Honinbo Jowa (本因坊丈和, original name Todani Matsunosuke, 1787–1847) served as 12th Hon'inbō from 1827 and Meijin Godokoro from 1831 until 1839, when he was forced into retirement. Jōwa was born in Nagano,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, 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 The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

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

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

s, 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 is com ...

. 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 {{Japan-Go-bio-stub