More Jowa (for go history buffs)
John Fairbairn
character study of Inoue Gen'an Inseki. It relates to his great rival,
Honinbo Jowa. An earlier piece on recent research on Jowa's name and
origins was posted here a couple of weeks ago. It is now up on my web
pages on www.harrowgo.demon.co.uk and this piece will join it
eventually.
Please post any comments or questions here, please, not to me direct.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
JOWA - SAGE OR SCOUNDREL?
(c) John Fairbairn, London 1999
Honinbo Jowa had to wait until late in life before he won a ferocious
battle with Inoue Gen'an to become the last Meijin Godokoro. Even then
he was forced to give it up soon. Ironically, he was also to win and
lose another important title - one that in some ways carries more weight
for it is an accolade that can only be given by his peers and posterity:
Go Sage.
There were Go Sages even in ancient China. As in all lists of favourite
personalities, there is never complete agreement as to who exactly
should be on the list. But one thing is agreed when it comes to Go
Sages: there are very few of them. It is a very exclusive club.
As I will show below, Jowa was a member for a long time. He shared the
honours only with Honinbo Dosaku until ousted, in slightly sordid
circumstances, by Honinbo Shusaku. Today, Shusaku's reputation is still
somewhat inflated in the West, where most readers have access only to a
limited number of texts. Jowa, for similar reasons, is probably
underestimated. In Japan, where the go public has access to much more
literature, a more objective balance has been struck. I would guess that
the parents of any budding professional would love him to grow up like
Shusaku, a perfect filial son and pupil. He himself would probably love
to play like Jowa.
The first public notice that Jowa was regarded as unusually remarkable
appeared in one of his own books. It was his first: Kokugi Kanko. This
book - indeed, the title alone - forms part of the great battle with
Gen'an. I will deal with it more fully when I write about Gen'an, but in
a nutshell it is a highly pretentious allusion to the Confucian classics
which would have escaped the only coarsely educated Jowa; the better
educated Gen'an riposted with a book of his own replete with classical
allusions (especially from Sun Zi's "Art of War") that he did
understand, and to prove it was his own work he related them to games of
go.
Kokugi Kanko is mainly a collection of games by Jowa but has a preface
by Hiraiwa Akira written in the twelfth month of 1825 (the book itself
appeared the following Autumn). At this time Jowa was still only the
Honinbo heir and 6-dan. Yet this preface describes him in gushing terms
that include the phrase "The Crowning Glory of the Nation" (Tenka no
Kanmuri). Flattery in a preface is only to be expected, but what is
significant here is that Jowa was still a dependant of Honinbo Genjo who
was still alive as an 8-dan. Furthermore, Yasui Chitoku 8-dan was also
alive - both were only in their early 50s. Yasui Senkaku 8-dan was also
alive, although he had retired in 1814. And Hattori Inshuku, who
represented the Inoue school, was still an active 7-dan, whilst the
Hayashi school could also claim a 6-dan in the person of Genbi. Gen'an
was 6-dan too. The potential for upsetting everybody that mattered was
total!
Yet it didn't happen. The only sensible conclusion seems to be that
everyone accepted it was true.
Confirmation of this can be found in the book "Igo Kenbunshi"
(Observations on Go) by Kawamura Chisoku. Although he published this in
1884, Kawamura was a long-standing pupil of the Honinbo family. He
wrote: "My former teacher Jowa was the Honinbo heir from the early
Bunsei period (1818-30), and although he was a dependant and of 6-dan
official rank, when he served in the games in the Imperial Palace in the
11th month of each year which had become a happy custom of the Shogunate
[the Castle Games], his skill was already that of a Meijin."
There are other examples. In Volume 1 of Honinbo Shuho's Hoen Shinpo,
published in 1882, there is a preface by Shigeno An'eki. In passing,
this preface is curious in showing that, even though Dosaku was known as
a Go Sage, knowledge of his life seems still to have been very hazy - he
is put rather later than his true dates, as he died in Genroku 15 =
1702. But this is what it says:
"Sansa appeared and with him the go of the Genna and Kan'ei
eras. Dosaku appeared and with him the go of the Genroku and Hoei eras.
Jowa appeared and with him the go of the Bunsei and Tenpo eras.
Following Jowa came Shuwa and Shusaku. And then we come to Shuho.
"If a person's art reaches the ultimate, we call him a Sage.
Dosaku and Jowa are the Go Sages par excellence. Dosaku's skill lay in
his supreme excellence. Jowa's skill lay in his heroic profundity. If we
take poetry as an example, Dosaku was like Li Bai; Jowa was like Du Fu.
