Hon'inbō Dōetsu was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 professional

Go professional

A Go professional is a professional player of the game of Go. The minimum standard to acquire a professional diploma through one of the major go organisations is very high. The competition is tremendous, and prize incentives for champion players are very large...

 go

Go (board game)

Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...

 player

Go players

This page gives an overview of well-known players of the game of Go throughout the ages. The page has been divided into sections based on the era in which the Go players played and the country in which they played. As this was not necessarily their country of birth, a flag of that country precedes...

, who became the third head of the Honinbo house. His surname was Niwa, and he used a Buddhist name Nissho.

Biography

He was born in Matsuzaka

Matsusaka, Mie

, sometimes called Matsuzaka, is a city located in central Mie Prefecture, on the island of Honshū, Japan. The city is famous for its beef.-Founding:...

, currently in Mie Prefecture

Mie Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kansai regions on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, Mie prefecture was known as Ise Province and Iga Province....

. He was adopted as Honinbo heir in 1658. He was promoted to 7 dan in 1666. His final ranking was as 8 dan.

He challenged Yasui Sanchi

Yasui Sanchi

Yasui Sanchi was a Japanese professional go player, and second head of the Yasui house.He became Meijin-godokoro in 1668. It has always been said that this promotion was achieved by a backstairs route, with influence exerted by the head of the Matsudaira clan...

 to a long match. In the end 20 games were played, out of a theoretical 60, over seven years starting in 1668. Under the beating-down rules (see jubango

Jubango

Jubango is a Japanese term for a Go match consisting of ten games which might be ended earlier if agreed by the players. A decisive victory would result in the opponent being beaten down to a lower rank. A player would be beaten down if he fell behind his opponent by four wins in the net score...

) he forced Yasui down from sen

Sen

Sen may refer to:-Currency:* Sen, a unit of currency that is the original subdivision of:** Cambodian riel** Malaysian ringgit** Japanese yen-People:* Sen , a Bengali name** Ballal Sen ** Lakshman Sen...

 (Black in each game, for a theoretical difference of two levels) to sen-ai-sen (Black-White-Black).

He was also active in oshirogo

Oshirogo

A castle game , in relation to high-level go played in Japan during the Edo period, was an official match played by representatives of the four go houses in the castle of the shogun...

 from 1660, for 15 years. In 1677 he stepped down as Honinbo head, handing over to Dosaku. He did however still meet an official requirement to play oshirogo; he was given a personal allowance of 20 koku

Koku

The is a Japanese unit of volume, equal to ten cubic shaku. In this definition, 3.5937 koku equal one cubic metre, i.e. 1 koku is approximately 278.3 litres. The koku was originally defined as a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year...

 of rice. He is given the credit for establishing standard dimensions for go equipment

Go equipment

Go equipment refers to the objects which are necessary in order to play the game of Go. Although the equipment is simple, there is a varying degree of quality and material used in making the equipment, from the economical to the extremely valuable....

.