Takagawa Kaku

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Takagawa Kaku
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Name	Takagawa Kaku
Kanji	高川格
Born	September 21, 1915
Died	November 26, 1986
Birthplace	Wakayama, Japan
Teacher	Mitsuharai Taro
Rank	9 dan

Takagawa Kaku (高川格, September 21, 1915 - November 26, 1986), also know as Takagawa Shukaku (高川秀格), was one of the most successful professional Go players of the twentieth century.

Biography

Takagawa Kaku won the Honinbo title nine times in a row, from 1952 to 1960, and was subsequently awarded the permanent title of Honorary Honinbo. He then chose Shukaku as his Honinbo name. He is one of the few Hononrary Honinbo's. He was known to having a healthy rivalry with Sakata Eio. This could be seen as Sakata would constantly beat Takagawa from 1959 to 1966 in the finals of major tournaments.

Takagawa's books, translated from their original Japanese, were instrumental in educating Westerners in the ways of Go. He also wrote a series of articles from 1961 through 1977 for the Japan Go Association which was the primary English source of information about Go during that period. These articles were later compiled into Improve Your Intuition, still considered a valuable guide for Go players.

Style

Sakata Eio was known to talk about Takagawa's style of play. He included him in his book Killer Of Go, saying he'd drag out his games so they'd be longer and then his opponent would lose their edge. He was so very cool and collected during games, that he would never tense up before a match. This could be seen when he strolled to many Honinbo title wins.

Titles & Runner-Ups

Title	Years Held
Old Meijin	1968
Honinbo	1952 – 1960
Judan	1965
Oza	1954
NHK Cup	1966
Nihon-Kiin Championship	1954, 1962, 1963

Title Years Held
Old Meijin 1969
Honinbo 1961, 1963, 1964
Judan 1966
Oza 1961
NHK Cup 1954, 1959
Nihon-Kiin Championship 1955, 1959, 1960
Asashi Pro Best Ten 1964 - 1967

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