If we take literature as an example, Dosaku was like Su Dongpo; Jowa was
like Han Yu. Although by nature they were different, in erudition they
were alike. The Former Sage and the Latter Sage: their art was one. How
can we discriminate between them?
"Shuho took Shuwa as his teacher, and Shusaku as his elder
brother. The three Shus all trace their source to Jowa. A little over 20
years after Jowa's death we encountered a change in the world and the Go
Institute was completely destroyed. Those entrusted with its traditions
withered away and this art was virtually on the edge of extinction.
Shuho rallied his friends and brought Hoensha into being. With training
courses and debates, there have been no idle months. Now talented
players from all corners of the country are following the wind and
gathering here. The Way of Go is again greatly prospering."
Less fulsomely, but perhaps more significant in coming from a Confucian
scholar (and therefore moralist), is a signed postscript in Volume 2 of
the same book. It is by Miyoshi Kitoku. He was effectively the ghost
writer for Shuho, not just in this book but in the bulletins from
Hoensha (essentially Shuho's game commentaries) which later developed
into the monthly journal Igo Shinpo. The historian Hayashi Yutaka has
perceptively pointed out that the reason for the postscript is likely to
be Shuho's way of allowing Kitoku public credit, but in any event the
opinions here are clearly Kitoku's. His stance is to stress the
significance of Shuwa, but he says this about Jowa:
"At the beginning of the Tensho era (1573-92) Honinbo Sansa
first emerged in this art. Then Doseki, Rigen, Santetsu, Inseki and
others appeared in quick succession. At this point the Godokoro was
instituted, And so we came to the Hoei era (1704-11) when we can view
their games for the first time. When Dosaku and Dochi died, the Way of
Go declined and became rare and unknown. When I come to think of it,
Satsugen, Genjo and Chitoku felt inferior in relation to the ancients.
Then we came to the Bunka-Bunsei period (1804-30) when Jowa emerged. The
transformations between orthodox and unorthodox in his games - battles
for supremacy perhaps! - with Gen'an are beyond our ken. With this our
art greatly prospered."
But transformation of a different kind was soon to follow.
Honinbo Shusaku had died prematurely in 1862. Even in his lifetime he
had achieved remarkable results, and was surely destined for greater
things. But he was only 7-dan and still had not bested his teacher
Shuwa. Despite his almost saintly disposition, he was certainly not
regarded as a Go Sage in or near his lifetime. That came some 40 years
after his death when Ishigaya Kosaku either felt contrition, or saw an
opportunity, depending on your point of view. Ishigaya, born in 1818,
lived a long life and was a pupil of Josaku, Shuwa and Shusaku in turn.
He reached 5-dan. During his time with Shusaku, the young master
appeared to think poorly of him as he had a reputation for welshing on
debts, but he appears to have tolerated him as someone who came from the
same area (what would now be Hiroshima). At some point after Shusaku's
death Ishigaya began ensuring he was not forgotten. The first act was to
pay for the erection of a large gravestone. The acts of homage impressed
Shuwa enough to allow him to borrow the -saku part of his name from
Shusaku (before that it was Koji).
In 1897 Ishigaya published 100 games by Shusaku under a title borrowed
from a poem by Sima Guang, "Kogyoku Yoin" (Reverberations from Colliding
Jades = Remembered Go Games). This was followed in May 1904 by a book on
fuseki called "Shusaku Koketsu Kifu" (Shusaku's Games as Revealed to
Me). Whilst Ishigaya was assiduously promoting Shusaku's reputation, it
should be noted that he was not denigrating Jowa. It was rather that he
began using the term Go Sage about Shusaku. The Oriental mind, where
Sages are meant to be rare, would perhaps instinctively want to replace
one with another rather than add to to the pantheon - Go Seigen once
famously refused the accolade of Go Sage. But this impulse, if it
existed, would certainly have been boosted at the time because of the
appearance of the go history "Zain Danso", just a few months earlier
than Ishigaya's book, in January 1904. It was here that Jowa's intrigues
to secure the Meijin Godokoro was first revealed.
Though "Zain Danso" was edited by Ando Nyoi, this particular section was
written by Yamada Gyokusen, who had interviewed old timers. Both Ando
and Yamada, however, were based in Osaka and their contacts centred
round the Inoue family, then headed by the 15th, Tabuchi. Inevitably
there was side to their version of events - Inoue Gen'an was getting his
revenge from the grave! Ando was aided in making his revelations by the
fact that Nakagawa Kamesaburo had died in October 1903. Nakagawa was
Jowa's third son, head of Hoensha and a venerated elder. It is unlikely
that Ando would have dared publish what he did if Nakagawa were still
alive.
