From: Patrick Davin LYRA VEGA OR JP> Date: 9 oct 1997 Subject: Re: Life time ...Oi??? Understanding the rankings among players, George Jost asks a number of questions: >Can one get a lifetime award of each of the big 7 titles or does that >honour only apply to being Meijin? (LIfetime Meijin requires winning the >title 5 times in a carreer.) Tanikawa has recently attained this goal. Habu >has won 3 Meijin matches. Habu seems to have attained or almost attained this >standing in most of the titles. One can earn a "lifetime title" for any of the big seven titles, but the requirements have some variations. Most of them require 5 title victories, but the lifetime Osho requires 10, and the lifetime Kio requires 5 _consecutive_ victories. The NHK television tournament also offers a lifetime title to anyone who can win 10 times. So far, I believe Hifumi Kato (9-dan) is closest with 7. >If so I suppose Habu is currently playing for lifetime Oi? He would also have >lifetime standings in the Kensei (5), Oza(6), and Kio (7). He appears to need >one more game to have have lifetime membership in the Ryuo and the Oi. He has >"only" one 2 Osho titles so far. Habu earned the lifetime Oi this August by winning his fifth Oi match. He is still quite young; lifetime Meijin and Ryuo are presumably only a matter of time. >I did not look that closely. I wonder how many other players that are still in >circulation have attained every title or attained a given title more than 5 >times. I also wonder if being Meijin or Ryuo is more prestigious or having >more titles? I also wonder when players retire? (Age, declining ability or >just by choice.) Habu is the only player ever to have attained all 7 titles simultaneously. Yasuharu Oyama, 15th Lifetime Meijin, was dominant for so long that he was allowed to use the lifetime meijin title while he was still playing. (Nakahara and Tanigawa will have to wait till they retire.) He played 112 title matches all told, winning 80. He held all 5 titles at once (this was before there was a Kio or Oza) on three occasions, the first time for over two years. Makoto Nakahara, who will be the 16th Lifetime Meijin after retirement, is now by special dispensation called Lifetime Judan. (The Judan title disappeared and was replaced by the Ryuo in 1988.) Nakahara has held all 7 titles, and up to 5 (out of 6) simultaneously. He has fought 91 title matches, winning 64, and is still in the A Class, so it remains possible he might win a couple more... Prestige. The Meijin title has by far the most historical prestige. The Ryuo has the largest prizes, hence the most monetary prestige. This year Tanigawa will make more money than Habu, I believe, based on two top titles plus the All-Japan Pro versus Habu's four "cheaper" titles. Players retire for all the reasons. Oyama died in the middle of his 45th A Class season. It's rumored that if Nakahara or Yonenaga fall out of the A Class, they will immediately retire. Paradoxically, it is said that strong players are pressured to retire early, so as not to tarnish their achievements.