The Sage from Forrest
A Storm on the Horizon
During the Bunka and Bunsei eras, Japanese Go flourished again. Talent rose from every house. For a brief time, it felt like the golden age had returned.
But storm clouds gathered over the Honinbo school.
After the quiet, calculating genius of Genjou (元丈), the house’s next torchbearer was… ordinary. For nearly twenty years, Honinbo Jouwa (丈和) remained stuck at 1-dan. Mediocre. Unremarkable. Even Genjou, his own teacher, had nearly written him off.
But then came the test.
A Smiling Trap
At age twenty, Jouwa requested a promotion. Genjou responded with a gentle smile and a sharp hook:
“If you can defeat Nagasaka Inosuke (長坂猪之助), I’ll give you a 3-dan certificate.”
Nagasaka was a Yasui player with a solid 2-dan record. Jouwa agreed without hesitation, believing it a chance to finally prove himself.
He left for the snowy region of Dewa the next morning.
Defeat in the Mountains
What happened next is still debated.
One version of the story says Jouwa won handily and returned transformed. But the more persistent version—passed in hushed tones among Go players—tells a different tale.
Jouwa, they say, lost. Badly. Three games in a row. Beaten and humiliated, he fled into the night without a word. He wandered alone through mountain trails, unsure of where he was going—only that he couldn’t return like this.
The sun vanished. Trees closed in. No inns. No people. Only the sound of the wind.
Just as he feared, he would spend the night freezing on the trail, a flicker of light appeared between the trees. A cottage.
The Man in the Forest
An old man greeted him. White hair, bright eyes. Not a farmer, despite the setting. The home was clean, elegant, filled with scrolls, calligraphy, and carved lacquer pieces. A scholar’s retreat hidden in the woods.
“Come in,” the old man said. “You must be hungry.”
A bowl of steaming white rice. Pickled vegetables. Perfectly cooked miso eggplant. Already waiting on a tray. Jouwa sat, bewildered, but ate in silence.
As the meal ended, the old man smiled.
“A good night for a game, don’t you think?”
The Four-Stone Dream
Jouwa followed him to the board. He lifted the lid of his bowl, there were white stones. Odd. He glanced at his host’s bowl—also white stones.
Before he could speak, the man gestured at the board. “Place four stones. We’ll begin.”
Jouwa nearly choked. Four stones? Even Genjou only gave him two.
But he bit down on his anger. He had eaten the man’s food. Better to humor him.
He placed four stones.
Ten moves in, his hands began to shake.
The old man’s moves were ethereal, refined, and unpredictable. Every corner he touched became his. Every shape Jouwa built crumbled. And because they both used white stones, Jouwa kept losing track of whose territory was whose. The board swirled into confusion.
At a hundred moves, the old man yawned.
“Shall we end it here?”
Jouwa, trying to save face, nodded. “Yes, we can resume tomorrow.”
The old man’s tone turned cold.
“Resume? You’re dead. Every group. And you still don’t see it? Fool.”
He grabbed a handful of stones and threw them at Jouwa’s face.
Moonlight Awakening
Jouwa gasped and sat upright.
The trees swayed in the moonlight. No cottage. No old man. Just forest and silence.
He opened his Go set under the moonlight and replayed the game from memory. Each move is still there. And yes, every group was dead. The dream had been a lesson.
He didn’t return home.
He went straight back to Nagasaka.
This time, it wasn’t even close.
A Legend is Born
Jouwa returned to Edo transformed. He swept through his peers. Within months, no one could hold him down. Not even Genjou.
Whispers spread that he had met a mountain sage. That he had been tested by a ghost. That he had studied under a divine spirit.
No one knows what really happened that night. But one thing is certain:
Jouwa was never the same.
He would go on to become one of the most fearsome figures in the history of Go. Sharp. Ruthless. Brilliant. A force that would tear through the old rules and rebuild them in his image.
And it all began in the woods, on a night when everything seemed lost.
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Copyright Notice
This English adaptation is based on Japanese Go Stories (《日本围棋故事》, 2016) by Xue Zhicheng (薛至诚).
For non-commercial use only: Shared for educational purposes under fair use.
Rights retained: All copyrights belong to the original author and cited sources.
Modifications: Minor narrative adjustments were made for readability; all historical content remains accurate.
No affiliation or endorsement: This work is independent and unaffiliated with the original author or publishers.
Contact: For verification or takedown requests, please email help@zeejyan.com.
References
Adapted from:
Xue Zhicheng (薛至诚), Japanese Go Stories (《日本围棋故事》), 2016.
Cited in original work:
Watanabe Hideo (渡辺英夫), Shin Zaigin Dansō (《新坐隱談叢》)
Watanabe Yoshimichi (渡部義通), Kodai Igo no Sekai (《古代囲碁の世界》)
Lin Yu (林裕), Weiqi Encyclopedia (《围棋百科辞典》)
