Go with the Flow

by Cho Hunhyun

One of the best things that happened to me was that I met a mentor, Kensaku Segoe, who encouraged me to be in close contact with my ‘self.’ Although not well known in Korea, Kensaku Segoe is a hero in Japan, revered as a founding father of the modern Japanese Go. All his life, he took in only three students; Go Seigen, a Chinese-born praised for changing the course of international Go; Utaro Hashimoto, who founded one of the two major Go associations in Japan, Kansai Ki-in that is headquartered in Osaka, and me.

  Go Seigen is held in great respect as a ‘Go Saint,’ which is the title given to the winner of Kisei Title Match in Japan, but also an honorific expression used to address a player who has unmatched game skills. Go Seigen was praised for defeating all of his close rivals in a series of Jubango, or a high-profile ‘death match.’ In a Jubango, whoever loses by four rounds is to bear the humiliation of getting an advantage in the next game while a handicap is given to the winner to make up for the difference in the level of the skills. None of Go Seigen’s rivals walked out of the Jubango without being mortified. Utaro Hashimoto was admired for sweeping the titles of well-established matches in Japan for over 3 decades, from the 1940s to 1970s. He won the titles of the Honinbo Title Match, the Oza Title Match, the Judan Title Match, and the Kisei Title Match as many as 9 times. ‘Honinbo’ is the leading Go house in Japan, and ‘Judan (10P)’ is an honorific title given to the winner, as the highest rank in professional Go game goes up to 9P only. Therefore, winning these two titles, in particular, was a reflection of Utaro Hashimoto’s undisputed reputation. As for me, I became the winner of the first Ing Cup. All three of us who studied under Kensaku Segoe, did very well for ourselves in international matches, and we are very grateful to our mentor for everything he did, or did not do for us.

  I was the last student Master Segoe took in to learn Go while living in his residence. My mentor was in his 80s and I was only eleven when I went to live with him. Master Segoe, Mama zzang, his daughter-in-law, myself, and Benkei, the dog, the four of us lived in a cozy Japanese style timber house. Master Segoe was sparing in his teaching. He hardly made himself available for lessons so much so that I could actually count the number of times we sat face-to-face for a game during the 9 years I lived with him. He was also very reserved, talking to me only to ask me to review the game I had played before.

  I was apprehensive, confused and disappointed. Has he completely forgotten about me? Is he going senile? But, I was completely wrong about him.

  One day, during dinner, Master Segoe gave me a hard stare and broke the silence. “Do you expect me to give you the answers? There are no such things as answer keys in Go. How can I give you what even I don’t have? You should find the answers by yourself. That’s how it is with Go.” He added, “Go is all about making a ceaseless effort to find the answers even if there is no right or wrong answer.”

  Master Segoe never once said a single word about how I played. He had full knowledge of my practice partners and opponents, yet he never intervened. I enjoyed complete autonomy over how and what to work on under Master Segoe.

  Giving the answer to a student who is lost is easy. But that student will never learn because the answer was given, not earned through hard work. Master Kensaku Segoe knew exactly how to teach, or not teach, Go. He gave a broad direction and the rest of laissez-faire. Thanks to his educational philosophy, in my teens, I used to stay up all night just to figure out a single move that would solve the entire puzzle. It was not easy, but it was one of the best times of my life.

  Anybody who has memorized the formulas can solve the questions. But they will realize that they are not prepared when they are given questions that are not straight forward. On the other hand, those who have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the answer on their own without the help of the answer keys, will be prepared to take on mind-stretching problems.

  I never had formal training in Go. Such shortcoming allowed me to follow my heart and trust my way. All in all, it culminated into my own style, earning me a series of interesting nicknames, such as ‘swallow Cho,’ ‘magician Cho,’ and ‘Cho, the flame thrower.’

  The ability to think is a tool that leads one to the answers. It is what makes an individual’s ‘core self’ strong. I believe that a truly happy individual is someone who has a strong ‘core self.’ Money, reputation, or success cannot make an individual truly happy. Those with a strong ‘core self’ are not swayed by people or events around them. They are not intimidated by how other people see them, or unreasonable social standards, but have the confidence to be themselves and go their way.

