Honinbo


Honinbo 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 founder was the Buddhist priest Nikkai.
The name Honinbo was that of the pavilion on the grounds of the Jakkoji temple in Kyoto where Nikkai lived.
When the capital was moved to Tokyo, Nikkai moved along and turned "Honinbo" into a title, calling himself Honinbo Sansa.

Heads of the Honinbo house

Note: The 17th and 19th Honinbo are the same person, and the 16th and 20th are the same, too.
The titles 22nd-26th Honinbo are honorary titles
given to players who won the Honinbo tournament sufficiently often.

Honinbo tournament

The Honinbo Tournament is a yearly tournament
for the title of Honinbo, held since the retirement of Shūsai.

First Honinbo tournament

The last Honinbo, Shusai, gave
his title in 1938 to the Nihon Ki-in, to be awarded in a yearly tournament.
Preliminary tournaments were held in 1939 and 1940, and the final title match,
between Sekiyama Riichi and Kato Shin, in 1941. This match ended in a tie, 3-3.
Since Sekiyama had been first after the preliminary tournaments, he was declared winner.
Thus, Sekiyama Riichi became the first to bear this new title Honinbo.

Honinbo name

Some winners of the Honinbo tournament choose an art name.
For the first two the name was chosen by the Nihon Ki-in.
For example, Sekiyama was called Honinbo Risen.
playeryearHoninbo name
Sekiyama Riichi1941Honinbo Risen
Hashimoto Utaro1943Honinbo Shou
Iwamoto Kaoru1945Honinbo Kunwa
Takagawa Kaku1952Honinbo Shukaku
Sakata Eio1961Honinbo Eiju
Rin Kaiho1968Honinbo Kaiho
Ishida Yoshio1971Honinbo Shuho
Takemiya Masaki1976Honinbo Shuju
Kato Masao1977Honinbo Kensei
Cho Chikun1981Honinbo Chikun
Takao Shinji2005Honinbo Shushin
Yamashita Keigo2010Honinbo Dowa
Iyama Yuta2012Honinbo Monyu

For more details, see :ja:本因坊#本因坊戦勝者と雅号

Further Honinbo tournaments

There are now several further tournaments with names involving 'Honinbo',
such as the Women's Honinbo tournament, the Amateur Honinbo tournament,
and the Student Honinbo tournament.
Since 1963, there is a yearly game between the current professional Honinbo
and the Amateur Honinbo.