Ohashi Soukei

Japanese: 大橋宗桂 - おおはし・そうけい

Year of death: March 9, 11 (April 6, 1634)
Year of birth: Koji 1 (1555)
A shogi player in the early Edo period, and the first Meijin. Born in Kyoto. He was roughly the same age as Go player Honinbo Sansa, and served under Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, among others, where he demonstrated his shogi skills. It is said that Nobunaga gave him the name Sokei. The oldest surviving shogi game is a match between Sokei and Sansa in 1607 (Keicho 12). The game was played with a four-space rook opening. Around 1614, Sansa, who was both the Go and Shogi Director, handed him the Shogi Directorate (the highest authority in shogi who received a stipend from the Edo Shogunate), and he became the first Shogi Meijin. His books include Shogi Zushiki, which contains problems for solving tsumeshogi. His grave at Reikoji Temple in Fukakusa, Kyoto, is a piece-shaped monument with the two characters for knight and horse engraved on the back. His eldest son, Soko, was the second Meijin. The Ohashi family, whose founder was Sokei, continued for 12 generations until the end of the Meiji era, and the 5th and 9th Sokei also became Meijin players.

(Makio Taniguchi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：寛永11.3.9(1634.4.6)
生年：弘治1(1555)
江戸前期の将棋棋士,1世名人。京都の生まれ。囲碁の本因坊算砂とほぼ同時代で,織田信長,豊臣秀吉,徳川家康らに仕え,将棋を披露した。宗桂の名は信長から与えられたという。慶長12(1607)年,宗桂と算砂の平手戦が現存する最古の将棋棋譜とされる。相四間飛車の将棋。同17年ごろ,囲碁・将棋所を兼ねていた算砂から将棋所(江戸幕府から扶持を給せられた将棋の最高権威者)を譲られ,1世将棋名人となった。著書に詰将棋を収めた『象戯図式』がある。京都深草の霊光寺の墓は駒形の墓碑で裏面に桂馬の2字が刻まれている。長子宗古は2世名人。宗桂を祖とする大橋本家は明治末年まで12代続き,5代宗桂,9代宗桂も名人となっている。<参考文献>勝浦修『初代大橋宗桂・大橋宗古』(日本将棋大系)

(谷口牧夫)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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