Hon'inbà  Shà «ei (挠åÂÂç§Âæ Â, November 1, 1852 â February 10, 1907) was a Japanese professional Go player.
Hon'inbà  Shà «ei, a younger son of the very strong Hon'inbà  Shà «wa, served as the 17th and again 19th head of the Hon'inbà  house. He was also the 13th and final head of the Hayashi house before merging it with the Hon'inbà  house in 1884.
Hon'inbà  Shà «ei was a remarkable player, and his strength apparently exceeded his contemporaries by a considerable margin. Surviving game records show that he played a large number of handicap games. He was very active and innovative in the 1890s, a time of reviving fortunes for go, and participated in a number of jubango.
He attained the title of Meijin in 1906, becoming the ninth person to have done so. Shà «ei's style was characterized by his calm and confident approach to the game and his supreme positional judgement. He was also fond of making light shapes and sabaki tactics. He earned the nickname "the master of miai" for creating situations where he would have two equally good options at his disposal. He was one of the pioneer players opening frequently at hoshi points during fuseki, for which he was later greatly admired by the great Go Seigen.
He has also received praise from another top player, Fujisawa Hideyuki. Fujisawa commented in Go World that he thought Shà «ei was the strongest of the Meijins and Hon'inbà Âs and in particular that Hon'inbà  Shà «ei was stronger than Hon'inbà  Shà «saku and Hon'inbà  Dà Âsaku, regarded by many as the two strongest of the Edo era. He went on to say that Shà «ei's flow of moves was like water. Fujisawa said, "I always have the feeling that I'd be no match for him ... I'm far below his level". Yet another top player Kobayashi Koichi also stated that Shà «ei was stronger than he was. Still another leading player, Takagawa Kaku was strongly influenced by Shà «ei, 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. And the first time he was appointed Honinbo, he resigned in favor of Murase Shà «ho, his long time friend, with whom he had travelled Japan and who was the strongest player at the time (8-dan). This event also marked the reconciliation between the Hon'inbà  house and the Hoensha. It was celebrated with a jubango between Shà «ho and Shà «ei with the score being 5-5 (Shà «ei playing on all black). Shà «ho did not live very long, so Shà «ei accepted the title again, and later became much stronger than his contemporaries, so was awarded the Meijin title, which even his father had not achieved.
Shuei had a number of disciples. They include Hon'inbà  Shà «gen, 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.