Iwamoto Tournament 2006

Iwamoto was born in Masuda of the Shimane prefecture, Japan. During his childhood he spent several years in Busan, Korea (1905-1913), where he learnt Go from his father, then Habiro Seitaro and then Nakamura Zenichiro (a 3d teaching pro).

He returned to Japan to study Go, moved to Tokyo, and became a disciple of Hirose Heijiro 6-dan of Hoensha in 1913. He achieved 1-dan in 1917, and swiftly rose through the ranks, just like his master did before him. Hirose ran a haiku salon and taught the youngster the art of poetry, too. On the other hand, he was expected to help with the chores inside and outside the home, and he also had to play paying guests in Hirose's school.

Iwamoto's first game against Hirose was on 8 stones, his test for acceptance as a pupil. Once he joined Hirose's school, he found that Kato Shin (then 2-dan) was his fellow pupil, and he had to take six stones from him. Indeed, virtually all his games in those days were high handicap games, though it was rare to play the master and the senior pupils.

In 1924, when Nihon Ki-in was established, Iwamoto joined it and achieved 6-dan.

He retired as a professional Go player and emigrated to Brazil as a coffee farmer in 1929. However, he came back to Japan and resumed his career of Go after the failure of this venture in 1931.

He became the champion of Oteai (a Tournament organized by Nihon Ki-in) in 1935. He was Challenger in the Third Honinbo match against Hashimoto Utaro in 1945. The second game of this match (played 5 kms. away from Hiroshima) is famous as theatomic bomb go game. The players owed their lives to the fact that the local police had ordered the game moved from the center of Hiroshima. The match was continued after the war, but the event ended in a 3-3 draw. A three-game playoff was held in 1946, Iwamoto won two straight games to take the Honinbo title. He assumed the name Honinbo Kunwa.

Kaoru's home was a temporary site for the Nihon Ki-in which was burnt out by the bombing of B29 in 1945 and he was fundamental in finding new headquarters for the Nihon Ki-in.

Kaoru defended the Honinbo title against Kitani Minoru in 1947, and in 1948 achieved 8-dan, becoming president of Nihon Ki-in. He later lost the Honinbo title back to Hashimoto Utaro in 1950. Kaoru won the NHK Cup in 1955.

Kaoru traveled extensively throughout the western world for spreading Go to the western people. He spent 18 months in 1961-1962 in New York, teaching about Go. He achieved 9-dan in 1967, and had many disciples.

Kaoru retired in April, 1983. In his later years he was a benefactor to several European and American Go centers (e.g. London, Sao Paulo, New York, Seattle, Amsterdam), largely through setting up the Iwamoto Foundation in 1986, with an initial contribution of 530 million yen.