  So set aside the time and space for the freedom to think.

  Curious Rui and the Kobayashi Pattern

  “How do you come up with a new move?”

  Ask any Go player and they will give the same reply; it’s a discovery at the end of a tenacious wrestle with a problem. It is never planned or intended, but hours of grappling with the problem culminates in an Eureka moment. Having been trained for years, professional Go players know that the only way to come up with the next powerful move before the 10-second overtime count is over is to keep thinking until they get that flash of insight.

  That is why I believe creativity is the result of resolute determination and persistent effort to search for solutions. The main ingredient for creativity is an enquiring mind, not intelligence.

  A creative mind is not an exclusive property of a few geniuses in the world of arts and music or famous innovators in the tech community, such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Everything and anything we do in our daily life can use some creativity. Sometimes one can be surrounded by ingenuity and not realize it.

  My wife, Mihwa, is an amazing cook. Mihwa picks healthy ingredients that are cooked in ways that can be easily digested, but she also remembers to cook with the perfect seasoning-her own- to please the taste buds. Guests who have joined us for Mihwa’s home-cooked meals have always been amazed at her healthy dishes that came with a pleasant delicious twist of their own. They have always asked her for the recipe. Being a modest woman, Mihwa has always accepted their request to be a formal courteous way of appreciating her effort until a publisher asked her if she was interested in writing a cook book.

  I believe that ingenuity in a broad sense is an ‘idea that other people cannot imagine.’ Ideas do not just spring up. They are earned by the inquisitive mind who goes through the arduous process of asking why and how. One who desires to understand and learn asks a series of questions; why did it happen? What went wrong? What can be done differently to make it better? Did we do our best? The mind has to be curious and willing to go through trials-and-error until the expected outcome is achieved to its satisfaction. Mihwa wanted to cook her family nutritious but tasty meals so she experimented with her recipes until she found the gold standard that worked for her. What was a journey of discovery for her was deemed as natural creativity by others.

  Creativity stems from the unwillingness to wait for answers. Impatience and excitement combine to force oneself to think out of the box and seek for the answers.

  Professional Go masters are a group of people who cannot stand if a problem remains unsolved, especially, if it is about Go. When we come across an amusingly unfamiliar move that we cannot explain, we obsess over it while walking on the road, doing other businesses, and even in bed. We also run to our colleagues for a piece of advice because two brains at work is better than one after all.

  Rui Naiwei was a Chinese-born professional Go player who played in Korea. In 1988, she became the first woman professional player in the world to be promoted to 9P. Rui’s Go career was quite eventful contrary to her placid personality. In 1989, she was forced to leave China because of a disagreement with the Chinese Weiqi Association. Rui drifted back and forth between Japan and the U.S. for a decade unable to play any Go. It was only in 1999 that with the generous help of the Korea Baduk Association that Rui started to play Go again in Korea, where she dominated women’s tournaments; Rui went from strength-to-strength, winning all-wom
en’s championships 26 times. The highlight of her 13-year achievement in Korea was winning the Guksu Title match, the oldest tournament in Korea which was always won by men. The year she became the champion of that match, Rui beat me. She became the first woman and a non-Korean ‘Guksu,’ meaning the National Hand, an honorific and affectionate title Korean give to the master of Go. She was a Go sensation.

  One day, I ran into Rui in the Korea Baduk Association. She was excited and she showed me a picture. “What would be the next move when we change the order of the stones placed in this pattern here?”

  That was ‘Kobayashi pattern’, a deviation from the standard pattern, named after Koichi Kobayashi who was fond of it during the 1980s when he was playing on top of everyone in Japan. The Kobayashi pattern was one of the time-tested widely accepted pattern. Nobody questions Kobayashi, except for Rui who seemed to be not quite satisfied with the pattern. She was suspecting that the pattern could become vulnerable from moving a single stone. I could not give an answer right away. A few days later, I brought it up when I met my Go friends. My student, Lee Changho, was also there. “Rui 9P thinks the Kobayashi pattern is vulnerable. What do you think? “I asked.

