All Things Go

This game was played in 1821, and at the time Honinbo Jowa was a 6 dan pro, and Inoue Gennan Inseki was 5 dan. They had both already become heirs to their Iemoto schools.

Jowa had had difficulty in defeating the younger Inseki, and that had been an obstacle to his becoming the Honinbo heir, and later became an issue when Jowa wanted to be Meijin. Nonetheless, Jowa managed to win the most important games, including this castle game, and that was part of the reason he succeeded to become Meijin.

Gennan Inseki also hoped to be Meijin, and he was an outstanding player. However, the fact that he lost important games to Jowa, Shuwa, and finally Shusaku made him lose any chance to get that honor. While I would argue that these two were already the strongest players in their time, they would have to promote to 8-dan before their bid to Meijin would become realistic.

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