Game 10, held in Kochi City on 28 March 1955

Held just four days after Game 9, this game could be seen as being played in indecent haste, at least by the more leisurely standards of the time. There was certainly a feeling of anti-climax, though of the glorious, Japanese variety rather than the mere western washout.

The match, for the Japanese, would suggest something of the 47 ronin, or leaderless samurai, who had fought gallantly to avenge their murdered leader but who now understood the need for public penance and self immolation.

Fujisawa here was the ronin, he had fought and failed, and now he had to atone for his irregular behaviour. One of Japan's most famous proverbs that has devoured the lives of so many men would have to appeased yet again: the nail that sticks up must be hammered down. Fujisawa would have to swallow his pride and apply to return to the Nihon Ki-in.

To underscore this peculiarly Japanese dramatic conceit of the "glorious failure", the final game was held within walking distance of the statue of one of the most admired samurais, the local boy Sakamoto Ryoma. Sakamoto, an acknowledged swordsman, found himself drawn into the chaotic events surrounding the Meiji Restoration, events he hardly understood initially, but through personal effort he became a businessman then politician rather than a samurai, and helped lay the foundations for the Meiji Constitution. Yet he was too radical for many, and he was struck down by an assassin when only 33.

To the local people of Kochi he is regarded as a perfect example of what they call igosso: a man who is gallant, generous, independent, obstinate, carefree, passionate, unpredictable - all the things ordinary Japanese would love to be but dare not. Fujisawa was igosso.

Whether Fujisawa himself mused on the ultimate (in Japan) folly of this as he strolled past the 1928 statue of Sakamoto by Kochi's famous beach of Katsurahama we do not know, but he did return to the Nihon Ki-in in 1959.

The venue shifted from the northern end to the southern end of Shikoku, and the short gap after Game 9 did not give much chance for recuperation. But the truth was that, after Game 8, Hashimoto was keen to get the whole match over and done with, and the younger and fitter Fujisawa had no reason to demur. He may have decided he would go out with a flourish battling gamely like the notorious Tosa fighting dogs from Kochi which are graded like sumo wrestlers. But the view of the Pacific from the playing room over the sandy expanses of Katsurahama beach was more likely to make the play serene, and indeed the game was over after just 180 moves. Worse, Fujisawa spoilt the script. Instead of dying in a blaze of glorious failure, he managed to lose Game 10 despite having Black with no komi.

Hashimoto thus won the even-game portion of the match 5-1, and in the second part, at B-W-B handicap, he even managed to make it 2-2. In the wider scheme of things the real winner was the Kansai Ki-in, of course, having put one over on their Nihon Ki-in rivals in Tokyo at a time when that rivalry still had a truly sharp edge.

Although Fujisawa remained out in the cold technically until 1959, he soon became a regular visitor at the Nihon Ki-in again, and even if he could not play go there he was allowed to join in their baseball games. How the mighty are fallen!

White: Hashimoto Utaro 9-dan, Black: Fujisawa Kuranosuke 9-dan
Game 10 of 10-game uchikomi match sponsored by Yomiuri Shinbun
Played at the Keishokaku Inn, Koichi City, on 28-29 March 1955
Handicap (B)-B-W, no komi, 10 hours each.