Sun Zhe

Son Makoto or Sūn Zhé (孫喆; born 21 February 1996 in Kanagawa Prefecture) is a Nihon Ki-in professional. Shodan in 2011, 2 dan from 2012-02-01, 3 dan from 2014, currently 7d (2021).

He was a student of Hagiwara Mutsumi 8p.

Table of contents Career record Titles and runners up Other achievements Personal life Weblinks Comments Photos

Career record

• 2011: 16 games, 10–4
• 2012: 26 games, 15–11
• 2013: 33 games, 24–9
• 2024: 9 games, 9–0

Titles and runners up

• 2012: Runner up in the 9th Nakano Cup (l. Ichiriki Ryo)
• 2017: Runner up in the 42nd Shinjin O (l. Shibano Toramaru)
• 2019: Winner of the 44th Shinjin O (d. Koike Yoshihiro)
• 2019: Winner of the New Star Kido Prize
• 2020: Runner up in the 15th Wakagoi (l. Fujisawa Rina)

Other achievements

• 2024: Upset win over eventual winner Iyama Yuta (B+0.5) in the 49th Kisei, League S, 2024.
• 2025: reached challenger final of 80th Honinbo, but lost to Shibano Toramaru (W–R).

Personal life

He married Hoshiai Shiho 4p on 7 July 2022. She posted this on her Twitter page at 15:15 on 15 July, because of a pun: 15 is written in numerals as one-five, Japanese ichi-go (1 一 ichi, 5 五 go), but this is also a classical or literary pronunciation of 一期 (normally ikki). So it had the deeper meaning of a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Weblinks

• Japanese Wikipedia
• Nihon Ki-in player profile

Comments

JohnF On the available evidence, we should probably stick with Son Makoto. I have already discussed this on L19, viz:. He was born in Japan (Yokohama). He is registered with the Nihon Ki-in as Son Makoto. He himself uses the twitter account Twi_mako. Son is an old and well established surname in Japan, though no doubt of Chinese origin. It is true that the character 喆 is disconcerting for many Japanese, but they get round that by writing out his name as ﾏｺﾄ (Makoto), and names often used weird characters so there is nothing novel in that. Even if there is a Chinese link somewhere in his history (could be centuries ago), most other players with such histories, and we, are happy to use the Japanese readings (Go Seigen, Rin Kaiho, O Rissei, O Mein, Kyo Kagen etc.). A couple get shirty about it. Chin Kaei is one. He was born in China and likes to be known by his Chinese name, but the problem there is that people use two: Mandarin Chen Jiarui, Cantonese Chan Ka Yui. However, on his business card he writes his surname as Chien. Son Makoto, however, is clearly not getting shirty.

bugcat: I wasn’t suggesting that the references to Son Makoto be changed to Sun Zhe. I was suggesting that the title of this article be changed from Sun Zhe to Son Makoto, since that’s what almost all the references are pointing to.

Jono64a: Yes, should use the Japanese name he was born with and used his whole life, rather than by a possible ancestral Chinese name.

Photos

Son Makoto with his wife Hoshiai Shiho, 3 Dec 2023 (Image credit: ameblo.jp)