  We were all very curious and excited to talk about the question Rui has raised, even if we didn’t have a board or a piece of paper in front of us. At first, we thought we found a weak link in the Kobayashi pattern as Rui suspected. However, after an in-depth discussion, we concluded that what looked like a weak link did not have any impact on the entire flow of game. But, during our discussion, Changho discovered a new move that no one else did.

  If Rui hadn’t questioned the pattern, we would not have gone through the trouble of testing her suspicion, in turn, Changho would not have found a move which was new to all of us.

  A professional Go player never assumes anything. There is a reason for every move made by the opponent. ‘Why is the stone placed there?’ ‘What is the intention of the move?’ We ask fiercely and force ourselves to think in a brutally short period of time before we decide on the next move.

  Likewise, every move in real life must count like the stones in Go. One simply cannot excuse oneself from making choices based on hunches, social pressure, coercion, or time constraint.

  Every question that pops into our mind must be dealt with seriously even if it cannot be answered right away. Why are things the way they are? How can issues and situations be fixed? What could be the most reasonable and efficient way to deal with them? These questions must be posed and answered.

  Such system of inquiry, I believe, is applicable to every aspect of our life, whether it be for school, work, relationships, or self-management. Memorized information is volatile and short-term whereas the knowledge acquired through inquiry is stable and long-term. It becomes a strong foundation that improves performance and develop a well-rounded personality. The answers to the inquiry may not always be what is looked for. However, there is little to regret and more courage to take responsibility of the choices one makes based on those self-earned answers.

  When the question, ‘why?’ springs in the mind, is an opportunity to move forward. It is an opportunity not to be missed. One must think hard to answer the question. There is a reason for everything and there is always a better way to do things.

  Thinking is not always exciting, more likely to give headaches. It can cause more confusion rather than giving straight answers. But the feeling of joy that is waiting at the other end of the tunnel is of something not to be traded with anything. The joy of enlightenment is overwhelming. When such inquiry-based approach in life becomes a habit, and not to mention, the more it is repeated the better we become at it and the faster we can get to the answers. Above all, it becomes a fortress that guards one against any troubles in life and gives the space to strategize and launch a counter-attack with confidence.

  Chapter 2

  Good Ideas Come from a Nice Man

  Every move and choice reveals one’s values and how one sees the world.

  The 600 Yen Lesson

  I was within an inch of bidding an eternal farewell to Go when I was 15, while studying under Master Segoe. I was then a member of the Fujisawa study group, privately-run by Shuko Fujisawa who was famous for his eccentric and controversial behavior. I went down to Fujisawa almost every day to hang out and play a game or two with some of the best Go players in Japan of the time, including Hideo Otake, the professional Go player who ruled the Japanese Go community in the 1970s, and Rin Kaiho, the Taiwanese-born professional player who was also a top player in Japan from the late 1960s to the 1990s.

  Master Fujisawa was the super star of all professional players in Japan. Master Segoe was looked upon like a grandfather figure because of his stern and intimidating style, while Master Fujisawa was admired like a friendly father figure. Whenever Master Fujisawa saw me, he would roll up his sleeves and play the buffoon before the young boy.

  “Bring it on, Kunken!” He would challenge me, calling my name with Japanese accent.

  We always played quick games. Master Fujisawa believed that Go should be played with intuition, or flashes of wit rather than calculated strategies. I was a player of that disposition. When we played against each other, the sound of the stones echoed like the clopping of shod hooves on the pavement, brisk but louder with each move.

  In retrospect, I believe I found comfort at Fujisawa. I was lonely at Master Segoe’s place where there was hardly anyone to speak to. At Fujisawa, not only did I play Go as much as I wanted in the company of other players, but I also found friendship even though I was the youngest. Most of the players who came to Fujisawa were grown-ups and they were generous to me. I felt welcomed and taken care of. Yoshiteru Abe, who was 6P, always asked me, a mere 2P, to play games with him. I always crushed him but he never stopped asking me to play.

