The Nihon Ki-in (), also known as the Japan Go Association, is the main organizational body for Go in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, overseeing Japan's professional system and issuing diplomas for amateur

dan rank The ranking system is used by many Japanese, Okinawan, Korean, and other martial art organizations to indicate the level of a person's ability within a given system. Used as a ranking system to quantify skill level in a specific domain, it was ...

ings. It is based in Tokyo. The other major Go association in Japan is

Kansai Ki-in The Kansai Ki-in (), i.e., Kansai Go Association, is an organizational body for the game of Go in Japan, which was founded by Hashimoto Utaro in 1950. Though it is not as large as its chief rival, the Nihon Ki-in, it also issues diplomas to stron ...

. Its innovations include the

Oteai The was a tournament used in Japan, by the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in, to determine the ranking of its go professionals on the dan scale. It was instituted in the 1920s soon after the Ki-in was set up in 1924. Initially it was run in Spring an ...

system of promotion, time limits in professional games, and the introduction of issuing diplomas to strong amateur players, to affirm their ranks.

History

The Nihon Ki-in was established in July 1924. The first president of the Nihon Ki-in was

Makino Nobuaki Count was a Japanese politician and imperial court official. As Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan, Makino served as Emperor Hirohito’s chief counselor on the monarch’s position in Japanese society and policymaking. In this capacity, he ...

, a great Go patron himself, with

Okura Kishichiro Baron was a Japanese entrepreneur and hotelier. Biography Baron Kishichiro Okura was son of Okura Kihachiro (1837-1928), an entrepreneur who built up the Okura-gumi and founded the giant Okura Zaibatsu (family owned conglomerate) and the Okura ...

serving as vice president. The vast majority of pros at the time joined the fledgling organization, excepting the

Inoue Inoue (kanji: , historical kana orthography: ''Winouhe'') is the 16th most common Japanese surname. Historically, it was also romanized as Inouye, and many Japanese-descended people outside of Japan still retain this spelling. A less common vari ...

faction in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

and

Nozawa Chikucho Nozawa (written: or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese screenwriter and mystery novelist *, Japanese voice actress and actress affiliated with, and chairma ...

. A brief splinter group called Kiseisha was created soon after the Nihon Ki-in was formed, but most of the players involved had returned to the Nihon Ki-in within a couple of years. Then in 1950, its western branch split away to form the

Tournaments

The Nihon Ki-in organizes many tournaments for professional players. The major title tournaments include the Kisei,

Meijin is one of the eight titles in Japanese professional shogi, and is the most prestigious title, along with Ryūō. The word ''meijin'' (名 ''mei'' "excellent, artful", 人 ''jin'' "person") refers to a highly skilled master of a certain field (t ...

Honinbo In the history of Go in Japan, the four Go houses were four major schools of Go instituted, supported, and controlled by the state, at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. (There were also many minor houses.) At roughly the same time shogi w ...

, Judan, Tengen, Gosei, and the Oza. There are also separate Honinbo, Meijin, and Kisei titles for women.

Major title winners by year

(*):

player

Organization

* Tokyo Headquarters (Ichigaya): 7-2 Goban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo * Tokyo Yurakucho Igo Center: 9F Tokyo Kotsu-Kaikan, 2-10-1 Yuraku-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo * Osaka Headquarters: 10F Applause Tower, 19-19 Sayamachi, Osaka * Osaka Umeda Igo Salon: 6F Hankyu Five Annex Building, 1-23 Sumidacho, Kita-ku, Osaka * Chubu Headquarters: 1-19 Syumoku-cho, Higashi-ku, Nagoya * The Nihon Ki-in European Go Cultural Centre: Schokland14,1181 HV Amstelveen, Netherlands * Nihon Ki-in Do Brasil: R. Dr Fabricio Vampre No116, Ana Rosa - São Paulo - Brazil * Nihon Ki-in Go Institute of The West U.S.A.: 700 N.E., 45th Street, Seattle WA

References

External links