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 Post subject: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #1 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:12 am 
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In "400 Years of Go in Japan", Andrew Grant writes: "...it was coming to be felt that it would be more appropriate to follow the precedent of the Honinbo tournament and hold an annual Meijin tournament." This doesn't seem to say anything as to the why of it, and I don't understand. Does anyone have any more insight into this? Hopefully John Fairbairn can chime in, as he is the authority.

I can't help feeling that previously, it was relatively (VERY relatively) straightforward who was Number 1 in Japanese go. There was Honinbo Shusai, the Meijin. Of course there were many, many intrigues and tangles, but there was only one Boss. Even in the 1950s while there was only one major tournament, the Honinbo, it seems like it was still a matter of great prestige. Winners took on ceremonial names. They wore traditional dress to play. But once competing major tournaments were instituted, I feel like it opened the way to the current profusion of titles, where there is no world champion and no one is really sure who would be. And I very much want to understand why this came to be.

Thoughts? Enlightenment?

Many thanks for any help.

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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #2 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:28 am 
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I think it's clear AlphaGo would be the world champion.

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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #3 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:40 am 
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As it's New Year here's the story from the GoGoD Encylopaedia (not to be used elsewhere):

The break with history

THE IDEA OF a tournament to find a Meijin, rather than relying on the traditional system of inheritance, was in the air once the principle had been established by setting up the Honinbo tournament just before World War II. In 1940, Takabe Dohei, joint head of the Kiseisha organisation had even secured the backing of a Kyoto newspaper for a Meijin event. But the Nihon Ki-in spurned Takabe's approaches and his idea petered out into a 10-game match with his co-head Karigane Junichi (which, for good measure, he also lost).
The legacy of the last lifetime Meijin, Honinbo Shusai, really lay with the Nihon Ki-in, and in October 1949, when it published its rules of go for the first time, it included a section on appointing a Meijin. At the time there was no Meijin and no Meijin tournament on the horizon. But on 15 June 1949, Fujisawa Kuranosuke had become the first 9-dan, and as further 9-dans were likely soon, a view had to be taken on whether a 9-dan was a Meijin.

The Meijin regulation specified the following:
A player earned 9-dan if he scored the requisite promotion points as an 8-dan in the Oteai.
There could be two or more 9-dans, but only one person could be a Meijin at any one time.
A Meijin would retain his status until he retired or was defeated in a challenge match.

To become a Meijin it was necessary:
to first become a 9-dan through the Oteai
to achieve an outstanding performance there
to be or have been a Honinbo.

A player of such acknowledged merit could then be recommended for the post by the Nihon Ki-in. Outstanding performance in the Oteai meant scoring an average of at least 65 per cent against players of 7-dan and above over 18 games.

This was a novel approach, breaking the historical link between 9-dan and Meijin.

On 22 February 1950, Go Seigen was recommended for 9-dan by the Nihon Ki-in in view of his outstanding results. This meant that there were seemingly two conceivable candidates for Meijin.

However, Go's results, though of the requisite level, were in newspaper-sponsored events, not the Oteai, and Fujisawa was not performing well enough. Moreover, neither had been a Honinbo - only Hashimoto Utaro and Iwamoto qualified on that score, but both were only 8-dan (the other two 8-dans were Kitani and Sakata).

There was not really much room for manoeuvre, since there was intense rivalry between the sponsoring newspapers. The Asahi Shinbun wanted to stress the Oteai, the Mainichi pressed the claims of the Honinbo, and the Yomiuri had Go Seigen almost as its own court go player.

Asahi makes a move

The obvious solution - waiting for someone to meet all the criteria - was not an option the newspapers relished. Go fans, their readers, clamoured for a showdown between the two 9-dans and restoration of a Meijin. It was the Asahi that made the first move in 1951. It devised a tournament called Battle for Supremacy among the Four Strongest Players which would bring together Go and Fujisawa together with the two Honinbos, Hashimoto and Iwamoto. It was a Meijin tournament in all but name.

Plans were almost finalised when Togawa Tsuneo, deputy head of the Asahi's Arts and Sciences section, and the Nihon Ki-in's chief liaison officer, Okuyama Goroku (Fujisawa's father-in-law), fell out.

The reason was that the Asahi had discovered that the Mainichi and Yomiuri were working with the Nihon Ki-in on a plan for Fujisawa and Go to play 3- and 10-game matches for the respective papers, breezily ignoring the claims of the other players. It all came to naught.