That this truly was a consideration can be inferred from later
developments. In this first edition Honinbo Shuei was respectfully
referred to as the Master. Shuei died in 1907. In 1912 a much rewritten
version of "Zain Danso" appeared and now the honorific language - and
thus the pretence - was dropped.
With such a strongly nurtured a candidate for sagedom waiting in the
wings, "Zain Danso" now made it inevitable that the stage trapdoor would
open and swallow Jowa's reputation. There was no-one to fight on his
behalf.
The first strong note of reappraisal came in 1951. In what was perhaps a
conscious attempt to hark back to the past - the modernism of the pre-
war era was obviously discredited and there were signs that the
imposition of western ways was beginning to be resented - the go world
celebrated publication in 10 volumes of all the Castle Games (Oshiro
Gofu).
This was under the joint editorship of Segoe Kensaku 8-dan, Watanabe
Hideo 4-dan and Yahata Kyosuke, a Nihon Ki-in director who provided much
of the source material from his own collection. Segoe also used as an
amanuensis Matsui Akio, a famous go book collector.
It is not clear who wrote what, but I follow Hayashi Yutaka in agreeing
that it is inconceivable that Segoe's views would not prevail. It is
therefore especially interesting to see the entry for Jowa in the
biographical section. Segoe (we shall assume it is he) suggests trying
to set up a sumo-type ranking list covering the players from the Kansei
era to the end of Keio (1789-1868). He lists the claims of the 7th
Yasui, Senkaku, for his "splendid power", Genjo as Jowa's teacher,
Chitoku who managed to awe Jowa like a tiger, Gen'an of course, and
Shuwa, Shusaku and Shuho. He then says that each of these probably has
qualifications to object to placing Jowa in the seat of Yokozuna (Grand
Champion) of the East, but "taking these points all in all, we will
discover that we cannot but recommend Jowa for first place. Truly, this
12th Honinbo was the personification of power in go."
It is easy to dismiss this as just another opinion. But one reason it
carries weight is that Segoe had every reason to support Shusaku
instead. At one stage in his career he used as the character for -saku
in his name the one used by Shusaku. It was meant to express his
admiration. And he was from the same area as Shusaku. That meant,
however, that he was also from the same area as Ishigaya, and while they
were not exactly contemporaries (Segoe was born in 1889, Ishigaya died
in 1905), he knew all about him. Segoe was also the teacher of Go
Seigen, so had first-hand experience of someone most of us would regard
as a Go Sage. Despite these conflicting pulls, the Castle Games text
comes over as sober, centred and objective.
Since then, of course, the stories of Jowa's deviousness and Shusaku's
filial piety have been replayed many times both as fact and as popular
fiction. These images are fast. But they are about human attributes, not
go. On the go board it is still Jowa who inspires awe. It is now common,
whenever Jowa is mentioned, to replay also the fact that he was the
Latter Sage to Dosaku's Former Sage, so with repetition his earliest
reputation is re-emerging.
But perhaps we can leave the last, falsely modest, word to Jowa himself
- he did after all know more about go than most people. It is a story
told by Takagi Shoichi, a well-known fan of Jowa. Asked once by his
pupils how he would fare against Dosaku, Jowa is said to have thought
calmly and then replied: "If I played a 20-game match with Master
Dosaku, the first 10 games would be split between us. After that, who
can tell would happen?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a game from the GoGoD database that shows Jowa's raw power. His
opponent, Gen'an, was not afraid to match him with power and the game
turns into a hand to hand fight in the centre of the board for,
amazingly, around 200 moves. Kobayashi Koichi, commenting on this game,
said it showed why Jowa was a Go Sage. It has its share of brilliant
moves (see White 54 and 80 for example) and is not spoiled by the gross
oversights that sometimes appeared with these players. Kobayashi tends
to replay the games of Dosaku and Shusaku most often, but says he is
also fond of playing over a 2-volume set of Jowa's best games.
