Moments in Go History

THE TWO FUJISAWAS, PART 1
April 5, 2004
By William Cobb

Many students of modern go are confused by the presence of two prominent Japanese 9 dans with the same family name: Fujisawa. In fact, they are related; the older, Hosai, who died in 1992, is the nephew of the younger, Shuko.

One of Hosai's most famous achievements was besting Go Seigen in a ten-game match (jubango) in 1944. He was the only player to defeat Go Seigen in a jubango, though he did it with a handicap of playing Black in every game, while others alternated between Black and White. Hosai tried twice in the early '50s at the even handicap, when he and Go were the only 9 dans in the world, but lost both times. After the second loss, Hosai temporarily resigned from the Nihon Kiin and changed his original given name of Kuranosuke to Hosai.

Hosai played at the top level, but did not capture many titles. He won the Oza in 1958 and the Judan in 1964, as well as the Igo Championship in 1962 and 1965. He was the first player to reach 9 dan under the Oteai system, in which promotion was won through competition with other pros in the Nihon Kiin in regularly scheduled games, and was the only 9 dan for almost a year.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Shuko, like Hosai, is also known by more than one given name, in a sense. He prefers Hideyuki, the alternate pronunciation of his given name, rather than Shuko, but the Shuko pronunciation is more popular in both Japan and the West. (His original given name was Tamotsu.)

Hosai was noted for his fondness for playing mirror or mimic go when he had White. A game between the two Fujisawas in which Hosai plays mirror go is attached for your amusement. Would you have continued the mirroring, or stopped sooner? Hosai loses the game.

Game in SGF Format

(Sources: The Go Player's Almanac 2001, gobase.org, Sensei's Library.)

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