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Hikaru no Go (ヒカルの碁, Hikaru no Go? lit. "Hikaru's Go") is a popular Japanese manga and anime coming of age story based on the board game Go written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata.

The same basic storyline is followed by the manga and anime, with a few small changes between the versions. While exploring his grandfather's shed, Hikaru stumbles across a Go board haunted by the spirit of Fujiwara no Sai, a fictional Go player from the Heian era. Sai wishes to play Go again, having not been able to since the late Edo period, when he possessed the body of Honinbou Shuusaku, an actual Go player of that period. Sai's greatest desire is to attain the "Kami no Itte" – "Divine Move," or the "Hand of God" – a perfect game. Because Hikaru is apparently the only person who can perceive him, Sai inhabits a part of Hikaru's mind as a separate personality, coexisting, although not always comfortably, with the child.

Urged by Sai, Hikaru begins playing Go despite a lack of interest in the game. He begins by mimicking the moves Sai dictates to him, but Sai tells him to try to understand each move. In a Go salon, Hikaru defeats Akira Toya, a boy his age who plays Go at professional level, by following Sai's instruction. Akira subsequently begins a quest to discover the source of Hikaru's strength, an obsession which will come to dominate his life.

Hikaru becomes intrigued by the great dedication of Akira and Sai to the game and decides to start playing solely on his own. He is a complete novice at first, but has some unique abilities to his advantage; for instance, once he has a basic understanding of Go, he can reconstruct a game play by play from memory. Through training at Go clubs, study groups, and practice games with Sai, he manages to become an insei and later a pro, meeting various dedicated Go players of different ages and styles along the way. While Hikaru is at this point not yet up to the level of Akira, he demonstrates a natural talent for the game and remains determined to prove his own abilities to Akira, Sai, and himself.


Hokuto Cup

The players of the Hokuto CupAlthough the anime generally followed the manga's plotline, faithful readers of the manga were disappointed that the last arc was not aired. Where the anime ended, the manga continued with Hikaru planning to enter the Hokuto Cup, a tournament for under-18 Go pros. As the highest-ranking under-18 pro, Akira qualifies for the tournament but Hikaru has to play a series of games to become one of the three Japanese competitors. His friends Waya and Ochi also enter the qualifying matches. He meets Kiyoharu Yashiro, a player from the Kansai (Western Institute), whose style is as strange and offbeat as his own.

Hikaru, along with Akira and Kiyoharu Yashiro, are selected to represent Japan, while Hong Su-Young (a Korean Go player who was beaten by Hikaru earlier in the series) and two others represent Korea and three of Shinichiro Isumi's Chinese friends represent their country.

The captain of the Korean Go team, Ko Yongha, is interviewed and his remarks translated for Japanese viewers. The translator makes an error which causes it to appear that he is disparaging the skill of Honinbo Shusaku, who, like Hikaru, was possessed by Sai. Although Yongha later finds out, he refuses to correct the error and instead emphasizes it when he realizes that it enrages Hikaru, who takes it as a direct affront to Sai. This leads to Hikaru eventually challenging the captain, and he loses by only half a moku (point). Japan eventually comes in last, behind Korea (1st) and China (2nd).

In the end, Yongha asks Hikaru for his reason in playing Go. With tears in his eyes, he answers with the line "To link the far past, with the far future".