Kamakura jubango
Encyclopedia
The Kamakura jubango
Jubango
Jubango is a Japanese term for a Go match consisting of ten games which might be ended earlier if agreed by the players. A decisive victory would result in the opponent being beaten down to a lower rank. A player would be beaten down if he fell behind his opponent by four wins in the net score...

 (ten-game match) was a historically significant go match played in Japan in 1939, 1940 and 1941. It pitted Kitani Minoru and Go Seigen
Go Seigen
Wu Qingyuan , generally known in the West by his Japanese name Go Seigen, is considered by many players to be the greatest player of the game of Go in the 20th century and of all time.-Biography:...

, close rivals for a decade and friends at a personal level, and both ranked 7 dan, against each other.

Go Seigen emerged victorious by a 6-4 margin. This match marked the beginning of the period of his dominance as the top player, which continued until the First Meijin Tournament
First Meijin Tournament
The First Meijin Tournament was a landmark go competition held in Japan in 1961 and 1962. Taking more than 18 months to complete, it was a round-robin format event, featuring 13 top players. It arguably assembled the strongest field ever of players to compete in an all-play-all event...

 in 1962.

Background

Nine months before the match started, Kitani had defeated Honinbo Shusai
Honinbo Shusai
is the professional name of Hoju Tamura, also known as , who was a Japanese professional Go player.- Biography :He was born in Shiba, Tokyo, son of Tamura Yasunaga, a retainer of the shogun. He learned go at age 10 and joined the Hoensha in 1883, then under the leadership of Murase Shuho. He was...

, the Meijin
Meijin
Meijin , literally translated, means "Brilliant Man." It is the name of the second most prestigious Japanese Go Tournament. It also refers to a traditional Japanese title given to the strongest player of the day during the Edo period.- The tournament :...

, in Shusai's retirement game. The Honinbo title was to be open to competition, and both Kitani and Go took part in that tournament. Each failed to get through to the final match, which was contested by Sekiyama Riichi and Kato Shin, with Sekiyama becoming the first Honinbo under the titleholder system
Titleholder system
The titleholder system is the most common type of structure used in professional tournaments in the game of go. In practice these events almost always are based in East Asian countries with a professional system: China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan...

 in 1941. The preliminaries of this first Honinbo tournament
Honinbo Tournament
The Honinbo is a Go competition.-Outline:It is the oldest Go title in Japan. Sponsored by Mainichi Shimbun, the Honinbo pays out ¥32 million . The holder is challenged by whoever wins the round robin league. Players can get into the round robin league by going through many preliminary tournaments...

 were under way during the Kamakura match. With wartime conditions, the pace of all competitions slowed considerably. All these players also took part in the Oteai
Oteai
The was a tournament used in Japan, by the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in, to determine the ranking of its go professionals on the dan scale. It was instituted in the 1920s soon after the Ki-in was set up in 1924. Initially it was run in Spring and Autumn sessions in Tokyo, with the pros brought...

 competition. The first 9 dan to emerge from the Oteai was Fujisawa Kuranosuke, some years later (at this time 6 dan). At the time, it was hard to receive promotion even to 8 dan. The pool of top players was rather small; Karigane Junichi
Karigane Junichi
was a Japanese professional Go player, posthumously made an honourary 9 dan by the Nihon Ki-in.-Biography:Karigane was responsible for founding several organizations that would continue to be influential throughout the early 1900s. In 1922, he formed the Hiseikai, a group tournament, which also...

 was 8 dan but had stayed outside the system that had established itself around Shusai and the Nihon Ki-in.

The result of the match was the first step in the process by which Go Seigen would establish ascendancy over his rivals (except Sekiyama, who withdrew from competition because of bad health). He was promoted to 8 dan in spring 1942. Having taken on Kitani, against whom he had an unfinished jubango stopped at 3-3 in 1933 when Kitani was promoted, Go took on both Karigane and Fujisawa (whom he played in the end in three long matches), and then the new Honinbos Hashimoto Utaro and Iwamoto Kaoru. Go Seigen played again in the Honinbo tournament, but not after 1945. In later years various challenges allowed him to face the Honinbo of the time.

The games

Apart from game 2, played in Shiba Park
Shiba Park
is a public park in Minato, Tokyo, Japan built around the temple of Zōjō-ji.The park is located between the Minato municipal offices and Tokyo Tower...

 in Tokyo, and game 5 played in Gunma Prefecture
Gunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...

, the match was held in various locations actually in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...

. The first game was in the Buddhist temple Kenchō-ji
Kencho-ji
Kenchō-ji is a Rinzai Zen temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which ranks first among Kamakura's so-called Five Great Zen Temples and is the oldest Zen training monastery in Japan. These temples were at the top of the Five Mountain System, a network of Zen temples started by the Hōjō...

. Game 3 was in Engaku-ji
Engaku-ji
right|thumb|A stone carvingNot to be confused with Enryaku-ji in Kyoto., or Engaku-ji , is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa prefecture to the south of Tokyo...

, as were games 4, 6 and 9. The games 7, 8 and 10 were in the Hachiman
Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine
is the most important Shinto shrine in the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The shrine is at the geographical and cultural center of the city of Kamakura, which has largely grown around it....

 Shinto shrine in Kamakura.

The starting conditions of the match were tagaisen; since the players were of equal rank: colours alternated, with Kitani winning the nigiri. There was no komidashi
Komidashi
in the game of Go are points added to the score of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second. Black's first move advantage is generally considered to equal somewhere between 5 and 7 points by the end of the game. Standard komi is 6.5 points under the Japanese and Korean...

. Largely unexpectedly, Kitani went 1-5 down over the first six games, and so was subject to beating down. The final four games, beginning 29 December 1940, were therefore played at sen-ai-sen, with Kitani taking Black twice, White, then Black. Of those final games, Go Seigen could win only the second, so that with a net score of 4-6 and a win with White Kitani had salvaged some of his reputation.

All ten games are masterpieces, with both players showing great spirit.
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