Meijin (renju)

Meijin (名人) is a Renju title in Japan. The Meijin title tournament, formally called the All Japan Renju Meijin-sen (全日本連珠名人戦), is played every year in Japan since 1962. The Meijin-sen tournament is one of the most important Renju tournaments in Japan.[1]

History and Rule

The first Meijin-sen tournament is organized by the Japanese Renju Federation in 1962.[2] Since then, the tournament is played every year except for 1974. During every year with the Meijin title match, two rounds of qualification tournaments are held in parallel in different regions of Japan. The A-class league is made up of 10 players, which are composed of winners of different qualification tournaments, together with three seeds from the last tournament. A round-robin tournament is held among the A-class league, and the winner of the A-class league becomes the challenger of that year. Then a 5-round match is held between the challenger and current title holder. If the challenger gets at least 3 points from 5 games, he wins the match and gains the Meijin title. Otherwise, the current holder keeps the title.[1]

Past winners
No. Year Winner Result
(Win-Draw-Loss)		 Opponent
1[3] 1962 Toshinori Yamakita 2-2-0 Masao Mitsumori
2 1963 Toshio Nishimura 3-1-1 Toshinori Yamakita
3 1964 Toshio Nishimura (2) 1-3-1 Taizan Isobe
4 1965 Taizan Isobe 3-0-2 Toshio Nishimura
5 1966 Taizan Isobe (2) 3-0-2 Toshio Nishimura
6 1967 Taizan Isobe (3) 3-0-0 Toshio Nishimura
7 1968 Toshio Nishimura (3) 3-0-2 Taizan Isobe
8 1969 Taizan Isobe (4) 3-0-0 Toshio Nishimura
9[4] 1970 Taizan Isobe (5) 3-0-0 Toshio Nishimura
10 1971 Taizan Isobe (6) 1-3-1 Toshio Nishimura
11 1972 Taizan Isobe (7) 1-3-0 Toshio Nishimura
12 1973 Taizan Isobe (8) 2-1-1 Toshio Nishimura
13 1975 Shigeru Nakamura 3-1-0 Taizan Isobe
14 1976 Toshio Nishimura (4) 3-0-0 Shigeru Nakamura
15 1977 Shigeru Nakamura (2) 3-0-2 Toshio Nishimura
16 1978 Shigeru Nakamura (3) 2-1-1 Toshio Nishimura
17 1979 Shigeru Nakamura (4) 2-1-0 Hisashi Takahashi
18[5] 1980 Atsushi Nishiyama 3-0-2 Shigeru Nakamura
19 1981 Shigeru Nakamura (5) 3-1-1 Atsushi Nisiyama
20 1982 Shigeru Nakamura (6) 2-1-0 Atsushi Nisiyama
21 1983 Shigeru Nakamura (7) 3-0-2 Shigeru Tomimori
22 1984 Shigeru Nakamura (8) 2-2-0 Shigeru Tomimori
23 1985 Shigeru Nakamura (9) 2-1-0 Takashi Sagara
24 1986 Shigeru Nakamura (10) 2-2-1 Takashi Sagara
25 1987 Shigeru Nakamura (11) 2-1-1 Norihiko Kawamura
26 1988 Shigeru Nakamura (12) 3-0-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
27 1989 Shigeru Nakamura (13) 2-1-1 Kazuto Hasegawa
28[6] 1990 Shigeru Nakamura (14) 2-1-1 Kazuto Hasegawa
29 1991 Shigeru Nakamura (15) 3-0-0 Norihiko Kawamura
30 1992 Shigeru Nakamura (16) 2-1-1 Kazuto Hasegawa
31 1993 Shigeru Nakamura (17) 3-0-1 Norihiko Kawamura
32 1994 Norihiko Kawamura 3-0-2 Shigeru Nakamura
33[7] 1995 Norihiko Kawamura (2) 3-0-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
34 1996 Kazuto Hasegawa 2-2-1 Norihiko Kawamura
35 1997 Shigeru Nakamura (18) 3-0-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
36 1998 Shigeru Nakamura (19) 2-1-0 Norio Nishizono
37 1999 Shigeru Nakamura (20) 2-1-0 Norihiko Kawamura
38[8] 2000 Shigeru Nakamura (21) 2-1-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
39 2001 Shigeru Nakamura (22) 2-1-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
40 2002 Makoto Yamaguchi 3-0-1 Kazuto Hasegawa
41 2003 Makoto Yamaguchi (2) 3-0-2 Kazuto Hasegawa
42 2004 Norihiko Kawamura (3) 3-1-0 Makoto Yamaguchi
43 2005 Kazuto Hasegawa (2) 3-1-1 Norihiko Kawamura
44 2006 Kazuto Hasegawa (3) 2-1-0 Norihiko Kawamura
45 2007 Kazuto Hasegawa (4) 2-1-0 Yusui Yamaguchi
46 2008 Kazuto Hasegawa (5) 2-1-0 Hiroshi Okabe
47 2009 Kazuto Hasegawa (6) 2-1-1 Norihiko Kawamura
48 2010 Yuuki Oosumi 3-1-1 Kazuto Hasegawa
49 2011 Yuuki Oosumi (2) 2-1-1 Yusui Yamaguchi
50 2012 Shigeru Nakamura (23) 2-2-1 Yuuki Oosumi
51 2013 Shigeru Nakamura (24) 2-2-0 Yuuki Oosumi
52 2014 Shigeru Nakamura (25) 1-3-1 Yuuki Oosumi
53 2015 Shigeru Nakamura (26) 3-0-0 Kazuto Hasegawa
54 2016 Shigeru Nakamura (27) 2-1-0 Shunsuke Kamiya
55 2017 Tomoharu Nakayama 2-2-0 Shigeru Nakamura
56 2018 Shigeru Nakamura (28) 2-2-0 Tomoharu Nakayama
57 2019 Shigeru Nakamura (29) 2-1-1 Shunsuke Kamiya
58 2020 Shigeru Nakamura (30) 2-1-1 Tomoharu Nakayama
59 2021 Shunsuke Kamiya 1-4-0 Tomoharu Nakayama
60 2022 Shunsuke Kamiya (2) 2-1-0 Tomoharu Nakayama

