This is an introductory book on the opening, and it's a very user-friendly one. It contains 20 strategic principles, divided up into a chapter on Fuseki Fundamentals, one on Good Shape, and one on Strategy. The writing is clear and straightforward, giving you simple principles to remember which are explained well while not overloading you with information. I would recommend that beginners make this the first book on the opening that they read.
Update (July 2001): I can't believe how little I wrote in the above; this still is the best introductory opening book out there, much more readable than its only competition, namely In the Beginning. (At least I think so; it's been a while since I've read it!)
Update (December 2002): It's apparently just been reprinted by Kiseido. Yay.
David Goldberg (US 7kyu) says:
Except possibly for Kageyama's Fundamentals, this is the most useful book I've read. I found its combination of general principles together with lots of examples to be very helpful. Further, many of the examples covered situations that I remembered coming up in my own games.
While most books I've looked at have a few useful bits, Otake had a much higher density -- almost every chapter clarified issues that I had been confused about. I highly recommend this book!
Last modified: Sun Aug 10 20:52:14 PDT 2003