Traditional 1-stone handicap before komi
In Edo period go, the system worked like this:

Even: Taiga-sen (Alternating Black and White)
One Dan difference: San-Ai-Sen (Black two out of three games)
Two Dan difference: Josen (Always Black)
Three Dan difference: Sen-Ni-Sen (Black two games, two stones on game)
Four Dan difference: Sen-Ni (Alternating Black and two stones)
Five Dan difference: (Always take two stones)
Six Dan difference: (two handis twice, three handis once)
Seven Dan difference: (three stones twice, two stones once)
Eight Dan difference: (always take three stones)

It is important to note that you had a different handicap against each player, based of your individual results against each other. Also it was expected that you would play many games. Almost like tennis where you try to break the serve, if you won consistently while playing white, it was impressive (Black is expected to win more often, getting the first move)