  One afternoon, Abe came up to me and asked to play, as always. “Kunken, let’s play for some money today!”

  No way. There were two things Master Segoe strictly forbade me from doing- gambling and playing Go for money. “I’m sorry but I can’t. Master Segoe told me never to play games for money.” But Abe would not give up. He insisted that I accept his offer. “It’s o.k. when we are playing at Fujisawa. Come on, it’s just you and me.” “I’m really sorry but I have to reject your offer. Master Segoe said never.” I felt sweat run down my neck as I was trying to politely turn down his request. Master Fujisawa, who was watching our scuffle nearby, threw in a helping word, “Kunken, you don’t have to think of it as a gamble because you are betting just for fun. Betting 100 yen per round is o.k.”

  I could not get myself out of it. So I sat down to play with Abe. All of the members at Fujisawa crowded around us and began to cheer. “Kunken, don’t be too hard on him.” “Abe, knock Kunken down to size!” By the time the sound of the cheer became deafening, I had forgotten about Master Segoe’s words and I became obsessed with only one thing- I wanted to win.

  Abe and I ended up playing three rounds. I won all three. I should have stopped right there but Abe, feeling sore and hot under the collar, insisted that we continue. So we did. The fourth round was quickly followed by the fifth and the sixth. Abe admitted his defeat after I won all six rounds in a row.

  That day, I won 600 yen. I refused to receive the money, but Abe insisted on paying me to keep his word. He put the money into my hand. Days went by and I had completely forgotten about the incident until one day, Master Segoe called me. “Kunken, come over here.”

  Master Segoe had a stern look on his face. “Did you play Go for money with Yoshiteru Abe?” I knew that I had to admit it. When I said yes, his face turned scary. I had never seen such a frightening expression on his face before.

  “Get out of my house right now! You don’t deserve to learn Go. I sever the relationship I have had with you today. Go back to Korea!”

  Master Segoe was a man of his word. Once he made a decision that was the end. He never accepted any excuses nor apologies. I packed some clothes and left his
house. Mama zzang, his daughter-in-law, paced the floor anxiously, feeling sorry for me. She followed me to the front gate but was called back in by the furious roar of Master Segoe.

  I thought I was having a blackout. A lot of people back in Korea had high expectations for me which was why I had come all the way to Japan to study Go. I could not believe I was being thrown out for something that I did not even initiate. What terrified me most was the culture of the Go community in Japan. Any player who has been expelled from one Go house does not get a second chance with any other Go houses. Once you are out, you are out. A scandal like this could destroy me forever. Even if I went back to Korea and kept playing Go, the dishonor will follow me to the grave.

  I walked around aimlessly for a while. I had nowhere to go and no plans. I wandered through the streets of Tokyo until darkness began to fall. It was only then that I realized I had to bring my senses together and find a place to stay. The only place I could think of was a Korean restaurant run by a Korean expatriate where I was a regular. The owner took me in in exchange for helping with dish-washing and cleaning.

  The following day, I began my work early in the morning and finished late at night. I washed and pruned the vegetables, washed the dishes, cleaned the floor and the kitchen. The first week went by and the second week had passed. I did not know whether it was time for me to leave Japan nor how to explain it to my parents. There was nothing I could do except to make a call to Mama zzang every night to ask if Master Segoe was still angry and if there was any chance for him to accept me again. I choked up every time I called her, in distress and regret.

  About ten days later, Mama zzang had news for me. She said I could return because Master Segoe had worked off his fury. It sounded too good to be true. Is this really happening? Has a stubborn man like him really forgiven me and is willing to take me back? I ran to his house right away with half hope and half doubt. When I pressed the door bell, the gate opened. Master Segoe took one look at me and did not say anything. We had dinner together without speaking a word and each went back to our own rooms, as we usually did. He drank a cup of sake and I opened a Go book. Everything was the same as usual, as if nothing had ever happened.