At the time Shusai's predecessor, Shuei, acceded to the head of the Honinbo family, the Japanese Baduk community was divided into three groups: the Honinbo, the Bangwonsa, and the Shinsung Association. However, after the Kwandong earthquake in 1923 these groups were integrated under the name "Japan Baduk Room" under the direction of a wealthy patron named Okura.

This was the period when Wu Qingyuan, the Chinese boy genius, and Kitani Minoru were popular. These two players created a Baduk sensation by introducing a revolution in the early moves (called "posuk" in Korean, and "fuseki" in Japanese). Nevertheless, 60-year-old Shusai, playing white, beat Wu Qingyuan by two points. Again playing white, and also suffering from illness, Shusai went on to beat Kitani by 5 points. This match with Kitani was Shusai's retirement game.

But strong play was not Shusai's only contribution to Baduk. It was Shusai who first introduced a new system of Baduk leadership which relied on Baduk strength rather than heredity for determining the title of Honinbo. To put this new system into effect, Shusai publicly ceded the name of Honinbo to the Nihon Ki-in (Japanese Baduk Association), with the understanding that Nihon Ki-in would run a competition called the Honinbo competition and that the Mainichi ("Daily") papers of Tokyo and Osaka would have sole rights to publish the competition record.
Shusai, the last Baduk prince of hereditary period, was called the ' no losses master.' Unfortunately, he did not live to witness the first Honinbo of the new age of Baduk, but had to be satisfied with the important role of the bridge linking the old and new ages of Baduk. Shusai died on January 18th, 1940, at the age of 67.
Baduk's glory today is the culmination of 500 years of Japanese Baduk history, a history replete with passionate study and gruesome competition. We Baduk players of the 21st century all rely on the blood and sweat of our Japanese forbears. In particular, Shusai's role in shaping modern Baduuk cannot be underestimated. So important was he, that each of his contributions contains not only a personal, but a historic dimension. Baduk had the extreme good fortune to have Shusai appear at precisely the time he was needed, as a bridge into the future.
[For more on the first Honinbo competition, and the founding of the Nihon Ki-in, see parts 2 and 5 of The Ten Most Important Events in 20th Century Baduk. - editor]

- by Lee Gwang-Goo, Baduk critic