Sekiyama Riichi
関山利一
Sekiyama Riichi (1909/01/01 - 1970/01/31) was the winner of the first Honinbo title match in 1941 after a 3-3 tie with Kato Shin was resolved by awarding the title to the player with the better win/loss record in the qualifying tournament. In that tournament, Sekiyama Riichi at 6-3 versus Kato Shin at 5-4. After this victory, Sekiyama assumed the name of Honinbo Risen.
Sekiyama dropped out of the title defence in 1943 against Hashimoto Utaro because of bad health, which effectively ended his career.
Sekiyama Toshio, his son, and Sekiyama Toshimichi, son of Toshio are also 9 dan of the Kansai kiin. A short profile, in Italian, is in the AGI site.
The three Sekiyama (Riichi, Toshio and Toshimichi) are the coauthors of a problem book published by Seibundo Shinkosha. The level of the problems is very high. ISBN: 978-4-416-51002-5.
Sekiyama Riichi's pupils
- Kajiwara Takeo
- Sekiyama Toshio
- Koyama Yasuo
- Yamazaki Masuo
- Shiraishi Yutaka
- Tokunaga Hirohisa
- Ota Seido
- Kishimoto Kazuo
- Kurahashi Shozo
- Nishizawa Katsuaki
- Yoshida Takuji
- Mikawa Shinji
- Ito Kazuteru
- Tabuchi Koichi
(Source: 1996 Kido Yearbook)