Karigane Jun'ichi

Karigane Jun'ichi (雁金準一, earlier name 岩瀬 Iwase Jun'ichi (Karigane was his mother's family name before marriage). 30 July 1879 – 21 February 1959) was a Japanese, professional 9-dan. He studied at the Hoensha as a pupil of Nakagawa Kamesaburo, was a regular attendee of the Shishokai meetings, and later became a pupil of Honinbo Shuei.

Shuei and his widow preferred that Karigane be Shuei’s heir to the Honinbo house. However, others thought that Tamura Yasuhisa should be the heir, because he was stronger. E.g. Shuei was clearly the strongest player while he was alive, but Tamura just took black, while Karigane had to play Shuei under the Match Handicap System of sen-ni, where the weaker player alternates between black and 2 stones.

Shugen, as the caretaker 16th Honinbo, became caretaker 20th Honinbo after Shuei died in 1907. The next year, Shugen resigned the Honinbo title to Tamura as the strongest living player, who thus became the 21st Honinbo, known henceforth as Honinbo Shusai.^[1]

He was likely the second strongest player in Japan from 1907–26; helped co-found the Hiseikai (1922, where he won its inaugural tournament), Kiseisha (1924) and Keiinsha (1941); and played in the most famous & anthologized fighting game of the period.^[2]

Tamura (Left), Shuei (Center), Karigane (Right)

Style

From 1905–7 his teacher at that time, Honinbo Shuei, seems to have revised his opinion on Karigane's style several times. In 1905, Shuei said:

Karigane’s go is very different from other people’s. He does not stick his neck out in jerks and spasms, Rather it is like water flowing gently downhill and accumulating there. In this respect he is like Shuwa. As regards those fit to become a future Meijin, he is the only one at present.^[2]

However, later on his sickbed Shuei said, “His go suffers from seeing too many moves.” Isawa Shunko, the person retelling this anecdote, was perplexed at this description saying

In my ignorance I cannot understand this phrase, even now. …but I think it was favourable to Karigane.^[2]

In an anecdote, Nozawa Chikucho recalls Shuei saying:

The way Karigane sees moves at once, there is probably no-one he is second to."^[3]

Nakane Hojiro said

When I played Karigane, he often thought for a long time. But when I looked at his gentle face my anger melted away. His face was gentle like a lady’s, a little pale, reminding me of a crane. There was no deviousness.^[2]

Karigane Junichi v. Go Seigen, 1944-10-12. Karigane scores his famous second jigo of the 8-dan Tournament against Go.  

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Rank Promotion

• 1893: 1-dan
• 1897: 2-dan
• 1900: 3-dan
• 1901: 4-dan
• 1905: 5-dan, upon becoming a student of Honinbo Shuei
• 1907: 6-dan, given by Shuei from his sickbed
• 1926: 7-dan
• 1933: 8-dan
• 1959: 9-dan, awarded by his Keiinsha pupils. Nihon Kiin presented him Honorary 9-dan immediately after his death.

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Jubangos

English Commentaries

Books

• Latest Go Secrets (新式囲碁秘伝) (1909), can be found at the National Diet Library Digital Collection here.
• Go Stories off the Board (Hogai Kiwa 方外棋話) (1952) - his memoir

Pupils^[4]

• Araki Chikayoshi
• Fujiwara Shichishi
• Harada Magosuke
• Inagaki Shuzaburo
• Inoue Kyuhi
• Kodama Koryu
• Momose Hisato
• Namiki Kyozaburo
• Takenaga Shoji
• Tomita Tadao
• Watanabe Shokichi

Notes

^[1] Source: GoGoD, Karigane Junichi - the gentle samurai.

^[2] Honinbo Shusai v. Karigane Junichi, 1926-09-27. The match is covered in full detail in the book Power – Honinbo Shusai Defends the Nihon Kiin (2012). The game is also used in the Hikaru no Go manga, ch. 8, Shindo v. Kaga.

^[3] Source: The Life of Honinbo Shuei.

^[4] Source: 1996 Igo Nenkan.

• In 1899, he played Korean champion Paek Nam-kyu, with alternate games being sunjang baduk. One of their games is classified as the oldest surviving sunjang game.

• Karigane and Go Seigen played a famous match on 12 October 1944 which resulted in a jigo. During the same 8-dan Tournament he scored another jigo against Kato Shin (1944-08-04).

• Supposedly Karigane & Shusai spent 240-hours on a game from 1920-05-21~11-28.