(;SZ[19]FF[3]
PW[Honinbo Jowa]
WR[6d]
PB[Inoue Ansetsu]
BR[5d]
EV[Castle Game]
DT[1821-12-11 {Bunsei 4 XI 17}]
PC[Edo Castle]
KM[0]
OH[(B)-W-B]
RE[W+12]
US[GoGoD95]
;B[cp];W[pq];B[de];W[eq];B[do];W[dc];B[cc];W[cj];B[qd];W[oc];B[fp];W[gq]
;B[qo];W[qh];B[pe];W[qk];B[nd];W[mc];B[mq];W[op];B[jq];W[pn];B[ch];W[cm]
;B[dd];W[qb];B[dq];W[gp];B[fo];W[hn];B[jn];W[lp];B[lq];W[jo];B[ip];W[go]
;B[io];W[in];B[jm];W[ko];B[no];W[ln];B[il];W[hl];B[np];W[mm];B[nm];W[po]
;B[nl];W[ml];B[mk];W[lk];B[mn];W[ij];B[ik];W[hk];B[lm];W[ll];B[jj];W[kj]
;B[jk];W[km];B[hj];W[mj];B[pk];W[pl];B[nk];W[pj];B[nj];W[mi];B[pi];W[nh]
;B[gj];W[fn];B[qj];W[ok];B[oh];W[qi];B[og];W[jh];B[ji];W[ih];B[ii];W[ki]
;B[en];W[fl];B[el];W[fk];B[hh];W[ek];B[dl];W[dh];B[cg];W[kr];B[kq];W[ir]
;B[oj];W[rj];B[fq];W[nf];B[ng];W[mf];B[mg];W[lf];B[of];W[od];B[or];W[pr]
;B[fm];W[gm];B[gn];W[iq];B[jp];W[fn];B[lg];W[kg];B[gn];W[on];B[nn];W[fn]
;B[kf];W[jf];B[ke];W[md];B[gn];W[je];B[kd];W[fn];B[jd];W[he];B[hd];W[gd]
;B[hc];W[gf];B[fh];W[em];B[hg];W[gc];B[ig];W[jg];B[lb];W[mb];B[me];W[ne]
;B[oe];W[le];B[gb];W[fb];B[hb];W[fe];B[ec];W[fg];B[eg];W[fc];B[gg];W[lc]
;B[kc];W[jb];B[id];W[hf];B[kb];W[ed];B[lh];W[kh];B[db];W[ee];B[ff];W[ef]
;B[dm];W[df];B[dg];W[cf];B[dk];W[jr];B[gr];W[hr];B[bd];W[fg];B[li];W[lj]
;B[ff];W[eb];B[dc];W[fg];B[rb];W[qc];B[ff];W[bf];B[bg];W[fg];B[ei];W[qf]
;B[ff];W[bb];B[ce];W[fg];B[rc];W[re];B[ff];W[af];B[ad];W[fg];B[lo];W[ff]
;B[mp];W[mo];B[rd];W[nr];B[lo];W[ph];B[oi];W[mo];B[mr];W[os];B[lo];W[la]
;B[ka];W[mo];B[qa];W[ob];B[lo];W[ga];B[ib];W[mo];B[mh];W[ni];B[lo];W[ha]
;B[jc];W[mo];B[qe];W[rf];B[lo];W[bi];B[kp];W[bl];B[cn];W[dj];B[fr];W[fm]
;B[di];W[bn];B[bo];W[an];B[kn];W[da];B[ca];W[fa];B[cb];W[pa];B[ra];W[ci]
;B[lm];W[kl];B[ol];W[pk];B[ma];W[na];B[ao];W[ck];B[ag];W[ah];B[ld];W[nc]
;B[om];W[pm];B[pg];W[qg];B[nq];W[oq];B[ms];W[hs];B[ns];W[or];B[hp];W[hq]
;B[fj];W[ia];B[ja];W[gs];B[fs];W[sd];B[sc];W[se];B[pc];W[pb];B[pd];W[gk]
;B[im];W[be];B[ks];W[js];B[ls];W[ea];B[la];W[ln]
)
--
John Fairbairn
Barry Phease
> JOWA - SAGE OR SCOUNDREL?
Or maybe both?
> The first public notice that Jowa was regarded as unusually remarkable
> appeared in one of his own books. It was his first: Kokugi Kanko. This
> book - indeed, the title alone - forms part of the great battle with
> Gen'an. I will deal with it more fully when I write about Gen'an, but in
> a nutshell it is a highly pretentious allusion to the Confucian classics
> which would have escaped the only coarsely educated Jowa;
This is a remarkable statement. It seems from the other material that
Jowa would have been capable of great pretension and self promotion. If
he was unaware of the allusions then perhaps someone else suggested the
title.