In the following year, 1952, Asahi Shinbun announced formally that it was setting up a Meijin tournament. It had already set up a Meijin league among the top shogi players and its popularity was the spur to do the same in go. The Asahi felt it could afford to be assertive because it was the Nihon Ki-in's number one sponsor. Apart from the long-term support of the Oteai, even in the war years when paper restrictions meant it could not publish games, it was providing ¥200,000.

The original concept was for three leagues, A, B and C, with promotion and demotion between them based on results in that event, with the proviso that demotion did not mean loss of dan rank. Players in the higher leagues would earn more, and the winner of the A league would qualify to challenge the title holder in a seven-game match. This was rather like its shogi system, the Jun'i-sen, but was fundamentally different from the Oteai where a player played on against players of the similar grades irrespective of results. With a league system a high-dan player could drop down a league or two and be playing low dans (and being paid a lower fee).

The Asahi tried to cement its proposal with cash. In the early 1950s, when an annual tournament was reckoned to cost about ¥2 million, it offered ¥10 million. For that sort of money it felt it had the right to quash the Go-Fujisawa match plans of its rivals. The Nihon Ki-in saw it differently. When the Ki-in showed no willingness to block the other papers' plans, the Asahi upped the stakes by hinting that it might drop out of go altogether.

The Go Seigen problem

Ironically, the potential saving grace for the Nihon Ki-in, though, was that it had no control over Go Seigen, and everyone agreed that a Meijin tournament without him was unthinkable. It could claim that the decision was not theirs to make. However, Go complicated matters by making it plain that he would play. He had already indicated that he would have played in the Four Strongest event, and now, having heard about the Asahi threat, he maintained that position and said he would play in a new Meijin tournament to support the wider go world.
The action therefore swung back to the Nihon Ki-in, who put the onus on the players themselves. The best source of information about what went on is an autobiography by Takagawa Kaku, who chaired a committee of seven players to look at the problem. The committee was split 4-3 against accepting the new event. When they put the matter to the players' group as a whole, the vote was reversed to 28-27 in favour.

But this was democracy Japanese-style. The ugly word schism reared its head. The Nihon Ki-in had only just recovered from a damaging split when many prominent players had formed the Igo Shinsha splinter group. They had all eventually drifted back, but their loyalty had to be earned. Furthermore, there were surprising and more serious voices among those against the new event. The most prominent was Kitani Minoru's.

Kitani had a quixotic view that Meijins were not made - they happened. He was, and had been all along, opposed to any event to create a Meijin. Honinbos were different. They were just family heads and had to be created. He was believed to be supported by other older players such as Iwamoto and Hasegawa, who were also directors. Leaving aside the rationale of the argument, there were also directors such as Shimamura Toshihiro and Fukuhara Yoshitora who were inclined to side with Kitani purely on grounds of loyalty - they were part of the same teacher-pupil nexus.
There was also a view that the Oteai itself was causing problems. Translated into modern terms, it was creating grade inflation. This was a major economic problem for the Nihon Ki-in which could effectively cancel out the benefits of the much higher income from the Asahi. As the number of high-dan players increased, their stipends and pensions would create a long-term burden for the Nihon. It was a problem that eventually led to cuts of some 15 per cent in 2001, with the prospect of more to come. There was therefore a view that the Oteai had outlived its usefulness, and should be replaced by more conventional tournaments. Going along with the Asahi would naturally mean perpetuating the Oteai system and storing up problems.

There was, however, yet another important factor. The Kansai Ki-in said it would not take part. It had asked the Asahi to support its own Oteai shortly after its formation in 1949, and had been refused. The reason was that the only Kansai player of real merit was Hashimoto Utaro. But it was not a question of payback time. The Kansai Ki-in's main concern was to protect the interests of the Sankei Shinbun, which had filled the void left by the Asahi. The Sankei ruled the roost in West Japan and did not want to share the limelight.

Nevertheless, there was some feeling of tit for tat - the high-handed ignoring of Hashimoto and Kitani when the Go-Fujisawa matches were being planned still rankled.

The Top Position title

The upshot was that the Asahi Shinbun's plans were quietly shelved until a much bigger majority or better solution could emerge. The newspaper at once proved it had been bluffing in its threat to cut off support. However irked it may have felt at go players, it could not risk leaving the field open to its rivals - especially as it had already said in effect that a Meijin tournament was going to be a big circulation booster.

