was one of the most celebrated professional Go players and teachers of the game of Go in the twentieth century in Japan.

Biography

He earned the nickname "the Prodigy" after winning a knockout tournament. He defeated eight opponents from the Kiseisha in a row during 1928. He played a celebrated match with then retiring

Honinbō Shūsai In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi ...

. The

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winning author Kawabata Yasunari used this game in his novel " The Master of Go". In 1954 he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but soon recovered. His condition came back in 1964, after which he retired from professional play. He was given the Okura Prize in 1967.

Segoe Kensaku was a professional Go player. (His surname is occasionally given as Segoshi, but that appears to be a misreading, even if attested by furigana in some books he authored.) Biography Segoe had Go Seigen, Utaro Hashimoto, and Cho Hunhyun as pu ...

, a friend and rival of Kitani, nicknamed him "the Great Kitani" due to his extraneous efforts relating to Go.

Relationship with Go Seigen

Kitani was a young prodigy who quickly attracted attention after the founding, in 1924, of the

Nihon Ki-in The Nihon Ki-in (), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in Japan, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur dan rankings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go associa ...

. He became a great rival and friend of

Go Seigen Wu Quan (), courtesy name Wu Qingyuan ()His courtesy name was created based on his real name (''Quan'' means "spring, fountain" and ''Qing Yuan'' means "clear and pure source of water"). (June 12, 1914 – November 30, 2014), better known by ...

after the latter was brought to Japan from China. Go and Kitani were the vanguard of the ''

Shinfuseki or ''new opening strategy'' was the change of attitude to go opening theory that set in strongly in Japan in 1933. It corresponds, a little later, to hypermodern play in chess, with the inversion that ''shinfuseki'' thought the center of the boa ...

'' or "New Opening" theory, a period roughly 1933-6 which saw great innovations in

Go opening theory A Go opening refers to the initial moves of a game of Go. On the traditional 19×19 board the opening phase of the game usually lasts between 15 and 40 plies. There is some specialised terminology for go openings. The precise meanings of Jap ...

. In 1939, Go Seigen and Kitani played in the Kamakura jubango, the most celebrated jubango of the century. It ended in Go Seigen's decisive victory. Kitani's career never quite recovered; he was also hampered by bad health, in the form of a heart condition. He was later noted for a style of spectacular idiosyncrasy, with great emphasis on secure territory. Go and Kitani later lived only few minutes apart by walk, and Go Seigen's daughters studied Go in Kitani Dojo's amateur branch for children. Kitani had his stroke when he was chatting with Go. Kitani died 6 months after. Izumi Kobayashi, Kitani's granddaughter and a top female Go player, married

Cho U Cho U (; born on 20 January 1980) is a Taiwanese professional Go player. He currently ranks 6th in the most titles won by a Japanese professional; his NEC Cup win in 2011 put him past his teacher Rin Kaiho and Norimoto Yoda. Cho is the first ...

, the student of Go's Student

Rin Kaiho Rin Kaihō or Lin Haifeng (; born May 6, 1942) is a professional Taiwanese Go player who made his name in Japan. He is, along with Cho Chikun, Kobayashi Koichi, Otake Hideo, Takemiya Masaki and Kato Masao, considered one of the 'Six Supers' ...

Kitani dojo

Kitani was subsequently noted as the most prolific teacher ever of future professional players. The ''Kitani dojo'', which began to flourish after 1945 in the Kitani house in the countryside, was in practical terms run by his wife, produced a whole generation of top players who would dominate Japanese go from the early 1970s to mid-1990s. His own daughter Reiko (1939–1996) reached 6 dan and won the All-Japan Women's Championship several times, and married one of his best students,

Koichi Kobayashi is a Japanese Go player. He is one of the 'Six Supers' who championed Japanese Go in the last three decades of Japanese Go. Biography Koichi Kobayashi was born in Asahikawa, Japan. In 1965, he came to Tokyo to be a disciple of Minoru Kitani. ...

. Their child, Izumi Kobayashi, Kitani's granddaughter, is now one of Japan's current leading female players. At the time of his death, he had taught over 60 students, 40 of whom went on to become professionals. The total ''dan'' rank of all his students add up to over 250.

Promotion Record

Titles & runners-up

References

External links

* Broken Link
Interview with Tsuchida

alternative location Tsuchida/Kitani article

Gobase page on Kitani Minoru

Sensei’s Library on Kitani Minoru

Sensei’s Library on the Kitani dojo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitani, Minoru 1909 births 1975 deaths People from Kobe Japanese Go players