However, by the late nineteenth century, the Japanese Shogunate had collapsed and the Meiji government came to power. Without its Shogunate patronage, Japanese Baduk went into a decline. One by one, the doors of the four Baduk families had to be closed. The last one remaining was the Honinbo; its last head was Shusai, who acceded to that title at the age of 21.

¡Ø The Honinbo

Shusai was born in 1874 in Tokyo in the mid-Meiji reform. He died in 1940 during the 2nd world war. His real name was Tamura Hojiu. Entering the Honinbo family under Master Shuho, Shusai was recognized as 1-dan and rose to 3-dan in 1891. But after that, he got sick and tired of Baduk and was planning to stow away to America. He was dissuaded from these plans when he met Kim Ok-kyun the Korean progressive leader of the failed 1884 Kapshin Coup d'Etat. Kim Ok-kyun was living in exile in Japan.
After Shuho's death, his younger Baduk brother Shugen, at the age of 20, became the head of the Honinbo family. He gave the position over to Shusai about a year later, in 1908. Shusai was 21 at the time. In 1914 Shusai was given the title of Meijin, or "expert."