Even in Japan when Takemiya was playing, there was Sonoda 9-dan who was even more deeply addicted to universal style than Takemiya. Why Takemiya, then? The answer is simple. Because his use of universal style led him to victory.
His superiority is that he has a good command of universal style. He did not just win against players who also used universal style, but also against players who did not. He won Meijin and Honinbo, which are big competitions in Japan, several times, and the Fujitsu world competition in 1988 and 1989.

Notably, he won TV Asia three years in a row. This is a competition with severely limited playing time, showing that he was even stronger when playing fast.
Once, Takemiya asked people to call his Baduk style natural, rather than universal. He argued that he never meant to play in a particular style, but only tried to find the best place to put the stone with each play. But of course, Baduk fans prefer the word 'universal' to the word 'natural', because 'natural' sounds philosophical while 'universal' one sounds inspirational.
In the 20th century when Baduk was dominated by a calculated style of play, Takemiya was the almost the only romantic. Standing against the spirit of the times, he did not want to compromise his own way. Future generations will value him as highly as he is valued today.

- by An Sung-moon, PD of Baduk TV