Jowa

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    Keywords: Culture & History, People

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http://go.yenching.edu.hk/go_web.files/JOWA.JPG

Jowa (本因坊丈和; Born: 1787; Died: 1847) served as 12th Honinbo from 1827 and Meijin-Godokoro from 1831 until 1839 when he was forced into retirement.

Rank Progression

1807 - 1d
1815 - 5d
1819 - 6d
1827 - 7d, Honinbo after retirement of Genjo
1828 - 8d, jun-meijin
1831 - Meijin

Jowa's Contemporaries

Yasui Senchi
Inoue Gennan Inseki
Hayashi Gembi
Hattori Inshuku - Gennan's stepfather

Books

Biography

Jowa was born in what is now Nagano.

As was common in the Edo period, he changed his name several times. The traditional view was that he was born Todani Matsunosuke but was also called Kadono Matsunosuke and Kadono Jowa at various points. Further research highlighted by John Fairbairn now suggests much of this is however incorrect based upon an article by Osawa Nagahiro in the June 1989 issue of Kido. See information on Jowa in GoGoD and rec.games.go [ext] May 16, 1999 for details. He was described as being of short stature, with bushy eyebrows and full cheeks.

He appears to have been the son of a travelling merchant, but 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 in recognition of Nagasaka's strength. Jowa forced the handicap down to sen-ai-sen.

On returning to Edo, he began to improve rapidly and made 5 dan in 1815.

After the premature death of Okunuki Chisaku in 1812, who had been the prospective heir to the Honinbo House, Jowa's chances for career progression improved. In 1819, he was recognised as Honinbo Genjo's heir and promoted to 6 dan. In the official notification however, it appears that Jowa's age is understated by 8 years and Genjo's by 2. This perhaps reflects that, at 31, Jowa was a little on the old side. 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.

Controversy

Jowa and Gennan Inseki both had ambitions for the title of Meijin. A period of political struggle took place, with all the interested parties involved in different schemes. Jowa was eventually made meijin without playing a sogo against any of the other senior players. That he didn't have to prove himself over the board was thanks to Hayashi Gembi. Gembi used contacts of his within the Government to help Jowa. In exchange Jowa had agreed to promote Gembi to 8 dan upon becoming meijin.

Jowa never fulfilled this secret promise, angering Gembi. Gennan Inseki and those close to him were also outraged at Jowa's successful scheming. However the title of Meijin Godokoro was effectively a non-playing title. This meant that they had little chance of proving over the board that Jowa was not worthy of the position. Their one chance came in the famous Blood Vomiting Game when Jowa was manoeuvred into playing the rapidly improving Akaboshi Intetsu. To have lost to Intetsu, several ranks Jowa's junior, would have had implications upon Jowa's status. The game initially swung Intetsu's way, but Jowa managed to salvage a win. Tragically, whether due to the effort of the game or not, Intetsu died shortly after being beaten by Jowa.

After his contacts had died, Gembi eventually revealed the secret agreement he and Jowa had made and the bakufu officials forced Jowa into retirement in 1839.

Reputation

Jowa was said to have "superhuman strength without equal" (怪力無双). Historically he was accorded the title 'latter sage' to match Dosaku who was known as the 'former sage'. At some point in the Meiji era this title was transferred to the more wholesome Shusaku as John Fairbairn has described [ext] elsewhere (dead link: [ext] Wayback Machine cached copy

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