Did Asian monks play Go in the past?..

[Anzu]

I remember watching a Chinese or Korean movie maybe ten years ago or more, so my memory is very hazy, but I think I recall a scene with a temple/monastery and a couple of monks playing Go while it was raining outside.

Were Asian monks really allowed to play Go, or is my memory not my strong suit, after all?

[Calvin Clark]

An interesting sequence by a famous monk is Kaizen's Heavy Plastering.

[John Fairbairn]

Not only did monks play extensively in Japan, China and Korea, Honinbo Sansa was the numero uno Buddhist in Japan (the Hoin, having also previously been the Gon no Daisozu), as well as #1 in go and #1 in shogi. His successors were technically monks too and so had to shave their heads. Even as late as Honinbo Shusai his official Honinbo cloak was a Buddhist cassock. It is on display in the Nihon Ki-in Hall of Fame.

Long before Sansa, the priest Kanren features in several famous Japanese stories. The best known is were he won a gold pillow-block ina game with an ex-Emperor At the other extreme in time, there may well be some Americans here who remember Suzuki Sen. He was a local professional in Japan but was also an ordained Buddhist priest. He preached go in Seattle, among other outlandish things.

Suzuki Sen was perhaps from the same mould as the Buddhist priest Kumagai Genrei who was a self-confessed genius and self-appointed 5-dan. He played postal games with Hoensha players who found his grading apparently merited, but he always resisted their further investigations. Was he cheating?

In China, the famous Wang the Firewood Collector learnt go by visiting Buddhist temples in the mountains where he foraged, but the strongest monk was probably Shi Yexue in the Ming dynasty, but the monk Qiuhang was also notable as the teacher of Zhou Xiaosong (the Chinese Shuwa), and Guanru is famous for featuring in the Windlass Ko game.

It is also due to a Chinese poet that we know go was very popular among monks in Silla (an ancient Korean kingdom), and the very many stone boards that are found in the Korean countryside are assumed to have a monkish connection.

And the go writer Hasegawa Ko used to use the pen name Ashura in reference to a Buddhist god who started off good but then went berserk ...

Let us also not forget the famous Chinese print of which Leibniz commissioned an engraving. Here (supposedly - there are other interpretations) three priests, representing Buddhism, Daoism and Conficianism, are poring over a 19x17 go board. This is one of the earliest references to go in Europe.

[DrStraw]

John. thank you for your most interesting contributions. Most of what you just posted I had not heard before. You continue to amaze my with you instant recollections of times past. I really do appreciate what you offer to this often instant-gratitude forum. Please keep it up, even though I know you sometime get frustrated with what is posted here.

[Shenoute]

I second DrStraw's post.

I seem to recall a story of two monks being scolded for playing go. Their answer was something like "When white wins we observe the impermanence of things, when black wins we...". Sorry, I don't remember it very accurately and I forgot where I read it.

As a more recent and anecdotical note, I saw a monk playing go with a layman in a buddhist temple on mount Emei (Sichuan, China).

[Anzu]

Hmm, I always thought that monks were not allowed to participate in worldly pleasures. So they were allowed to have some fun, after all, eh?

You learn something new every day!

[Nyanjilla]

Not only did monks play extensively in Japan ....<respectful snip>

Don't forget Nichiren.