the cost scale and I really liked the use of Asian images on the bowls, as even expensive bowls, as shown below, typically have no such images.So I decided to take a chance and pay for these relatively cheap bowls. Attached as the first image is one of the two bowls that were delivered in a well-packed box. I used a flash for this picture and this seems to have made the bowl appear redder than it really is.As you can see, this bowl has a shiny reddish tint that is much nicer than the dull brownish color of the product picture. So far, so good. But then, unfortunately, as you can see, the pictured dragon does have ripples, just as described in the negative review. And if you look closely you can see that a protrusion from the dragon's face has already flaked off. So score a big one on the negative side.Still, in looking at the product, the ripples do not bother me too much as I think they add some dimension and character to the image and I believe, with careful and gentle handling, the ripples might not disintegrate and fall off of the image. As a point of information, the ripples seem to be formed from drying and expansion of the painted wood at the surface of the bowl. This is not a good thing. But again, these bowls cost only $30 bucks and I think that, even with surface ripples, they are much better than plastic containers at that price point. And, for me, using cheap plastic containers for a venerable 3,000 year-old game seems almost disrespectful.Anyway, there is another negative thing that is not shown in the product picture: As shown in the below third image, the top lid of the bowl is flat on the inside and you therefore can't use it to hold prisoner stones as is the tradition in Go. This annoyed me a little at first, but then I realized with reference to the fifth picture below, that even bowls with tops shaped to hold go stones are generally not that impressive from a stone-retaining standpoint. So I wondered, other than bowl tops, what could be used to hold prisoner Go stones in a game? I got the idea of using fairly cheap cast iron hands as a decorative means to hold those prisoner Go stones, without using the lids of bowls. Attached as the second image is a picture of one such pair of cupped hands holding standard-sized white go-stones.As far as I know, this Go-inspired sculpted hand idea originates with me and I think it is much better than using the lids of bowls to hold captured stones. Using the lids in this way has always seemed a little cheap to me. I wonder why no one thought of using sculpted hand holders for Go stones over the last 3,000 years or so? Anyway, feel free to use this decorative cupped hand idea for your own Go set. Your game equipment will look very cool.You can get one pair of cast iron hands from Amazon for about $23. Or you can find wooden sculpted hands from other sources to add a bit of art to your Go game. This definitely solves the problem of not having lids shaped to hold captured Go stones.So how do I come out on this? Well, there are some serious negatives, but the Amazon $30 bowls do shine nicely and I think they look really good in use, despite their imperfections. Just look at the Amazon bowl stacked up against more expensive bowls in the fourth picture below. Enough said. So, on balance, I give the Amazon bowls a 4-star rating and recommend that you buy them, while understanding the trade-off between the noted negative features and the relatively low price. Bottom line, we all know these relatively cheap Amazon bowls are not perfect, but what in life is?

Hermoso❤️

The bowls are much better looking than the picture for the product and I'm glad for the review that convinced me to buy these. For the price they are perfect for holding my GO stones and I love the dragon design. No complaints whatsoever!

The Go bowls arrived in poor condition. The bowls seemed to have suffered heat damage or something, because the dragon calligraphy isn't smooth on the surface but bumpy like a warped sticker. It doesn't look like the dragon calligraphy is hand painted at all. This product is not worth 30 dollars, not anymore anyway.