> The Oriental mind, where
> Sages are meant to be rare, would perhaps instinctively want to replace
> one with another rather than add to to the pantheon - Go Seigen once
> famously refused the accolade of Go Sage. But this impulse, if it
> existed, would certainly have been boosted at the time because of the
> appearance of the go history "Zain Danso", just a few months earlier
> than Ishigaya's book, in January 1904. It was here that Jowa's intrigues
> to secure the Meijin Godokoro was first revealed.
Would this have been used as an excuse so that Shusaku could have been
recognised or would Jowa's deviousness really have counted against him?
Lots of sports stars are revered in spite of serious character flaws.
Perhaps we can start a campaign for his reinstatement. :)
Go Seigen would have qualified to my mind as a go sage.
I presume "Go Sage" is Kisei.
What about Nie Wei Ping? How can the name now be used as a tournament
title in Japan where the winners usually wouldn't qualify for this high
title? Perhaps the old values don't hold any more.
When will Lee Chang Ho be recognised in this company?
--
Barry Phease
Simon Goss
Thanks for this. Just one question:
>The potential for upsetting everybody that mattered was
>total!
>
>Yet it didn't happen. The only sensible conclusion seems to be that
>everyone accepted it was true.
>
>Confirmation of this can be found in
<...>
There may, of course, be evidence other than what you've presented, but
the two examples you quote are surely not evidence that the people who
mattered in 1825 when the preface was published were not upset.
The preface dates from 1825, when Jowa was the 6-dan heir, whereas these
quotes date from the 1880's, by when his full strength had been shown
(but his machinations not yet published). In other words, the
recognition in 1884 that it was so doesn't tell us much about people's
reaction in 1825 to the presumption that it would be so.
Also, those 1880's quotes are from sources on the Honinbo side.
I think what is needed is contemporary evidence from the other side(s).
That said, it may not be completely surprising if the preface didn't
create an uproar. By the time Jowa was 6-dan, "everybody that mattered"
may already have had time to see what kind of a personality was
involved. If so, "huh, typical" is also a conceivable reaction.
Yours,
--
Simon
John Fairbairn
<si...@gosoft.demon.co.uk> writes
>
>There may, of course, be evidence other than what you've presented, but
>the two examples you quote are surely not evidence that the people who
>mattered in 1825 when the preface was published were not upset.
>
>The preface dates from 1825, when Jowa was the 6-dan heir, whereas these
>quotes date from the 1880's, by when his full strength had been shown
>(but his machinations not yet published). In other words, the
>recognition in 1884 that it was so doesn't tell us much about people's
>reaction in 1825 to the presumption that it would be so.
Simon
We are hardly likely to find written evidence from the other sides
saying that they agree. Mute testimony in favour is all we can hope for.
I think we can attach a lot of importance to that. We must try not to
view this too much from a modern perspective. Grades, rank, status all
mattered much more then than now - and they matter enough today!
We do know, for instance, how much umbrage was caused when one Honinbo
pupil, Ogura Doki, who had already written several books without any
problem, wrote another claiming to have exclusive knowledge of some of
Dosaku's teachings. Honinbo Dochi expelled him and had him hauled before
the authorities, who imprisoned him for 10 days and had all his books
confiscated and burnt - and more. Compare the modern perspective
currently on show in this news groups - so many people now think
copyright sucks, and Ogura wasn't actually doing anything as
pinpointable as breaching copyright. Look also at the go/shogi
precedence question to see how rank matters. We see also many similar
examples outside of go. Names (and reputation) meant far more then - as
amply attested in Confucius' famous statement (first rectify the
names).
As for the long time spans, here again we must keep our sense of
historical perspective. People operated on a much more leisurely basis,
and grievances or different opinions would be nursed not just for many,
many years, but across generations, typical of those societies that
stress clans or extended families, which is what the iemoto system is.
If there had been objections in 1825 I think we would have still heard
about them in 1880. I would observe also that there ample opportunities
for adverse reactions specific to this book to be expressed around the
time. The whole business of negotiated promotions, including Jowa's
elevation to Meijin, would offer open season on anything contentious.
Yet this matter never came up. Why?
A final point is that prefaces carried a lot of clout. They were by
prominent people, were often the only substantial text in a book, were
designed to be artistic/learned/witty/noticed and were often reprinted
by themselves. Many were in Chinese, and all were full of allusions.
While it is unlikely that many go players could read them unaided, all
the families had scholars attached, and so it is easy to imagine that
prefaces would be dissected and debated.
--
John Fairbairn