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.

60470    Oyama defeated Masuda and his fellow Kimi apprentices one after the other to successfully capture five consecutive titles and become a lifetime Meijin, but the sixth time around he battled Masuda three times and ended up relinquishing the title of Meijin.

60471    Masuda was a king of a game, who attained the ninth level and was the first to hold three different titles.

60472    In 1959, Oyama made a comeback and reclaimed the Meijin title by successively repulsing Masuda and the powerful newcomers, Tatsuya Futakami, Hifumi Kato, Michiyoshi Yamada, and fellow Kimi prodigies such as Michio Ariyoshi to hold 13 consecutive Meijin titles, 18 in all with the addition of his earlier titles.

60473    The rising sun, Makoto Nakahara, was the one to break Oyama's stronghold.

60474    Nakahara fearlessly competed against Oyama and captured the Meijin title at the young age of 24.

60475    He defended his title nine consecutive times from then until 1981, acquiring the right to be named the 16th lifetime Meijin.

60476    In the meantime, the sponsoring newspaper changed back again from the Asahi Shimbun to the Mainichi Daily News in 1976.

60477    Kato was the one to stop Nakahara in his tracks, and was called the first genius since Jimmu.

60478    In 1982, Kato, who had previously had a difficult time against Nakahara, defeated him in a fierce ten-game match that included one "jishogi," or impasse, and two "sennichite," or draws by repetition of moves.