adversary to play. When the play had been made, he would look up,
deliberate his own play, and, having played, turn nonchalantly to the
magazine again. He seemed to be deriding his adversary, and one would not
have been surprised had the latter taken umbrage. I heard one day that the
young player had shortly afterwards gone insane. Perhaps, given the
precarious state of his nerves, he could not tolerate those periods of
deliberation.
I have heard that Otaké of the Seventh Rank and Wu of the Sixth once
went to a clairvoyant and asked for advice on how to win. The proper
method, said the man, was to lose all awareness of self while awaiting an
adversary’s play. Some years after this retirement match, and shortly before
his own death, Onoda of the Sixth Rank, one of the judges at the retirement
match, had a perfect record at the grand tournament and gave evidence of
remarkable resources left over. His manner at play was equally remarkable.
While awaiting a play he would sit quietly with his eyes closed. He
explained that he was ridding himself of the desire to win. Shortly after the
tournament he went into a hospital, and he died without knowing that he
had had stomach cancer. Kubomatsu of the Sixth Rank, who had been one
of Otaké’s boyhood teachers, also put together an unusual string of
victories in the last tournament before his death.
Seated at the board, the Master and Otaké presented a complete contrast,
quiet against constant motion, nervelessness against nervous tension. Once
he had sunk himself into a session, the Master did not leave the board. A
player can often read a great deal into his adversary’s manner and
expression; but it is said that among professional players the Master alone
could read nothing. Yet for all the outward tension, Otaké’s game was far
from nervous. It was a powerful, concentrated game. Given to long
deliberation, he habitually ran out of time. As the deadline approached he
would ask the recorder to read off the seconds, and in the final minute make
a hundred plays and a hundred fifty plays, with a surging violence such as
to unnerve his opponent.
