Honinbo

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PageType: Path     Keywords: Culture & History, People, Tournament

Table of contents

Hereditary Title

During the Edo period the Honinbo (本因坊, Hon'inbō) was the head of the Honinbo school (originally founded by Honinbo Sansa). Of the four traditional go schools, the Honinbo was the most prestigious and successful one. The last hereditary[7] Honinbo, Shusai, gave (or [ext] sold) his title to the Nihon Ki-in so as to turn it into a tournament title. The succession:

  1st Sansa     Meijin  1612-1623
  2nd Sanetsu   8-Dan   1630-1658
  3rd Doetsu    7-Dan   1658-1677
  4th Dosaku    Meijin  1677-1702
  5th Dochi     Meijin  1702-1727
  6th Chihaku   6-Dan   1727-1733
  7th Shuhaku   6-Dan   1733-1741
  8th Hakugen   6-Dan   1741-1754
  9th Satsugen  Meijin  1754-1788
 10th Retsugen  8-Dan   1788-1808
 11th Genjo     8-Dan   1808-1827
 12th Jowa      Meijin  1827-1839
 13th Josaku    7-Dan   1839-1847
 14th Shuwa     8-Dan   1847-1873
 15th Shuetsu   6-Dan   1873-1879
 16th Shugen    4-Dan   1879-1884
 17th Shuei     7-Dan   1884-1886
 18th Shuho     8-Dan   1886
 19th Shuei     Meijin  1887-1907
 20th Shugen    6-Dan   1907-1908
 21st Shusai    Meijin  1908-1940

See the full list of historic Honinbos (including heirs who did not succeed to the Head of the House) for more details.


Japanese Tournament

The Honinbo title is the oldest Go tournament in the world and in some ways still the most prestigious in Japan, though the Kisei and Meijin big titles have larger prize funds. The winner's prize is ¥32,000,000 currently, sponsored by the Mainichi Shinbun. The games can be found on their [ext] website (Japanese).

Due to the importance of the Honinbo as one of the "big three" titles in Japan (along with the Kisei and Meijin), there are several paths of automatic rank advancement through it in the Nihon Ki-in new promotion system. Qualifying for the Honinbo league warrants a promotion to 7-dan, winning the league to challenge for the title promotes to 8-dan, and finally winning the title itself gives an immediate 9-dan promotion.

As with each of the three Japanese big titles, the previous year's title holder is challenged by the winner of a round robin league. Entry to the league is gained through a series of preliminary tournaments. The title is decided in a best of seven match, where each player is given eight hours of thinking time over a two day period.

The title Honorary Honinbo is given to those players who have previously won the Honinbo title five years in a row. Currently, this includes Takagawa Kaku, Sakata Eio, Ishida Yoshio, and Cho Chikun. Recently the Nihon Ki-in has also begun numbering those players who have qualified for the Honorary Honinbo title as a continuation of the historic Honinbos, making Cho Chikun for instance the 25th Honinbo.


