Hon'inbō San'etsu (本因坊算悦, 1611–1658) was a professional Go

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

, and second head of the

Hon'inbō Honinbo (or Hon'inbō, 本因坊) is a title used by the head of the Honinbo house or the winner of the Honinbo tournament. Honinbo house The Honinbo house was a school of Go players officially founded in 1612 and discontinued in 1940. The foun ...

house.

Biography

San'etsu was the second

. A minor at the time of

Hon'inbō Sansa Hon'inbō Sansa (本因坊算砂, 1559 – June 13, 1623) was the assumed name of Kanō Yosaburō (加納與三郎), one of the strongest Japanese Go players of the Edo period (1603–1867), and founder of the house of Hon'inbō, first a ...

's death, he inherited a difficult situation since he could not receive the official allowance for the house. Sansa had asked

Nakamura Dōseki Nakamura Dōseki (中村道碩, 1582–1630) was a Japanese professional Go player. Tradition counts him as the founder of the Inoue house. This was in fact a retrospective inclusion, essentially a fabrication of the early nineteenth century by ...

to act as San'etsu's guardian, and through Dōseki's good offices an annual 30 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' of rice was negotiated.''Go Monthly Review'' 1963/5 p.53 During his minority the position of head of the Hon'inbō house was in abeyance, so that the house notionally did not exist. He played in an international match, giving Peichin Tsuhanoko of the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

a two-stone handicap, when the latter came to Japan with a Ryukyuan embassy in 1634.http://www.gogod.demon.co.uk/NewInGo/Firsts_intl.htm The high point of San'etsu's professional career came in a challenge match against

Yasui Sanchi Yasui Sanchi (安井算知, 1617–1703) was a Japanese professional Go player, and second head of the Yasui house. He became ''Meijin''-''godokoro'' in 1668. It has always been said''Go Monthly Review'' 1963/5 p.54 that this promotion was achi ...

. From 1645 to 1653 they played six games of ''

oshirogo ''Oshirogo'' (御城碁 "castle Go") or castle games were official matches of high-level Go played in Japan during the Edo period, usually in the castles of the ''shōgun''. Players were mostly from the four go houses. Matches were played in th ...

'', but the result was 3-3. Neither player therefore made the step up from 8 ''dan'' to

Meijin is one of the eight titles in Japanese professional shogi player, professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryūō. The word ( "excellent, artful", "person") refers to a highly skilled master of a certain field (the ...

Notes

External links

At Gobase
1611 births 1658 deaths Japanese Go players 17th-century Go players {{Japan-Go-bio-stub