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 among the four great schools of Go in Japan. He was a Buddhist priest of the Nichiren sect, and his original dharma name was Nikkai (日海). Life and career. Nikkai was born in Kyōto and became a monk at age nine. The name "Hon'inbō", (originally pronounced "Honninbō"), comes from a sub-temple of the Jakkōji temple complex in Kyōto where Nikkai , the first "Hon'inbō", resided. Among his students were the "daimyōs" Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, the three great "unifiers" of feudal Japan. Nikkai considered the three generals to be "fifth-degree" players (五子, comparable to amateur 4 or 5 dan), but "diplomacy" was likely a factor in Nikkai's even-handed assessment of these imposing figures. It was Nobunaga who, in 1578, recognized twenty-year-old Nikkai as the first "Meijin" of Go. In 1582, Nikkai, at the behest of Nobunaga, was involved in a notorious game at the Honnōji Temple against his rival, another Nichiren priest, Kashio  Rigen (鹿塩 利玄 b. 1565). (Apparently, there is a theory that "Kashio" and "Rigen" were two different people. See the Japanese version of this article.) The game is traditionally held to have taken place on the eve of the treacherous Incident at Honnōji, (in which Nobunaga was forced to commit seppuku), and is said to have ended in a "triple ko". Hence the notion of triple ko as bad omen. There is a Go_game_record, but typical for the period, it is incomplete. The triple ko may have occurred, somewhat implausibly, in unrecorded remaining plays, or in another game that day , but in the end, there is no evidence that this is more than a good story. In 1587, Nobunaga's successor, the regent ("kampaku") Hideyoshi gave Nikkai an official position, (forerunner to the office of "Go-dokoro"), granting his temple an annual four "koku" of rice and setting up a tournament that he attended in person. In 1592, Nikkai was given the rank of "Gon-no-Daisoku" by the Go-Yōzei Emperor. In 1603, the Go-Yōzei Emperor recognized sixty-year-old Tokugawa Ieyasu as "shōgun", inaugurating the 250-year rule of the Tokugawa bakufu. At the direction of Ieyasu , Nikkai turned priestly duties at Jakkoji over to his younger brother Nichiei and became the first "go-dokoro", in which office Nikkai was provided fifty "koku" of rice and five servants. Also around this time (), Nikkai took the name "Hon'inbō Sansa" ("Sansa" written 算砂: the characters for "calculating" and "sand"). Sansa was also a strong "shogi" player, but in the Tokugawa period, go was organised into four "houses" (or "academies"), and shogi into three, which would compete in "oshirogo" "Castle Go" (and "Castle shogi") tournaments for the title "Meijin". (See more at "History of shogi § Modern shogi".) The official nature  of these arrangements meant that go and shogi masters held different offices. In 1612, eight go and shogi players were given individual state support. This system persisted over two and a half centuries, until the collapse of the Tokugawa government itself in the Meiji Restoration. The beginning of the "oshirogo" matches in Edo, seat of the Tokugawa government, meant that at the end of each year, Sansa had to travel east for a month. He is said to have turned down an official residence in Edo's early Nihonbashi district, but was given other accommodations. (It was the unrivaled fourth  Hon'inbō, Hon'inbō Dōsaku (1645–1702) who finally moved the school to Edo.) Sansa died in Edo at the age of 65. Legacy. Honinbō Sansa was succeeded by a youth named Sugimura, who due to his age, had to wait several years after Sansa's death to re-establish the Hon'inbō house as Hon'inbō San'etsu when he turned twenty. However, the title of "Meijin" was regained by the third head of Hon'inbō, and altogether, seven of the ten generations of historic "Meijin" were Hon'inbō. In addition, all three traditional "Kisei" ("Go Sages") were Hon'inbō masters. (Both "Meijin" and "Kisei" are now titles  administered by the Nihon Ki-in.) The school established by Hon'inbō Sansa, along with the Inoue and Yasui schools, lasted into the 20th century, but struggled without government backing. In 1936, the last Hon'inbō master, the controversial Hon'inbō Shūsai, turned selection of the Hon'inbō title over to the Nihon Ki-in. (See Honinbō Tournament.) In popular culture. He has been featured in the Japanese manga Hikaru no Go.