The next induction to the Nihon Ki-in Hall of Fame is due in later November, but seven candidates have been announced, and one of them is a European: Felix Dueball. The others include Nakamura Doseki, Takagawa Kaku and Karigane Junichi, who have all been nominated before, but another notable addition apart from Dueball is Kawabata Yasunari.
Michael Redmond is a new addition to the nominations committee, and so perhaps we may expect further consideration of western figures in future.
Dr Dueball (1880-1970) was a mathematician and physicist in Germany. He is considered as probably the most significant pioneer of go in Europea, also boosting the profile of European go in Japan thanks to his visits to Japan.
He first visited Japan in May 1930 to study go there for just over a year. He is thus regarded as the first westerner to be a foreign go student in Japan. Shortly after his arrival, he played a teaching game with Honinbo Shusai on 8 stones. By January 1931 he was able to play Suzuki Tamejiro on 5 stones. When he left, he was given a 1-dan diploma and had a farewell reception hosted by the Mayor of Tokyo and attended by the likes of Baron Okura and Go Seigen. His second visit to Japan was to be a guest of honour at the first International Tournament in 1963. He also played the future prime minister Hatoyama Ichiro in the first international telegraph game in 1936. He was a recipient of one of the first Okura Prizes in 1964. In short, a worthy candidate.
His son Fritz won the European championship in its first three terms (1957-59). There is a good go book about the father in German, by Günter Ciessow, and also a wealth of articles in old Japanese magazines.
|