Shuho
Shuho (秀甫 Shūho), born as Murase Yakichi (1838 - 1886) was a Japanese professional. He is also known as Murase Shuho (村瀬 秀甫 Murase Shūho) or Honinbo Shuho (本因坊秀甫 Hon'inbō Shuho) and was the 18th hereditary head of the Honinbo school, as well as an unofficial Meijin by acclamation. He wrote Hoen Shinpo, 1882, Shuho's Opening Theory.
Shuho was passed over for being the head of the Honinbo House in favor of Shuetsu, who was Shuwa's son, despite being substantially stronger than Shuetsu. In 1879, he founded the Hoensha (The Square and Circle Society), an important go organization of the late 1800s, which published the magazine Igo Shinpo. While leading the Hoensha, Shuho wrote his magnum opus Hoen Shinpo, a major work of opening theory as well as game commentaries. In 1886, Honinbo Shuei arranged a reconciliation with Shuho, promoting him to 8 dan, nominating him as Honinbo heir and resigning as Honinbo.
By this time he had come to completely dominate his contemporaries forcing them to the handicap of the black stones. Unfortunately, he suddenly died less than three months after becoming head of the Honinbo house.
Shuho's play had a very strong attacking style and his games often ended with the death of a group of stones.
His pupils were Ishii Senji, Mizutani Nuiji, Miyoshi Kitoku, Sannohe Tomiaki and Oskar Korschelt; Korschelt was a German and one of the first Westerners to learn much about the game of Go.
Earliest surviving game record
Black is the 11 year old Murase Yakichi, White is Honinbo Shuwa. The game was played in 9 May 1848.
This sgf was transcribed by tchan001 from his personal copy of "The Perfected Honinbo Shuho Complete Game Collection" published 2006 by Seibundo-Shinkosha. This is his gift to the go community and may be used freely for any private or commercial go database provided there is acknowledgement of thanks to the transcriber (tchan001) and the sgf remains unchanged.
Johh F.? I have a query on this. The game has also been in the GoGoD database for quite some time, but the date there is Kaei 4 IV 7 rather than the Kaei 1 IV 7 implied here. Both dates are feasible, but if we assume a 3-4 handicap, as seems to be the appropriate for the grades, the earlier date (three years before the next known game) would imply a rather slow rate of progress for such a great player. Also, I'd have expected to see some report of discovery of a document with a new date, though the extra moves here do suggest a new find of some sort. Can anyone add anything concerning the date or discovery?
tchan001
There are notes in Japanese with rudimentary English translation on where this copy of Shuho's first game comes from in my post at:
http://tchan001.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/honinbo-shuho-complete-games-collection/
It seems the original copy of this new discovery was unfortunately lost in the Great Hanshin Earthquake (Jan 1995). I suppose if you really need to know more, you could try to contact Fukui Masaaki 9p (福井正明).
John F. Thanks, tchan, but this just seems to deepen the mystery. The text you quote only makes reference to Kaei 4 (福井正明九段は嘉永四年頃の作品ではないかと云うが原譜は嘉永四年となっている。). Fukui says the handwritten record owned by Hayashi Hanichiro (who seems to have been an antique book dealer) is "surely around Kaei 4" and it then says the original record is Kaei 4 (=1851). It is not clear from this whether this is a single game record or a book, and if it is a book who wrote it, or where it was really discovered - it just says Hayashi used to live in Kobe. The title quoted (寫本對棊提要) makes it sound as if it as a small compendium of disparate handwritten game records put together by Hayashi.
BTW the statement in your blog that the game record was not in the GoGoD database is clearly incorrect.We just have it under a different date. I still don't know which date to rely on but for the time being I still regard Kaei 4 as more likely. That would fit better with his expected rate of progress (as mentioned above) and with other records - it would seem more natural for him to play Shusaku, a pupil, before the master, Shuwa.
tchan001 Noted and corrected my post in the blog regarding the presence of a version of this game record in the GoGoD database.
Notes
In the Go Players Almanac of 2001, Shuho may be difficult to find. The Almanac is slightly inconsistent with its definition for entries on p.202 (w.r.t. chapters 10 & 11): Shuei is in , Shuho is not. However, there is one column on him on page 82 (John Power: "Go Players in the Edo Era").
See also
- Honinbo Shuho - Complete Game Collection
-
A collection of game records at Gobase
- The majority of Hoen Shinpo is available on the
GoGoD website, the remainder is contained on the CD.
- Four games vs. Shusaku are in Invincible, one of which is commented.
Comments
These comment refers to an earlier edit:
John F. The above sentence appears to have been edited unnecessarily and to have introduced a serious error. It implies he was known to be ill when he became Honinbo. There is no evidence to suggest that. His death is always described as "sudden". It came as a shock. He appears to have had a stroke. In other words, making him Honinbo was certainly not intended to be a comfort for a dying man, as may be implied by this edit.
Hyperpapeterie: Thank you for the correction. Also, I had not realized that my edit could be construed as saying that he was made Honinbo as a sort of consolation--that was never my intent.