Minoru Kitani
Kitani Minoru (Japanese木谷 実, born January 25, 1909 in Kobe, † December 19, 1975 ) was one of the most famous professional Gospieler and teachers of Go in the 20th century in Japan.
Biography
His go- teacher was Suzuki Tamejiro.
Kitani was nicknamed " the miracle " after he had won a knock-out tournament. He defeated eight opponents of the 1928 Kiseisha in a row and played a familiar game against Honinbo Shusai. The Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata processed this game in his novel "The Master of Go". Kitani 1954 suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage, but soon recovered. In 1964, he fell ill again and went into retirement. In 1967 he won the Okura Prize.
Segoe Kensaku, a friend and rival of Kitani, called him the "Great Kitani " because of its extraordinary successes go.
Friendship with Go Seigen
He was a child prodigy, the Ki- in attracted much attention after the founding of Nihon. He became a great rival and friend of Go Seigen from China.
Go and Kitani 1933-1936 were pioneers of Shinfuseki, which is also called " New Opening".
Go Seigen and Kitani played from 1939 to Kamakura jubango, the most famous Jubango of the century. It ended with a clear victory Gos. Kitanis career never recovered from it again; he also has health problems with the heart. Later he had an idiosyncratic way of playing in which he attached great importance to safe area.
Kitanis Go- school
Kitani the most prolific teachers of Go- Go zukünftigten professionals ever was. The Kitani dojo began in 1945 in his house in the country to flourish and was administered in practical questions of his wife. It produced an entire generation of top players, which led from the early 1970s until the 1990s the Japanese Go. His daughter Kitani Reiko (1939-1996) was 6th Dan repeatedly won, the Japanese women's championship and marries one of the best students Kitanis, Koichi Kobayashi. Their daughter Izumi Kobayashi is now the strongest female player in Japan. As Kitani died, he had taught about 60 students and 40 of them used to professionals.