Oza

    Keywords: Tournament

Chinese: 王座 (wángzuò)
Japanese: 王座 (Ōza)
Korean: -

See Also: World Oza

Oza (王座 Ōza), which literally means "throne", is the second oldest of the seven big titles in Japanese professional Go. The winner's prize is ¥14,000,000 currently, ranking it fourth among the big seven. It is sponsored by the [ext] Nihon Keizai Shinbun. All professional players of the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in can participate.

The Oza shares most of its structure with the other big titles in Japan - the winner of a preliminary tournament (in this case a single knockout tournament) plays a best of five match against the previous year's title holder. This has been the case since the 16th Oza in 1968. Prior to that it was a best of three match (except for the 1st edition) between the final two players from the knockout tournament, making it much more difficult to be a repeat title holder (as only Hashimoto Utaro and Sakata Eio were able to achieve).

Due to the importance of the Oza as one of the "big seven" titles in Japan, there are several paths of automatic rank advancement through it in the Nihon Ki-in new promotion system. Challenging for the title warrants a promotion to 7-dan, actually winning the title promotes to 8-dan, and finally winning the title twice gives an immediate 9-dan promotion.

Winners and Runners-up

The title match usually starts in October.

Winners and defeated finalists
1st 1953 Hashimoto Utaro Maeda Nobuaki 1-0
2nd 1954 Takagawa Kaku Miyashita Shuyo 2-1
3rd 1955 Hashimoto Utaro Shimamura Toshihiro 2-0
4th 1956 Hashimoto Utaro Sakata Eio 2-0
5th 1957 Shimamura Toshihiro Handa Dogen 2-0
6th 1958 Fujisawa Hosai Handa Dogen 2-0
7th 1959 Hashimoto Shoji Yamabe Toshiro 2-0
8th 1960 Handa Dogen Miyashita Shuyo 2-0
9th 1961 Sakata Eio Takagawa Kaku 2-1
10th 1962 Miyashita Shuyo Kada Katsuji 2-0
11th 1963 Sakata Eio Fujisawa Hosai 2-0
12th 1964 Sakata Eio Kajiwara Takeo 2-0
13th 1965 Handa Dogen Okubo Ichigen 2-0
14th 1966 Sakata Eio Rin Kaiho 2-1
15th 1967 Fujisawa Hideyuki Hashimoto Shoji 2-0
16th 1968 Fujisawa Hideyuki Sakata Eio 2-0 [1]
17th 1969 Fujisawa Hideyuki Otake Hideo 2-0
18th 1970 Sakata Eio Fujisawa Hideyuki 2-0
19th 1971 Sakata Eio Hashimoto Shoji 2-0
20th 1972 Sakata Eio Hashimoto Utaro 2-1
21st 1973 Rin Kaiho Sakata Eio 2-1
22nd 1974 Ishida Yoshio Rin Kaiho 2-1
23rd 1975 Otake Hideo Ishida Yoshio 2-0
24th 1976 Cho Chikun Otake Hideo 2-1
25th 1977 Kudo Norio Cho Chikun 2-0
26th 1978 Ishida Yoshio Kudo Norio 2-1
27th 1979 Kato Masao Ishida Yoshio 2-0
28th 1980 Kato Masao Ishida Yoshio 2-0
29th 1981 Hashimoto Shoji Kato Masao 2-1
30th 1982 Kato Masao Hashimoto Shoji 2-0
31st 1983 Kato Masao Otake Hideo 2-0
32nd 1984 Kato Masao Yamashiro Hiroshi 3-0
33rd 1985 Kato Masao Kobayashi Koichi 3-0
34th 1986 Kato Masao Rin Kaiho 3-1
35th 1987 Kato Masao Cho Chikun 3-1
36th 1988 Kato Masao Takemiya Masaki 3-0
37th 1989 Kato Masao Hane Yasumasa 3-1
38th 1990 Hane Yasumasa Kato Masao 3-2
39th 1991 Fujisawa Hideyuki Hane Yasumasa 3-1
40th 1992 Fujisawa Hideyuki Kobayashi Koichi 3-2
41st 1993 Kato Masao Fujisawa Hideyuki 3-0
42nd 1994 Cho Chikun Kato Masao 3-2
43rd 1995 O Rissei Cho Chikun 3-0
44th 1996 Ryu Shikun O Rissei 3-0
45th 1997 Yamada Kimio Ryu Shikun 3-1
46th 1998 O Rissei Yamada Kimio 3-0
47th 1999 O Rissei Cho Chikun 3-1
48th 2000 O Rissei Cho Chikun 3-1
49th 2001 Cho Chikun O Rissei 3-0
50th 2002 O Meien Cho Chikun 3-2
51st 2003 Cho U O Meien 3-1
52nd 2004 Cho U Yamashita Keigo 3-1
53rd 2005 Cho U Yamashita Keigo 3-0
54th 2006 Yamashita Keigo Cho U 3-1
55th 2007 Yamashita Keigo Imamura Toshiya 3-1
56th 2008 Cho U Yamashita Keigo 3-1
57th 2009 Cho U Yamada Kimio 3-0
58th 2010 Cho U Yamada Kimio 3-0
59th 2011 Cho U Hane Naoki 3-0
60th 2012 Iyama Yuta Cho U 3-0
61st 2013 Iyama Yuta Cho U 3-1
62nd 2014 Murakawa Daisuke Iyama Yuta 3-2
63rd 2015 Iyama Yuta Murakawa Daisuke 3-0
64th 2016 Iyama Yuta Yo Seiki 3-0
65th 2017 Iyama Yuta Ichiriki Ryo 3-0
66th 2018 Iyama Yuta Ichiriki Ryo 3-2
67th 2019 Shibano Toramaru Iyama Yuta 3-1
68th 2020 Shibano Toramaru Kyo Kagen 3-1
69th 2021 Iyama Yuta Shibano Toramaru 3-2
70th 2022 Iyama Yuta Yo Seiki 3-0
71st 2023 Iyama Yuta Yo Seiki 3-2

Oza last edited by Jono64a on January 5, 2024 - 06:31
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