The Asahi therefore decided to use the 30th anniversary of its support for the Oteai in 1953 to announce a shake-up in the form of a Saikoi - Top Position - section. The format was a mini-league of the four 8-dans who played each other twice, with Black and White, at no komi. This produced a ranking of 1. Sakata, 2. Iwamoto, 3. Kitani and 4. Miyashita. Because Shimamura Toshihiro had been promoted to 8-dan during the course of the event, he was added as the fifth-ranked player. The 7-dan group were tagged on in order of results in that year's Oteai: 6. Takagawa, 7. Maeda, 8. Sumino, 9. Fujisawa Hideyuki, 10. Hasegawa, 11. Sugiuchi. Shinohara, Mitsuhara, Hayashi and Hosokawa failed to make the cut. Go Seigen was not a Nihon Ki-in member and so was excluded (as, of course, was Hashimoto Utaro of the Kansai Ki-in).

In the following year, 1954, the above 11 players began an all-play-all league. Kitani had to drop out because of illness, and the others finished in the order: Sakata, Shimamura, Sugiuchi, Takagawa, Miyashita, Iwamoto, Maeda, Hasegawa, Sumino, Fujisawa.

After a two-year trial period with this event, the Saikoi began for real in 1955 with - confusingly - the 1st Term. Hasegawa, Sumino and Fujisawa dropped into Division 1 of the Oteai and the two 7-dans Kajiwara and Shinohara were added to create a 9-man league. Because it was an extension of the Oteai, there was no komi, but results were scored 75 and 45 points according to colour for use in promotion calculations. During the span of this league, Sakata was promoted to 9-dan and Takagawa to 8-dan.

Finally, in February 1956, the league matches were completed and Sakata and Sugiuchi stood at the head with 6 wins apiece. This was where the ranking system kicked in. Because of his higher ranking the year before in the trial event, Sakata was declared the winner. He became the first Saikoi (Top Position) title holder.

Kitani's resurgence

After falling ill in February 1954, Kitani was reduced almost to the life of an invalid. In the 1953 Oteai, he could have scored points for promotion to 9-dan in four games, against Sakata, Sugiuchi, Miyashita and Iwamoto. He lost all four. After the games, he would sit before the go board far into the night in the deserted Nihon Ki-in. There were disconsolate whispers that the great Kitani would end his life as a mere 8-dan.

Yet Kitani had always shown a great ability to re-invent himself. In January 1956 he came back with a bang. During almost two years away from go he learnt not to use use all his time on the opening, and he took more care of his health. The result was that during the course of the 2nd Saikoi, he not only reached 9-dan, but he went on to win the league. This gave him the right to challenge Sakata, the Saikoi title holder.

Even though the title games - a best-of-five - were at no komi, White won the first three comfortably. Kitani led 2-1. Then in Game 4, in January 1957, he had Black and won to take the title. The achievement caused a stir among fellow professionals. During the games, at the old Nihon Ki-in in Takanawa (Shiba), players and reporters crowded into the narrow room that nowadays would be called a press-room, and they stayed there far into the night analysing the games. Both Takagawa and Yamabe were ill at the time, yet made the effort to come in.

Even with that collective analytical ability available, Kitani stunned fellow pros by rattling off a sequence of over 30 moves leading to a yose-ko in answer to one question on Game 4. Nakayama Noriyuki was the recorder for that game, and years later described the final scene. The game over, everyone departed except for Kitani, Nakayama and Kitani's pupil Miyaki Kazuko (now Shoji Kazuko), evidently acting as a sort of nurse. Kitani began to hum a popular song: "I'm so lucky, the sky is bluuuue..". Nakayama said that he was so grateful to witness such an exhibition both of go and the master's return to health, that he felt obliged to place his hands on the tatami mat and bow down in the most formal manner possible, as he expressed his thanks.
Kitani's good form was evident elsewhere. In that year he tied for first place with Shimamura in the Honinbo league, and he won the Tokyo Shinbun Cup. In the following year he once again tied for first in the Honinbo league, but once again failed in the playoff. These rare losses were critical, though, because they meant he could not go on to win the Honinbo title - and that meant he could not be put forward as Meijin.

The Nihon Saikyo

With no one player able to stake a convincing claim, the way was still open to set up a Meijin tournament, and that is precisely what the Yomiuri Shinbun did. Acting with its old assertiveness, it cleverly paved the way by running a lead-in event called Japan's Strongest Player Tournament, the Nihon Saikyo. This was to run for just three terms before morphing into the Meijin tournament.

