Background
Jowa was born in Nagano, Japan in 1787.
本因坊丈和
Jowa was born in Nagano, Japan in 1787.
lieutenant was said that Jowa had great strength without equal. Historically he was accorded the title "latter sage" to match Dosaku who was known as the "former sage". However, even without playing a sogo, Jowa"s strength was still apparent.
Later on in his life, Jowa also played one of the most famous games in Go history known as the "Blood-vomiting game".
Although Genan, an 8-dan, would probably take black the majority of the time against Jowa in a challenge match, he thought it would be more effective to have Akaboshi, a 7-dan, play against Jowa. If Jowa lost, he intended to argue that Jowa could certainly not be qualified to be Meijin if he couldn"t defeat a 7-daughter
The match started with Jowa making an unreasonably aggressive move in the fuseki, and Akaboshi countering with a variation of the taisha joseki that was developed secretly in the Inoue house. However, as the four-day-long game progressed, Jowa slowly clawed his way into the lead by playing three famous moves known as the "Ghost Moves".
The three moves were supposedly brought to Jowa by ghosts, allowing him to grind Intetsu"s lead away.
Within a few weeks, he was dead. Genan"s tactics for discrediting Jowa"s worthiness of being appointed Meijin backfired spectacularly, as this game was the supreme triumph of Jowa"s career.