Jared Beck / Development Of Go - Middle History

Sub-page of JaredBeck

Following is my research on Development Of Go

(1646) Inoue Dosetsu Inseki

Third head of the Inoue house (fourth counting Nakamura Doseki). Meijin in 1710. Compiled Igo Hatsuyoron.

(1690) Honinbo Dochi

Fifth head of the Honinbo house, becoming Meijin Godokoro in 1721. A pupil of Dosaku.

Meijin Dochi was born in Tokyo in 1690 and learned to play Go at 7. Two years later he became a pupil of Honinbo Dosaku, Meijin. After the death of his master and teacher in 1702, he was kept under guardianship of Inseki 8-dan, 4th master of Inouye School.
...
It was a pity for the young boy that he had to follow his guardian's intention perfectly; sometimes he was obliged to be beaten in the pre-arranged games. Probably he was instructed by his senior master to do so. It was a worst time for Go.
...
Go Monthly Review, Nov. 1969, p.21:

1719 he became 8-dan, they say.

(1733) Honinbo Satsugen

Ninth head of the Honinbo house. Became Meijin in 1767 by defeating Inoue Shunseki.

(1787) Honinbo Jowa

Considered by many as the strongest tactician ever. -- Bill

Served as 12th Honinbo from 1827 and Meijin-Godokoro from 1831 until 1839 when he was forced into retirement.

Little is known about his early years. Almost no game records exist before about 1807, when he was 20 and about 2 dan. At that point he left Edo to what is now Yamagata-ken and played a 21 game series against Nagasaka Inosuke. Although Nagasaka was officially also a 2-dan, the series started with Jowa taking sen, always Black, recognising that Nagasaka was in practice stronger. Jowa forced the handicap down to sen-ai-sen.

He also first played in the castle games in 1819, taking Black and beating Yasui Senchi by 5 points.

Another famous jubango Jowa played was against Awano Yonezo (Shinomiya Yonezo?), a famous go gambler. To Yonezo's surprise, Genjo recommended they play with a two stone handicap (Yonezo as black) and Jowa won 5 lost 4 with 1 jigo.

In 1827, Jowa was made Jozu (7 dan) and became the 12th Honinbo when Genjo retired. In 1828 he became jun-meijin (8 dan).

Around this time the leading players were as follows:

he had never played a game against any of the other three people who were seeking the title Meijin at that time: SenchiII, Inoue Genan Inseki, and Hayashi Genbi.[1]

John Fairbairn quotes Honinbo Shuho from Hoen Shinpo: "If a person's art reaches the ultimate, we call him a sage. Dosaku and Jowa are the go sages par excellence."[2]

Tim Brent: Jowa did play Genan in 1815 on several occasions, when Genan was known as Hattori Rittetsu.

John F. Jowa played Genan many times over many years (and the others).

Jowa was probably obsessed at the time with his failure to make inroads when taking White against Nagasaka.

Jowa was already 1-dan at 16. This was long ago stated in Zain Danso but we now have a newly discovered game record to prove it (1802).

At the time of his match with Nagasaka he is reckoned as 3d. Although Nagasaka (an amateur) was labelled as 2d he was rated as 5 or 6d in reality.

the next game with Nagasaka, where he started to turn the tide, was Game 11 in their series, which spanned a year.

See Also: [ext] http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/history/jowa.html

(?) Nagasaka Inosuke

A pupil of the Yasui school, first half of the nineteenth century. Officially rated 2 dan but considered of 6 dan strength.

Gobase has 2 games of his vs. Jowa

John F. Nagasaka was a spear instructor, and as a samurai had to go to Edo with his daimyo for extended stays. At that time the Yasuis were very prosperous (more so than the Honinbos) because, under Yasui Senchi Senkaku, they had forsaken the glory of the Meijin-Godokoro in favour of teaching. They had a huge number of "pupils", so in modern terms this really meant nothing more than being a club member. This was also a time of a sudden rise in commercialisation in Japan, and many "pupils", especialy the temporarily resident samurais, would buy diplomas so that they could use them for status and profit on their return to their native province.

Awa no Yonezo (Yonezo of Awaji), Hama no Genkichi (Genkichi of Hamamatsu), etc were in a similar mould, though some descended to gambling go rather than teaching.

(1829) Honinbo Shusaku

He was nicknamed Invincible Shusaku because of his perfect score of 19 successive wins in the annual castle games.

In July 1846, Shusaku met Gennan Inseki 8-dan. In the first game of this encounter, Shusaku took two stones. the next game was played with Shusaku just taking Black. The first game on just Black, is Shusaku's most famous game of his career, and contains the most famous move of all of Go history: the Ear Reddening Move. The game, which Shusaku won by a two-point margin despite a mistake in a new variant of the taisha joseki, is considered a lifetime masterpiece for both players. They played three more games, of which one was left unfinished and the other two were also won by Shusaku.

Shusaku was asked to become the heir of Shuwa. Shusaku and Shuwa played a famous series of seventeen games in October 1846 to September 1847.

In 1849, he took part in the castle games for the first time.

In 1853, Shusaku played a famous sanjubango (thirty-game match) against Ota Yuzo. in the match itself, Shusaku proved the stronger player, managing to win the majority of games, and not losing a single one of the games in which he played Black.

In the years that followed, to Shusaku's dismay, it happened in more than one year that the castle games were not played. He did not play many games in these years. One important match was a jubango against Shuho, who was intended to become Shusaku's heir. Shuho, playing all games as Black, won this match with a score of 6-3 and one jigo.

Shusaku is known for being undefeated in all of his nineteen castle games, and for the Shusaku fuseki, which still remains popular.


Jared Beck / Development Of Go - Middle History last edited by velobici on September 2, 2007 - 14:09
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