Meanwhile the Saikoi, the wind taken out of its sails, juddered on for a few more terms before the Asahi Shinbun scuttled the failing ship altogether. After just six terms, but also after nearly 40 years of support, the Asahi announced it was quitting altogether. The Yomiuri could hardly believe its luck.
The Yomiuri had been in something of a bind. Although it had the allegiance of the player most fans regarded as the effective Meijin, Go Seigen, it was not getting much return on its investment. The simple reason was that Go had more or less run out of opponents. The Yomiuri devised, almost in desperation, events such as a challenge by three promising 6-dans in 1952. Because of the grade difference the games were played at a handicap of B-2-B. Yamabe Toshiro won an easy victory with Black. Then Nakamura Yutaro, who had been given the 2-stone game after drawing lots, played a tight game to win by 1 point. Magari Reiki lost the final game with Black, but the series did enough to encourage younger players to believe they could get within striking distance of Go.

In 1953 a 7- and 8-dan tournament to find a challenger to Go pitted him against Sakata Eio in a 6-game match. Although it was at a handicap of B-W-B, Sakata won 4-1-1 and the general run of players were even more encouraged. The Nihon Ki-in was ecstatic. More to the point, this dented Go's reputation somewhat.

It was therefore a short step to installing Sakata as the long awaited new opponent for Go in a 10-game match. Unfortunately for Sakata, he was to feel the full power of Go, which many said made itself manifest only in the latter stages of a 10-game match. Starting again at B-W-B, he was beaten down to a first-move handicap after eight games, Go winning 6-2.

So the old problem re-surfaced. Who could play Go? Next in the firing line was Takagawa. Go had already embarrassed Takagawa in the annual Honinbo versus Go Seigen three-game matches, but they were with komi. For the 10-game match, under classic uchikomi rules at no komi, Go had to give a handicap of B-W-B as Takagawa was still only 8-dan. Nevertheless, he was the Honinbo and so a decision was made that this match, destined to be the last, would exceptionally be at no handicap.

It began in July 1955 and by the end of Game 8 in September 1956 Takagawa had been beaten back down to B-W-B. He salvaged some honour by winning the last two games with Black.

So, irrespective of what the Nihon Ki-in's regulations may have stipulated, Go Seigen had forced every major rival to take a handicap of at least B-W-B from him. All Yomiuri could do now was to find a way to call him a Meijin formally. Hence the start of the Nihon Saikyo.

Go meets expectations

The impetus that finally cut off opposition to a Meijin tournament in name as well as fact was an economic one. The Nihon Ki-in finances began to look shaky in 1957 and 1958. Pros themselves began muttering about the desirability of a new tournament. It so happened that the 4th Saikoi was won by one of the younger players, Fujisawa Hideyuki. That and his appointment as Nihon Ki-in liaison director led to talks between him and the Asahi Managing Director, Shinobu. However, the Asahi lost its opportunity for two reasons: Shinobu retired and Fujisawa got distracted by becoming challenger in the Honinbo. The money on offer had also not been satisfactory, although there may have been room for negotiation.

Into this breach stepped the Yomiuri, who took over the negotiations with Fujisawa, and the 1st Meijin tournament at long last began in January 1961.


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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #4 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 11:53 am 
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Wow, thank you John! I clearly need to obtain the GoGod Encyclopedia. Is there a way to do so even though it's officially discontinued?

Many thanks again.

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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #5 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 5:46 pm 
Oza
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althus wrote:
GoGod [..] officially discontinued [..]

WUT? When was that announced? How could I have missed that? :shock:

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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #6 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:33 pm 
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Bonobo wrote:
althus wrote:
GoGod [..] officially discontinued [..]

WUT? When was that announced? How could I have missed that? :shock:


The historical encyclopedia part has been discontinued, not the games database. In 2013 after T. Mark Hall passed away, it was announced on the site. It's in the FAQ. My luck that I got interested in go only after that, and am most interested in its history and culture.


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 Post subject: Re: Go History: Why did the Meijin become a tournament?
Post #7 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 9:26 pm 
Oza
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althus wrote:
Bonobo wrote:
althus wrote:
GoGod [..] officially discontinued [..]

WUT? When was that announced? How could I have missed that? :shock:


The historical encyclopedia part has been discontinued, not the games database. In 2013 after T. Mark Hall passed away, it was announced on the site. It's in the FAQ. My luck that I got interested in go only after that, and am most interested in its history and culture.


Oh, thanks … I didn't read thoroughly and overlooked the word “encyclopedia”. I actually knew about its discontinuation and am happy to have purchased a few earlier versions of GoGoD which contain it. Sorry for the confusion :oops:

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