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Blood Vomiting Game
Keywords: Culture & History
This page is for discussion and enjoyment of one of the most famous games of Edo-period Go, the Blood Vomiting Game (also known as the Blood Coughing Game). Eventually I'd like to add more of the history and folklore about this game, but for now here is a partial game record containing the four moves that this game is famous for: the secret taisha variation developed by the Inoue house, and the three moves that were supposedly brought to Jowa by ghosts, allowing him to grind Intetsu's lead (and life!) away. White is Honinbo Jowa 9-dan, the Meijin Godokoro. Black is Akaboshi Intetsu 7-dan, the pupil of Gennan Inseki 8-dan. (These game records are from memory, so if there is an error, please make note of it! --mattn)
White 1 is an over-extension that is typical of Jowa's violent style. The Inoue school had developed this taisha variation starting with Black 6 secretly. It allows Black to attack White's floating center group and absorb the two white stones on the left side at the same time.
Moves 5 and 7 are the first two moves found by Jowa's ghost. According to Invincible they allow White to omit a direct answer to 4, because of aji at a.
White 7 is the third ghost move. It is an example of a "bad shape/good move", and eventually allows Jowa to launch a difficult splitting attack that results in Black's resignation. As the stones were being cleared from the board, Akaboshi Intetsu keeled over, coughing up blood. As the four-day long game progressed and Jowa slowly clawed his way into the lead, Akaboshi's health had been steadily declining. Within a few weeks, he was dead.
A complete game record can be found at
That link is dead, but the game may also be found at
You can view the John Fairbairn Three points/questions: (1) Old Japanese did not distinguish between coughing and spitting up blood, but it apparently makes a big difference as to what was wrong with Akaboshi and how much he was affected. Does anyone have enough medical knowledge to list the likely alternatives? (2) Can all sources be quoted, please? It matters because there are versions that say he collapsed at the board, and others "shortly after". (3) The date above is lunar - the actual date was 08-13 and it finished on 08-21. This matters because there was an intercalary 7th month that year and this makes a big difference in how long Akaboshi lived after the game (again probably reflecting on how much he was affected during the game). Additions to make: More on the stories, myths and political intrigue around the game, discussion of particular moves. This is a copy of the living page "Blood Vomiting Game" at Sensei's Library. ![]() |