| Quest of the lost systems |
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| Chapter Two: Furibisha |
| Section 5: Masuda-shiki Ishida-ryu |
Masuda's Ishida-ryu: gote version---continued (4)
Masuda's last move (marked with ??? on the previous page) was S-3e, an impressive
sacrifice.
Translator's note:
You might want to ask: who is Ishida? He is a popular figure among shogi
fans as "Ishida Kengyo", a blind man who lived in the early Edo
era, toward the end of the 17th century. Kengyo represented the top rank
of the organization for the blind. The Edo military government established
a strict four-tier-hierarchy, with warriors (samurai) at the top, then farmers,
followed by manufacturers, and merchants at the bottom. Samurais accounted
for about 3,4% of the whole population, while farmers represented 90%, and
manufacturers/merchants 5%. However, there were other people outside of
this establishment, such as noblemen, Buddhist priests, physicians, scholars,
etc. While these people were privileged outsiders, there were other kind,
the discriminated, to whom the blind belonged. The blind formed for themselves
a guild-like organization which had four ranks; kengyo, betto, kohto, and
zato. These ranks were further broken down to 73 niches, and it was possible
to buy one's way up the ladder.
One had to obtain a certain amount of shares to climb up. The similar system
is still to be found in the sumo world, whose tradition started in the edo
era, in which a wrestler has to procure a certain amount of shares to become
a stable-master. The point is, the number of shares is limited and one needs
more than just money to hold shares. The major trade of the blind was acupuncture
and massage, which may have made them comparable to physicians to the local
people. The edo government spared some fund for the blind, which kengyos
put to use by becoming money-lenders (usurers) whose clients were mainly
the Hatamoto and Daimyo, the government. Some notable kengyos were: a great
scholar, Hanawa Kengyo, who was a philological genius, and a great-grandfather
of the famous politician, Katsu Kaishu, who bought his sons a status of
samurai.
