remembering the dignity and the fragrance of Go as an art. The modern
way was to insist upon doing battle under conditions of abstract justice,
even when challenging the Master himself. The fault was not Otaké’s.
Perhaps what had happened was but natural, Go being a contest and a show
of strength.
In more than thirty years the Master had not played Black. He was first
among them all, and brooked no second. During his lifetime no one among
his juniors advanced as far as the Eighth Rank. All through the epoch that
was his own he kept the opposition under control, and there was no one
whose rank could carry across the gap to the next age. The fact that today, a
decade after the Master’s death, no method has been devised for
determining the succession to the title Master of Go probably has to do
with the towering presence of Honnimbō Shūsai. Probably he was the last
of the true masters revered in the tradition of Go as a way of life and art.
It begins to seem evident in championship tournaments that the title
“Master” will become a mark of strength and no more, and that the position
will become a sort of victory banner and a commercial asset for a
competitive performer. It may in fact be said that the Master sold his last
match to a newspaper at a price without precedent. He did not so much go
forth into combat as allow himself to be lured into combat by the
newspaper. It may be that, like the system of certification by schools and
teachers in so many of the traditional Japanese arts, the notion of a lifetime
Master and of ranks is a feudal relic. It may be that, if he had had to face
annual title matches, as do chess masters, the Master would have died years
before he did.
In old times the holder of the title, fearful of doing injury to it, seems to
have avoided real competition even in practice matches. Never before,
probably, was there a master who fought a title match at the advanced age
of sixty-four. But in the future the existence of a master who does not play
will be unthinkable. Shūsai the Master would seem, in a variety of