Lifetime Meijin

Lifetime Meijin is a lifetime honorable title which is given to Japanese Renju players. Before the Meijin-sen tournaments were launched in 1962, the title of Lifetime Meijin was awarded to the players who had made outstanding contributions to the development of Renju. Since 1962, the title is awarded to the players who have outstanding performance in the Meijin-sen tournaments.

Before 1962

Before the Meijin-sen tournaments were started, there were five Japanese players who were awarded the title of Lifetime Meijin.

  • 1st: Goraku Takayama (Kuroiwa Ruikō)
  • 2nd: Yūseki Mikami
  • 3rd: Rakuzan Takagi
  • 4th: Hōrō Yamakabe
  • 5th: Gozui Sakata

After 1962

After 1962, the title of Lifetime Meijin is awarded to the outstanding players who have won the Meijin title for at least 7 times in total, or 5 times in a row. A player who meets the above conditions can get this title when he is at least 60 years old.

Up to 2023, there are three players who have won this title is this way:

See also

References
  1. "主な棋戦". renjusha.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  2. "全日本連珠名人戦成績表　1960年代（第1期から第8期）". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  3. "1960年代　連珠名人戦". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  4. "1970年代　連珠名人戦". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  5. "1980年代　連珠名人戦". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  6. "連珠名人挑戦者決定リーグ　第28期〜第33期順位表". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  7. "連珠名人挑戦者決定リーグ　第33期〜第37期順位表". renjusha.net. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  8. "連珠データベース". renjusha.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2018-10-20.
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