Honinbo Shuei
Honinbo Shuei (本因坊秀栄 Hon'inbō Shūei, 1854-1907) was the 17th and again 19th head of the Honinbo house.
Shuei was also 13th and final head of the Hayashi house, which in 1884 Shuei merged into the Honinbo house. He was very active and innovative in the 1890s and he played in a number of jubango. Some photos show Shuei in a fine beard.
Shuei was quite a remarkable player. His surviving game records show a very large number of handicap games. It seems he exceeded his contemporaries by a fairly wide margin in a relatively recent era. The other best players of the day (e.g. Honinbo Shusai) appear to have needed at least the handicap of the black stones to play him.
In Go World issue 24 (March-April 1981) there is an interview with Fujisawa Shuko where he states that:
"...[Shuei] was the strongest of the Meijins and Honinbos. There were many strong players, like Shusaku and Shusai, but I definitely think that he was stronger than those two."
and
"He had superb positional judgement. There's nothing unnatural in the flow of his moves... I always have the feeling that I'd be no match for him... I'm far below his level, but I like his go. The brilliance of his play from the fuseki to the middlegame is outstanding."
These appear to be Shuko's true feelings and not just modesty since after two more questions he also says that no Japanese player is currently a match for him and that his go is on a higher level than that of his potential challengers for the Kisei title.