Hon'inbō Shūsaku

Hon'inbō Shūsaku.

Hon'inbō Shūsaku ( Japanese 本因坊 秀 策 ; native 桑 原 虎 次郎 , Kuwabara Torajirō ; * June 6, 1829 ( traditional : Bunsei 12/5/5) in Innoshima , province of Bingo (today: Innoshima-Tonoura, Onomichi , Hiroshima prefecture ), Japan ; † September 3, 1862 (Bunkyū 2/8/10) in Edo (today: Tokyo )) was a Japanese Go player.

The Shūsaku opening invented by him (and named after him) was played well into the 20th century.

Life

Hon'inbō Shūsaku was born under the name Kuwabara Torajirō as the son of the merchant Kuwabara Wazō ( 桑 原 輪 三 ) and learned Go from his mother at the age of five. At 7 he was discovered by the lord of Mihara Castle , Asano Tadahiro , who provided Torajirō with the abbot Hōshin ( 葆 真 ) of the Hōsen-ji Buddhist temple as a teacher. In 1837, on the recommendation of Asano, he joined the well-known Go school Hon'inbō in the capital Edo , whose 1st master degree ( dan ) he received two years later at the age of 11. When he came of age at 15, he put his childhood name Torajirō and took his adult name Shūsaku. In 1846, at the age of 17, he played against the grandmaster Genan Inseki , who was the head of the Inoue school . He was able to win this game with a move that is known to this day as mimiaka no myōshu ( 耳 赤 の 妙手 , "master move of the red ears"), as it was when Inseki's ears turned red.

In 1848 he received the 6th Dan and was appointed the successor to the head of the Go school, Hon'inbō Shūwa (1820–1873), whose daughter Hana ( 花 ) he married. The following year he took part for the first time in the Oshirogo , the go tournament of the Shogun in his presence, in which he won 19 victories in a row until his death. That was one of the main reasons why he was called "The Invincible". The latter, among other things, because he almost never lost with Black. However, in Shūsaku's time there was no Komi rule, through which White can add points to his points at the end of the game. So he could often keep the advantage of the first move with Black until the end of the game.

Hon'inbō Shūsaku died in 1862 at the age of 33 in the wake of a cholera epidemic.

reception

Even today - 150 years after his death - professional Go players and amateurs replay many of his games in order to learn from them.

In the manga Hikaru no Go , one of the main characters is the spirit Sai , who had previously accompanied Shūsaku.

On June 6, 2014, a Google Doodle commemorated his 185th birthday.

literature

• John Power: Invincible, the Games of Shusaku . Kiseido Publishing Company, 2nd Ed. Japan 1996 ISBN 978-4906574018 b. Hebsacker Verlag b. Schaak en Go Winkel

Web links

Commons : Hon'inbō Shūsaku  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sensei's Library
• Daily Yomiuri article ( Memento of October 12, 1999 in the Internet Archive )
• Gobase player stats and games listing

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} 本因坊 秀 策 . In: 朝日 日本 歴 史 人物 事 典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved June 6, 2014 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} 尾 道 出身 棋士 「本因坊 秀 策」 の 紹 介 . 尾 道 市 囲 碁 の ま ち づ く り 推進 協議 会 (“Go-Förderverein Onomichi”), accessed on June 6, 2014 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ Honinbo Shusaku and the Go advantage with black. Retrieved April 5, 2016 . 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kuwahara is the family name, Torajirō the first name.