A fine building located at 323 E 52nd Street, was purchased by the Nihon Ki-in in 1995 with a generous bequest for this purpose by Mr. Iwamoto – one of the great Go players of all time. A new entity was incorporated as Nihon Ki-in America and the building was named New York Go Center, to absorb and replace the predecessor entity – the New York Go Club – and to provide a congenial meeting place for players who were either unaffiliated or who belonged to other Go clubs in New York.
It was Mr. Iwamoto’s vision that this physical facility would flourish into an important international and inter-cultural Go Center and would bring together the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and American Go communities. The New York Go community was immensely grateful for this regal gift, as it appeared to solve the principal problem that had beset the New York Go Club in the past – lack of a suitable meeting place and the burden of paying unaffordable rents at a series of mostly inadequate locations.
It must be stressed that Mr. Iwamoto’s contribution to the founding of the New York Go Center was not limited to the donation of the building. Over the years, he had made repeated visits to the New York Go Community in which he instructed the New York community in the depth and profundity of the game.
Our Founder
In 1945, he challenged Hashimoto Utaro for the Honinbo title; they were concluding the second game of the title match in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when the first atomic bomb exploded over the city. This experience transformed Mr. Iwamoto. He wanted to use go as a way to promote peace and international understanding. He traveled extensively in the West, spending eighteen months in the US at one point.
He went on to win the Honinbo title in 1945 and defended it in 1947 as Honinbo Kunwa 本因坊薫和. (Honinbos traditionally are adopted into the Honinbo household and take a new name.)
His book Go for Beginners is still considered a classic for beginners. His other English-language book, The 1971 Honinbo Tournament, is also considered a classic for its clarity of commentary on a major title match. Out of print, it sells on Amazon.com for as much as $135.
In 1985 Mr. Iwamoto sold his go school, whose insei include the first American professional, James Kerwin and many others, and donated 500 million yen to the the Nihon Ki-In‘s Foundation for Go. The funds were used to establish The New York Go Center, as well as Centers in Brazil, Amsterdam and Seattle. He attended the opening of the Center in 1995. He passed away in 1999.