All Things Go

Nakamura Dōseki (中村道碩, 1582-1630) was a disciple of Honinbo Sansa and succeeded Sansa to become the second Meijin. When Sansa died, Doseki became the guardian of Honinbo Sanetsu, Sansa’s adopted 13-year-old successor and reestablished the Honinbo school when Sanetsu reached he adult age of 20. Doseki also petitioned for his disciple Inoue Genkaku Inseki to receive a stipend, thereby founding the Inoue house. Although he was never an active leader of the Inoue school himself, the Inoue school later included him in their lineage to call him the first leader of the Inoue school. Nakamura Doseki was the leader of the Go community as the four schools became formalized, and the scene was set for a scheduled Castle Game system.

Inoue Genkaku Inseki (1605 – March 2, 1673) was also referred to as 'Ko Inseki' (Old Inseki). He was a disciple of the second Meijin, Nakamura Dōseki. In 1630, when Dōseki was on his deathbed, he petitioned for Genkaku to inherit his stipend, which was granted. Thereafter, the stipends of Go players were officially recognized as hereditary stipends by the Tokugawa shogunate, formalizing the Iemoto school system with four Go schools, Honinbo, Yasui, Inoue, and Hayashi. After Nakamura Doseki's death, the government made a "Go-dokoro inquiry", asking who was worthy of being the next leader of the Go community. The names of Inoue Genkaku Inseki and Honinbo Sanetsu were brought up, but they both declined, leaving the post of Meijin vacant at this time. Contrastingly, the leader of the Yasui school, Yasui Santetsu showed interest in being appointed Meijin but was not accepted.

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