Biography
Honinbo Shuei, a younger son of the very strong Honinbo Shuwa, served as the 17th and again 19th head of the Honinbo house. He was also the 13th and final head of the Hayashi house before merging it with the Honinbo house in 1884.
Honinbo Shuei was a remarkable player, and his strength apparently exceeded his contemporaries by a considerable margin. Surviving game records show that he played a large number of handicap games. He was very active and innovative in the 1890s, a time of reviving fortunes for go, and participated in a number of jubango.
He attained the title of Meijin in 1906, becoming the ninth person to have done so. Shuei's style was characterized by his calm and confident approach to the game and his supreme positional judgement. He was also fond of making light shapes and sabaki tactics. He earned the nickname "the master of miai" for creating situations where he would have two equally good options at his disposal. He was one of the pioneer players opening frequently at hoshi points during fuseki, for which he was later greatly admired by the great Go Seigen.
He has also received praise from another top player, Fujisawa Hideyuki. Fujisawa commented in Go World that he thought Shuei was the strongest of the Meijins and Honinbos. He even said he believed he was stronger than the likes of Honinbo Shusaku and Honinbo Dosaku. He went on to say that Shuei's flow of moves was like water. Fujisawa said, "I always have the feeling that I'd be no match for him ... I'm far below his level". Yet another top player Kobayashi Koichi also claimed that Shuei was stronger than he was.
Ironically, as a boy he was given to the Hayashi house because he supposedly showed little promise. And the first time he was appointed Honinbo, he resigned in favor of Murase Shuho who he thought was stronger, although Shuei won their celebration game in which he took black. Shuho did not live very long, so Shuei accepted the title again, and later became much stronger than his contemporaries, so was awarded the Meijin title, which even his father had not achieved.
Shuei had a number of disciples. They include Honinbo Shugen, Takabe Dohei, Karigane Junichi, Nozawa Chikucho, Tamura Yasuhisa, Tanaka Masaki, Inoue Yasunobu, Hayashi Tokuzo, Seki Genkichi, Tsuzuki Yoneko, and Inoue Kohei.
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