60455    This year's plans center around holding the best-of-seven match beginning in April, which also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the tournament's founding, and are likely to attract further attention.

60456    Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, Sokei I Ohashi became the first Meijin in 1612.

60457    Afterwards, the three shogi houses of Ohashi Honke, Ohashi Bunke and Ito carried on the name of Meijin through successive generations, and the era of the 13th Meijin Sekine came after the turbulence of the Meiji Restoration was overcome.

60458    The Tokyo Shoji Association was created in 1924 and newspapers began carrying the shogi record, which in turn raised the level of interest in professional shogi players.

60459    Meijin Sekine retired, paving the way for the first Meijin title match and a league tournament comprising nine shogi players began with a match between Chotaro Hanada and Kingoro Kaneko in June 1935, with the shogi records carried solely by the Tokyo Nichinichi and the Osaka Mainichi Daily News newspapers.

60460    Kimura won the championship in the end and became the first Meijin to reign under the tournament system.

60461    Kimura continued to demonstrate unmatchable prowess and became a hero of the times, joining the ranks of yokozuna Futabayama.

60462    Following a suggestion by Meijin Kimura after the war, a tournament system was introduced to rank all shogi players in the nation except the Meijin, with the top player competing against the Meijin once a year.

60463    The first challenger for the title of Meijin after the war was a man called Masao Tsukada, who beat Kimura-once thought of as invincible-to capture the title of Meijin.

60464    The new wave after the war included prodigies of Kinjiro Kimi, including Kozo Masuda and Yasuharu Oyama, who battled against each other in 1948 for the right to challenge for the Meijin title in a three-game match on Mount Koya in Wakayama prefecture.

60465    Masuda was favored to win, yet fell to Oyama, who advanced on the way to the Meijin title but was cut short by Tsukada.

60466    Kimura, aroused by the up-and-coming players nipping at his heels, fought his way to a rematch with Tsukada the following year in 1949 and reclaimed the title in the last game at the Saineikan Hall of the Imperial Palace.

60467    Beginning with the ninth competition, the Asahi Shimbun replaced the Mainichi Daily News as the sponsor of the Meijin tournament.

60468    Kimura defeated both Oyama and Masuda to hold a total of eight career titles, but at the 11th tournament in 1952, he was finally beaten by Oyama and never again recaptured the Meijin title, retiring with the words, "I have a good successor."

60469    After Kimura's retirement, he was recommended to become the 14th lifetime Meijin.