The Master's Retirement Game
Kitani Minoru (Black) vs Honinbo Shusai (White)
Honinbo Shusai's retirement game, played in Tokyo, Hakone and Ito · June to December 1938
Honinbo Shusai, the last hereditary Honinbo and the Meijin, played this as his farewell game against the younger Kitani Minoru. It took fifteen playing days spread over six months, at three places, with each player allowed forty hours. The novelist Yasunari Kawabata reported on it for the Mainichi newspapers and later turned it into The Master of Go. In the novel, as in life, Black wins by five points after 237 moves.
Moments to look for
List the stones on the board
Keyboard: with the stepper focused, the left and right arrow keys move one step.
Result: Kitani Minoru (Black) won by 5 points. There was no komi in this game.
Where the records differ:
- Some copies date the game by its first day or its last; the archive lists all fifteen playing days.
Sources checked (each has the same 237 moves):
- Andries Brouwer's professional game archive (CWI), Shusai/Shusai-706.sgf
- tasuki's famous-games wiki (1938.sgf)
- fanaro.io lesson record (1938_shusai_kitani.sgf)
Every move is replayed on our own Go engine, so the board is always a legal position. The introduction and notes are our own words.