Today, 22 May 2011, Segoe Kensaku would have been 122. In fact he died (by his own hand) in 1972 at the respectable age of 83.
I have something of a fascination with Segoe. As I have said before, there was a time when he could have claimed to be the best player in the world. Unquestionably he was one of the best three. But he sacrificed his own ambitions to a large degree to help see the Nihon Ki-in through its early days, and above all through the dark days after the Atom Bomb game. The players were staying with him then, only to see Segoe's son return gruesomely and fatally injured by the blast.
Before the war, of course, Segoe had been perhaps the main factor in Go Seigen successfully becoming established in Japan. Segoe was to have three main pupils, a genius from each country: Go from China, Hashimoto Utaro from Japan and Cho Hun-hyeon from Korea.
I have been writing a lot recently about go in the first two thirds of the 20th century, and naturally Segoe's name crops up a lot, but always as a bit player. Even in Japan he never seems to get a retrospective. Which is a shame. So I thought I would put something together for the GoGoD CD, especially as we have just acquired a large batch of new games of his.
Both his birthday and also the parallel with Iyama Yuta (and Hikaru, of course) of being taught by his grandfather made me think of L19, so the following is a portion of what will appear on the CD. It is his own words describing how he became a pro, always a subject of fascination for the western audience, I find. It looks like being grandad's pet (おじいちゃん子 in Japanese) is a good way to follow!
I've also added a game (not one of the new ones, but still courtesy of T Mark's sterling efforts).
I was born on 22 May 1889 in Takada Village (now Nomi Township) on the island of Nomi in Saeki District, Hiroshima Province. I was given the name Kensaku (Creation of the Constitution) because I was born in the year the Constitution was promulgated.
Nomi is an island joined by the isthmus of Hitonose to Eta island, on which there was a naval college. It seems that what were two islands long ago have been joined together through something or other to do with the tidal currents.
My motivation for learning go, at the age of five, was being afflicted by an eye disease. It was well known that the Go Sage Shusaku had come from the nearby island of Innoshima, but in any case go had long been popular in this area, and at the end of the Edo period there had also been a 5-dan of the Meiji era [the same era in which Segoe was born], Ichigaya Kosaku, who had come from Nomi island.
My grandfather, Genbee, had been granted a 1-dan diploma by Honinbo Shugen at the recommendation of this Ishigaya Kosaku. He was an amateur, of course, but he was the strongest player around Hiroshima.
My father, Segoe Sumitaro, had left Hiroshima and was working as a prefectural councillor, on top of which he began an overseas passenger ship company which dealt in emigration to Hawaii and North America, and so I stayed apart from him in the family home on the island, and was brought up by my grandfather. When my grandfather conceived the idea of teaching go to the infant me, he started with how to capture stones. As I rose from nine stones to Black, it was probably boring for him but still he kept playing me with kindness and patience.
When I entered middle school, I was in the same class as Kaya Okinori [a future politician and Minsitry of Finance bureaucrat in the Showa era]. Kaya was very gifted. At first I was able to keep up with him, but as I learnt go I became addicted to it, and because I did nothing but play go my schoolwork ended up pushed aside.
In the fifth year of middle school, there came a turning point for my whole life.
My father’s business did not go well and the family fortunes took a downturn. School fees became unthinkable, with the result that I left school in the fifth year.
Until then I had been doing go as a hobby, and so I had no special intention of becoming a go player, but with my family in that state it was inevitable that thoughts about my future changed.
Around then there was a member of congress for Hiroshima, Mochizuki Keisuke, who was friends with my father, and he persuaded my father and grandfather that I should set up as a professional go player. So, at the age of 20 [by the Oriental count – also signifies he had come of age], in September 1908 I went with Mochizuki to Tokyo.
My grandfather was terribly keen for me to become a professional. My father was not keen, but there were no likelihood of continuing to find funds to keep me at university, and so, in the end, my future prospects were entrusted to Mochizuki.
When I first went up to Tokyo, the go world was split between the Honinbo faction and the Hoensha faction, and in addition there was the Inoue family in the Kansai. Each of them were issuing diplomas.
In the case of the Honinbo faction and the Hoensha, they really did split the go world, just like the political parties of the time, the Seiyukai and the Kenseikai, so that they were in cut-throat competition with each other to expand their influence.
When I entered the go world up in Tokyo, I naturally faced the problem of whether to become part of the Honinbo faction or whether to join the Hoensha.
In the go world of that time, as regards go strength, no-one matched Honinbo Shusai. There were many people who encouraged me to train by becoming part of the Honinbo faction, but my thinking was different. I joined the Hoensha instead, and, perhaps ludicrously, turned to face the the world’s incomparable number one, the Honinbo. My feeling was that if I took him as my target, I would feel as if I had something to live for, and so I made up my mind to join the Hoensha.The game below is from March 1909. We can see that Segoe got a very early chance to meet his "target". This was thanks to Matsuda Masahisa, who was the Justice Minister at the time.
Segoe himself regretted that not all the moves of the game remain, but he added a couple of comments to the effect that having lived after 56, Black stands better, and that after 92 Black has a won game (and he did win). At this stage Segoe was still not graded, but he was soon allowed to start as a 3-dan (just like Go). It is remarkable that, the following year he again played Shusai and still had to take three stones! He had gone up, however. The handicap had changed from -3- to alternating 3-2. That second game was for a newspaper, so he was a pro but still taking three stones. I think there is a message for the west there, but not sure what
[sgf-full](;SZ[19]FF[3]
PW[Honinbo Shusai]
WR[8d]
PB[Segoe Kensaku]
DT[1909-03-07]
PC[Residence of Matsuda Masahisa]
OH[3]
HA[3]
RE[B+ (further moves not known)]
US[GoGoD95]
AB[pd][dp][dd]
;W[qp];B[oq];W[lq];B[qm];W[pn];B[pm];W[on];B[om];W[nn];B[qi];W[fq];B[cj]
;W[cn];B[fp];W[gp];B[fo];W[eq];B[dq];W[dj];B[di];W[dk];B[ck];W[cl];B[ch]
;W[bp];B[do];W[dl];B[bq];W[cp];B[co];W[bo];B[cq];W[bm];B[gn];W[ip];B[jc]
;W[qn];B[mq];W[mp];B[lr];W[mr];B[nq];W[kr];B[lp];W[kq];B[qq];W[rq];B[rp]
;W[ro];B[rr];W[sp];B[pr];W[nr];B[sr];W[pp];B[pq];W[qg];B[nd];W[qk];B[pk]
;W[qj];B[pi];W[pj];B[oj];W[ri];B[rh];W[rj];B[qh];W[oi];B[nj];W[oh];B[rg]
;W[rm];B[qe];W[mi];B[lk];W[lg];B[kj];W[nl];B[mj];W[li];B[ml];W[nm];B[jh]
;W[me];B[jf];W[md];B[mc];W[ke];B[je];W[kd];B[jd]
)[/sgf-full]
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John Fairbairn
