Honinbo Shuei

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Honinbo Shuei
Full name	Honinbo Shuei
Kanji	本因坊秀栄
Date of birth	November 1, 1852
Place of birth	, Japan
Date of death	1907
Place of death	, Japan
Teacher	Honinbo Shuwa
Rank	9 dan

Honinbo Shuei (本因坊秀栄, November 1, 1852 - 1907) was a Japanese professional Go player.

[edit] Biography

Honinbo Shuei, a younger son of the very strong Honinbo Shuwa, served as the 17th and again 19th head of the Honinbo house. He was also the 13th and final head of the Hayashi house before merging it with the Honinbo house in 1884.

Honinbo Shuei was a remarkable player, and his strength apparently exceeded his contemporaries by a considerable margin. Surviving game records show that he played a large number of handicap games. He was very active and innovative in the 1890s, a time of reviving fortunes for go, and participated in a number of jubango.

He attained the title of Meijin in 1906, becoming the ninth person to have done so. Shuei's style was characterized by his calm and confident approach to the game and his supreme positional judgement. He was also fond of making light shapes and sabaki tactics. He earned the nickname "the master of miai" for creating situations where he would have two equally good options at his disposal. He was one of the pioneer players opening frequently at hoshi points during fuseki, for which he was later greatly admired by the great Go Seigen.[1]

He has also received praise from another top player, Fujisawa Hideyuki. Fujisawa commented in Go World that he thought Shuei was the strongest of the Meijins and Honinbos. He even said he believed he was stronger than the likes of Honinbo Shusaku and Honinbo Dosaku. He went on to say that Shuei's flow of moves was like water. Fujisawa said, "I always have the feeling that I'd be no match for him ... I'm far below his level".[2] Yet another top player Kobayashi Koichi also claimed that Shuei was stronger than he was.[3]

Ironically, as a boy he was given to the Hayashi house because he supposedly showed little promise. And the first time he was appointed Honinbo, he resigned in favor of Murase Shuho whom he thought was stronger, although Shuei won their celebration game in which he took black. Shuho did not live very long, so Shuei accepted the title again, and later became much stronger than his contemporaries, so was awarded the Meijin title, which even his father had not achieved.

Shuei had a number of disciples. They include Honinbo Shugen, Takabe Dohei, Karigane Jun-ichi, Nozawa Chikucho, Tamura Yasuhisa, Tanaka Masaki, Inoue Yasunobu, Hayashi Tokuzo, Seki Genkichi, Tsuzuki Yoneko, and Inoue Kohei.

[edit] External link

Game collection

Preceded by Honinbo Jowa	Meijin 1906–1907	Succeeded by Honinbo Shusai
Preceded by Honinbo Shugen	Honinbo 1884–1886	Succeeded by Honinbo Shuho
Preceded by Honinbo Shuho	Honinbo 1887–1907	Succeeded by Honinbo Shugen
Preceded by Hayashi Hakuei	Head of Hayashi house 1864–1884	Succeeded by Hayashi house merged into Honinbo house