(The original article was published on Monthly JoongAng, 201407 on June 17 2014. http://jmagazine.joins.com/monthly/view/302309. I extracted some paragraphs from the article.)



[…]



Cho Hun-hyun’s official teacher was Segoe Kensaku(1889-1972) in Japan. Segoe accepted Cho as a student-in-residence (내제자) [1] when Segoe was seventy-four (1963). Segoe had only three pupils in his lifetime. Hashimoto Utaro(1907-1994) from Japan, Wu Qingyuan [2] from China, and Cho Hun-hyun from Korea. According to Cho Hun-hyun , it was an ‘unimaginable exception’ that Segoe accepted a pupil being so old. It was partly because Segoe was in love with Cho’s genius, but was also due to a big plan Segoe had.

“Segoe selected and taught only one genius each from Korea, China, and Japan. Later he said, “Baduk was originated from China, passed on from Korea to Japan. Just like I repaid China by raising Wu Qingyuan, I can repay Korea by raising Cho Hun-hyun.” My teacher did not pay any attention to materials that would not overturn the world and make a distinct contribution. His teaching was very deep and grave emphasizing ‘[good] personality and broadmindedness’ rather than baduk skills.”



[1] Student-in-residence (내제자) is a unique elite training system in the East Asian baduk community. If one is chosen as a student-in-residence (usually in young age), he/she lives with the master as if he/she is a member of the family. It is a very rare opportunity though. Cho Hun-hyun was Segoe Kensaku’s student-in-residence, and Lee Chang-ho was Cho Hun-hyun’s only student-in-residence. Cho Hun-hyun later considered accepting Kim Ji-seok as his second student-in-residence, but Kim liked to mess around too much to be a good student-in-residence.



[2] Better known by his Japanese name, Go Seigen

