From: Takako Noda JA2 SO-NET OR JP> Date: 31 aug 1997 Subject: "QUEST"---from your detour guide What happened to Masuda after that: You know how Masuda ran away from home with burning ambition to become shogi Meijin, okay? The only way to be a professional shogi player in those days was to become a live-in pupil at a pro-player's house. While he was in Hiroshima harassing street tsume-shogi men and getting prize money, he met someone who promised him to write a letter of reference to a professional. Masuda, as a boy, naturally dreamed big. Who would be my sensei, Kinjiro Sekine, the then meijin, or a star player, Yoshio Kimura? But no, it was Kinjiro Kimi. He was famous of course, but as a weak pro. Well, not exactly weak, but to a young boy's eye, he was certainly not a hero figure. Anyway, he went to Kimi's house to find there were already two other young men studying shogi. In those days, the pro shogi world was nowhere near an organized society. There were several schools of self-appointed pro-players with their men. Shogi Taiseikai, the predecessor of Shogi Renmei, was not yet established. As you know, the meijin title has long been a lifetime status since Edo era, and it was only when Sekine retired in 1936 that the title has come to mean what it is: attainable to anyone who beats the incumbent meijin, but only for a certain period. Twelve months now, but it used to be 3 years, then 2, and finally a year. Let's get back to our 14-year-old, who moved in Kimi's in Osaka. How he polished his shogi skills? By playing game after game with two other men in the house, and other players who came for a visit. Sensei doesn't teach his pupils. Live-in pupil system doesn't exist any more, the last such pupil being Manabu Senzaki(now 5-dan) at Yonenaga's before he was promoted to 4-dan. A live-in pupil did household chores, and was dispatched to give lesson shogi to lay people. The strongest pupil at the Kimis, Gen'ichi Ohno, was practically the breadwinner of the house. He was 5-dan already, and was beginning to make a name in tournaments, which made him more wanted for lesson shogi. Since Masuda was the newest and the weakest, ranked at 9-kyu at first, his job was nothing but cleaning, washing and doing errands. Shodan was the rank he was covetous of, because, unlike today, it meant a start line as a professional. Actually it took only 18 months to reach shodan, but to the mid-teen boy it seemed like an eon. But his famous ingenuity helped him to find pleasure in those days. When Kimi- sensei was having guests, it was Masuda's job to cater for them. He was to take glasses filled with sake upstairs. Down in the kitchen, Mrs. Kimi, a paragon of economies, told him to use smaller glasses, but the boy retorted, "Doesn't make a difference. They just have to drink as much as they can." So he went up with larger glasses, only when they were served to the guests, they were switched into smaller ones. He'd already hid some smaller glasses somewhere along the staircase. Where did the residual sake go? Who knows. In Hiroshima, it was customary to allow minors to drink, says Masuda in his autobiography. Takako Noda