Honinbo Jowa (本因坊丈和, original name Todani Matsunosuke, 1787–1847) served as 12th
Hon'inbō
In the history of Go (board game), 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 s ...
from 1827 and Meijin Godokoro from 1831 until 1839, when he was forced into retirement.
Jōwa was born in
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,
Japan, in 1787. It was said that Jōwa had great strength without equal. Historically he was accorded the title "latter sage" to match
Dōsaku who was known as the "former sage". At some point in the
Meiji Era this title was transferred to the more popular
Shūsaku
Shūsaku, Shusaku or Shuusaku is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese swordsman
*, Japanese professional Go player
*, Japanese artist and architect
*, Japanese author
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanes ...
, as word was spread that Jōwa used the contacts that
Hayashi Genbi had within the government to help him attain the Meijin Godokoro position. However, even without playing a sogo, Jōwa's strength was still apparent.
Later on in his life, Jōwa also played one of the most famous games in
Go history known as the "
Blood-vomiting game".
Gennan Inseki, a rival of Jōwa's who had seen the coveted position of Meijin godokoro snatched away from him through less than honorable means, persuaded a rapidly improving pupil of his,
Akaboshi Intetsu, to play a game on black against Jōwa. Although Gennan, an 8-dan, would probably take black the majority of the time against Jōwa in a challenge match, he thought it would be more effective to have Akaboshi, a 7-dan, play against Jōwa. If Jōwa lost, he intended to argue that Jōwa could certainly not be qualified to be Meijin if he couldn't defeat a 7-dan.
[Power, John. Invincible; The Games of Shusaku, p.11. Tokyo, Japan: Kiseido Publishing Company, 1982.] The match started with Jōwa making an unreasonably aggressive move in the fuseki, and Akaboshi countering with a variation of the
taisha joseki that was developed secretly in the Inoue house. However, as the four-day-long game progressed, Jowa slowly clawed his way into the lead by playing three famous moves known as the "Ghost Moves". The three moves were supposedly brought to Jōwa by
ghosts, allowing him to grind Intetsu's lead away.
In the end, Jōwa won, and as the stones were being cleared from the board, Akaboshi kneeled over the board and coughed up
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...
. Within a few weeks, he was dead. Gennan's tactics for discrediting Jowa's worthiness of being appointed Meijin backfired spectacularly, as this game was the supreme triumph of Jōwa's career.
Notes
1787 births
1847 deaths
Japanese Go players
19th-century Go players
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