Hon'inbō Shūei was a remarkable player, and his strength apparently exceeded his contemporaries by a considerable margin.
Shūei's style was characterized by his calm and confident approach to the game and his supreme positional judgement.
He earned the nickname "the master of miai" for creating situations where he would have two equally good options at his disposal.
[3] Still another leading player, Takagawa Kaku was strongly influenced by Shūei, and edited a collection of his games, and wrote: Ironically, as a boy he was given to the Hayashi house because he supposedly showed little promise.
They include Hon'inbō Shūgen, Takabe Dohei, Karigane Junichi, Nozawa Chikucho, Tamura Yasuhisa (later known as Honinbo Shusai, Meijin), Tanaka Masaki, Inoue Yasunobu, Hayashi Tokuzo, Seki Genkichi, Tsuzuki Yoneko, and Inoue Kohei.