Tournament Winners

  1st 1941 Sekiyama Riichi   (d. Kato Shin 3-3)         [1]
  2nd 1943 Hashimoto Utaro   (d. Sekiyama Riichi 2-0)   [2]
  3rd 1945 Iwamoto Kaoru     (d. Hashimoto Utaro 5-3)   [3]
  4th 1947 Iwamoto Kaoru     (d. Kitani Minoru 3-2)     [4]
  5th 1950 Hashimoto Utaro   (d. Iwamoto Kaoru 4-0)
  6th 1951 Hashimoto Utaro   (d. Sakata Eio 4-3)
  7th 1952 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Hashimoto Utaro 4-1)
  8th 1953 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Kitani Minoru 4-2)
  9th 1954 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Sugiuchi Masao 4-2)
 10th 1955 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Shimamura Toshihiro 4-0)
 11th 1956 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Shimamura Toshihiro 4-2)
 12th 1957 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Fujisawa Hosai 4-2)
 13th 1958 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Sugiuchi Masao 4-2)
 14th 1959 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Kitani Minoru 4-2)
 15th 1960 Takagawa Kaku     (d. Fujisawa Hideyuki 4-2)
 16th 1961 Sakata Eio        (d. Takagawa Kaku 4-1)
 17th 1962 Sakata Eio        (d. Handa Dogen 4-1)
 18th 1963 Sakata Eio        (d. Takagawa Kaku 4-2)
 19th 1964 Sakata Eio        (d. Takagawa Kaku 4-0)
 20th 1965 Sakata Eio        (d. Yamabe Toshiro 4-0)
 21st 1966 Sakata Eio        (d. Fujisawa Hideyuki 4-0)
 22nd 1967 Sakata Eio        (d. Rin Kaiho 4-1)
 23rd 1968 Rin Kaiho         (d. Sakata Eio 4-3)
 24th 1969 Rin Kaiho         (d. Kato Masao 4-2)
 25th 1970 Rin Kaiho         (d. Sakata Eio 4-0)
 26th 1971 Ishida Yoshio     (d. Rin Kaiho 4-2)         [5]
 27th 1972 Ishida Yoshio     (d. Rin Kaiho 4-3)
 28th 1973 Ishida Yoshio     (d. Rin Kaiho 4-0)
 29th 1974 Ishida Yoshio     (d. Takemiya Masaki 4-3)
 30th 1975 Ishida Yoshio     (d. Sakata Eio 4-3)
 31st 1976 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Ishida Yoshio 4-1)
 32nd 1977 Kato Masao        (d. Takemiya Masaki 4-1)
 33rd 1978 Kato Masao        (d. Ishida Yoshio 4-3)
 34th 1979 Kato Masao        (d. Rin Kaiho 4-1)
 35th 1980 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Kato Masao 4-1)
 36th 1981 Cho Chikun        (d. Takemiya Masaki 4-2)
 37th 1982 Cho Chikun        (d. Kobayashi Koichi 4-2)
 38th 1983 Rin Kaiho         (d. Cho Chikun 4-3)
 39th 1984 Rin Kaiho         (d. Awaji Shuzo 4-1)
 40th 1985 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Rin Kaiho 4-1)
 41st 1986 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Yamashiro Hiroshi 4-1)
 42nd 1987 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Yamashiro Hiroshi 4-0)
 43rd 1988 Takemiya Masaki   (d. Otake Hideo 4-3)
 44th 1989 Cho Chikun        (d. Takemiya Masaki 4-0)
 45th 1990 Cho Chikun        (d. Kobayashi Koichi 4-3)
 46th 1991 Cho Chikun        (d. Kobayashi Koichi 4-2)
 47th 1992 Cho Chikun        (d. Kobayashi Koichi 4-3)
 48th 1993 Cho Chikun        (d. Yamashiro Hiroshi 4-1)
 49th 1994 Cho Chikun        (d. Kataoka Satoshi 4-3)
 50th 1995 Cho Chikun        (d. Kato Masao 4-1)
 51st 1996 Cho Chikun        (d. Ryu Shikun 4-2)
 52nd 1997 Cho Chikun        (d. Kato Masao 4-0)
 53rd 1998 Cho Chikun        (d. O Rissei 4-2)
 54th 1999 Cho Sonjin        (d. Cho Chikun 4-2)
 55th 2000 O Meien           (d. Cho Sonjin 4-2)
 56th 2001 O Meien           (d. Cho U 4-3)
 57th 2002 Kato Masao        (d. O Meien 4-2)
 58th 2003 Cho U             (d. Kato Masao 4-2)
 59th 2004 Cho U             (d. Yoda Norimoto 4-2)
 60th 2005 Takao Shinji      (d. Cho U 4-1)             [6]
 61st 2006 Takao Shinji      (d. Yamada Kimio 4-2)

[1] The 1st Honinbo tournament in 1941 involved a bitter dispute over the introduction of komi. The preliminary events used a komi of 4.5 but once the participants in the title match were decided, Kato Shin succeeded in requiring that the title match be played without komi and that the Mainichi Shinbun report his view that "Komi go is not go".

Amusingly enough after the vocal opposition to komi, Black won all six games of the title match. It had been previously specified that in the event of a tied match, the player with the better previous results would be declared the winner. Karma caught up to Kato Shin with a vengeance, and based on those previous results Sekiyama Riichi became the first non-hereditary Honinbo title holder.

[2] Sekiyama Riichi became ill during game two of the 2nd Honinbo tournament in 1943. He fought through the illness, but collapsed unconscious by the board on day two of the second game. He was then forced to forfeit both the game and the match.

[3] The second game of the 3rd Honinbo tournament in 1945 is the famous atomic bomb game, which took place in Hiroshima and was interrupted on its third day by the atomic bomb being dropped there. Fortunately the game had been moved to the outskirts of the city at police insistence so there were only minor injuries caused by flying glass. Perhaps most famously, the game was then set up again and concluded after lunch the same day.

The first six games resulted in a 3-3 tie, and a seventh game playoff was intended to be played with 4.5 points komi. Due to the end of the war though, there were no resources to set up this game. A year later in 1946 they met again (finally) for a three game playoff match, which Iwamoto Kaoru won 2-0.

[4] In the aftermath of the war, the title match was reduced to five games for the 4th Honinbo tournament in 1947.

[5] A book was actually written about the 26th Honinbo, titled The 1971 Honinbo Tournament appropriately enough. It details how Ishida Yoshio (at age 22) entered the Honinbo League for his first time, won it, and then went on to defeat the established Honinbo Rin Kaiho in the title match. All of Ishida's games from the league and title match have extensive commentary in the book.

[6] In the 60th Honinbo tournament game one, there are some interesting moves. See at 60th Honinbo Title Match 1st Game Move 43. There's also some discussion about the position at the end of the first day of game four.

[7] By custom the Honinbo would adopt his successor.


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This is a copy of the living page "Honinbo" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2007 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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