Upon consultation with concerned persons on the newspaper and in the
Go Association, it was decided that Dr. Kawashima of Tokyo and Dr.
Okajima of Miyanoshita would follow the Master’s wishes and permit the
match to continue. Their conditions were that, to ease the strain on the
Master, the five-hour sessions every fifth day be replaced by sessions half
as long every third or fourth day. The Master was to be examined before
and after every session.
It was no doubt a last resort, this plan to have the match over in fewer
days and leave the Master to convalesce. Accommodations at a hot-spring
resort all through a match lasting two or three months may seem like a
great luxury. For the players, however, the system of “sealing in cans” was
exactly that: they were sealed in tightly with the game of Go. Had they
been allowed to return home during the four-day recesses, they might have
left the Go board behind and taken their minds from it, and so been able to
rest; imprisoned on the site, they had few diversions. There would have
been no problem had the “canning” been a matter of a few days or a week,
but keeping the sixty-four-year-old Master imprisoned for two and three
months must be described as torture. Canning is the usual practice today.
Little thought was given to the evils compounded by the Master’s age and
the length of the match. To the Master himself the somewhat pompous rules
may have seemed the equivalent of a laurel crown.
The Master collapsed in less than a month.
At this late date the rules were to be changed. For Otaké the matter was
of grave import. If the Master could not respect the original contract, then
the honorable thing would be to forfeit.
