Who Was Honinbo Shusaku? The 'Invincible' Go Player Behind the Ear-Reddening Move

Hon'inbō Shūsaku (1829–1862) was a Japanese professional Go player who is remembered as one of the greatest players in the game's history; he won all 19 of his games in the prestigious annual "castle games", earning the nickname "Invincible Shusaku", and was later honoured with the title Kisei, "Go Sage". He died at just 33 of cholera, which he caught while caring for sick members of his Go house. Many people today first meet him through the manga Hikaru no Go, but the real Shusaku is a fascinating figure in his own right.

What is Go?

Go, known as weiqi in Chinese and baduk in Korean, is an ancient board game in which two players place black and white stones on a grid, usually of 19 by 19 lines, trying to surround more territory than their opponent. The rules are simple, but the game is extraordinarily deep. In Edo-period Japan, the best players belonged to official Go houses supported by the shogunate, and the strongest of these was the Hon'inbō house.

A prodigy from Innoshima

Shusaku was born in 1829 on Innoshima, an island in what was then Bingo Province. He showed remarkable talent as a child and was sent to Edo, today's Tokyo, to train in the Hon'inbō house, the leading school of Go. His teacher was Hon'inbō Shūwa, himself one of the strongest players of the age.

The ear-reddening game

In 1846, when Shusaku was 17, he played a now-legendary game against Gennan Inseki, one of the top players of the time. Most spectators believed Gennan was winning. But a doctor who was watching noticed that after one particular move by Shusaku, Gennan's ears turned red, a sign that he had been shaken. Shusaku went on to win by two points.

That move became known as the "ear-reddening move", and the game is still studied by Go players around the world. The story is a reminder that the best moves are sometimes recognised first by an opponent's reaction.

Invincible in the castle games

Each year the best players were invited to play before the shogun's court in the oshirogo, the castle games, the most important events of the Go calendar. Shusaku played 19 castle games and won every one of them, which earned him the nickname "Invincible Shusaku". Together with his teacher Shūwa, he is regarded as the strongest player of his era.

He also played a famous 30-game match against Ōta Yūzo, beginning in 1853.

The Shusaku opening

Shusaku brought to perfection an opening system for Black, now called the Shusaku fuseki. He did not invent it, but his mastery made it the foundation of popular opening play until the 1930s. It was famously solid, aiming for steady advantage rather than flashy tricks.

Death during the cholera epidemic

In 1862 a cholera epidemic swept through Edo. When people in the Hon'inbō house fell ill, Shusaku cared for them himself. He caught the disease and died on 3 September 1862, aged 33. His early death, in an act of care for others, added to his legend.

A legacy in numbers and manga

Shusaku's influence goes beyond the board. The "Shusaku number", modelled on the Erdős number in mathematics, measures how closely a Go player is connected to him through chains of games. And in the popular manga and anime Hikaru no Go, the ghost of the fictional player Fujiwara-no-Sai is said to have played through Shusaku, which introduced him to a new generation of fans around the world.

Learn with Shusaku: English phrases from games and strategy

Phrase	Meaning	Example
a game changer	something that changes a situation completely	That new method was a game changer.
to make a move	to take action	It's time to make a move on your plans.
to read someone	to understand what someone is thinking	She can read her opponents well.
to play it safe	to avoid risks	He played it safe in the final.
a winning streak	a series of victories	Shusaku had an unbroken winning streak.

Try this: Shusaku's opponent revealed his feelings through his ears. Write three English sentences about how you "read" people when you can't understand all their words, using "read someone" and "make a move".