Hon'inbō Sansa

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Honinbo Sansa
Full nameHoninbo Sansa
Kanji本因坊算砂
Born1559
Kyoto, Japan
Died(1623-06-13)June 13, 1623
Edo, Japan
TeacherSenya
Rank9 dan
In this Japanese name, the surname is Kanō.

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

Nichiren sect, and his original dharma name
was Nikkai (日海).

Life and career

Nikkai was born in

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

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

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 (

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 (c. 1605), Nikkai took the name Hon'inbō Sansa (Sansa written 算砂: the characters for "calculating" and "sand").

Sansa was also a strong

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

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

Honinbō Tournament
.)

In popular culture

He has been featured in the Japanese manga Hikaru no Go.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Hon'inbō Sansa.
New title
Meijin

1612–1623 		Succeeded by
Inoue Nakamura Dōseki
New institution
Hon'inbō

1612–1623 		Succeeded by
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