Talk:Ōza (shogi)

Pre-1983 Winners

I have added names of players who won the tournament prior to it being elevated to major title status in 1983. The information was taken from the JSA's official Oza page found here. Other information, including the cited book by Tanabe was taken from the match's Japanese Wikipedia article. This information needed to be added for the changes explained in the next paragraph to make sense. The original text made it seem like the 1st Oza tournament took place in 1983, which is not true and not consistent with how the Japan Shogi Association lists the tournament.

In addition, the JSA does not use calendar years to identify or count major title matches. It uses ordinal numbers and either the counter word kai (回) or ki (期) instead to refer to the title match by the number of "times" or "periods" it has been held to date. For example, the Oza title match between Habu (the reigning Oza) and Nakamura (the challenger) held in 2013 is officially referred to as the "61st Oza (Title) Match" (第61期王座位戦, dai rokujūikki ōza sen) and not the "2013 Oza (Title) Match" because it was the 61st time the match had been held; furthermore, major title holders are referred to in a similar fashion, e.g., the official title of Habu is "61st Oza" (第61期王座, dai rokujūikki ōza) and not "2013 Oza". So, I have added another column ("No.") to the table listing the past winners to reflect this practice. - Marchjuly (talk) 06:51, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

The old Shogi magazine says that it became a title match in 1969. But, perhaps this just means a mere "title" that is held for a year? Whereas, in the 1983, it became a "major title"? I don't know. Just a discrepancy. – ishwar  (speak) 05:31, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

The JSA recently revamped their official website so many of the links cited in shogi articles from their website have been overwritten with new content. The one I posted above can be found here now. The heading of the table of winner includes the paranthetical "※31期よりタイトル戦になる" which is where I got the original info from. Of course, it possible that Hodges is also right in a way, but my guess is that the JSA is likely to be "more right" here. FWIW, I think タイトル戦 as used by the JSA in context of shogi refers to the 7 major titles and not stuff like the NHK Cup, Ginza Sen, Asahi Open, etc. All those are 棋戦 for sure, but not all kisen are title matches. -- Marchjuly (talk) 05:55, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

It's hard to say since Shogi is in English (and doesn't mention any Japanese terms here). So, it could be that Hodges's title ≠ タイトル. Or, it could be that タイトル had a different definition than it does now. Or, maybe Hodge just misunderstands. At least Hodge did define his term. At any rate, something changed in 1969 and, I guess, changed again in 1983. I'll quote the relevant bit:

The Ôza tournament is sponsored by the Nihon Kiezai Shimbum (a kind of Financial Times). It was started in 1953 as a knockout tournament, with three games in the final. In 1969 it was made into a regular title tournament That is, the winner holds the title for a year and then meets the challenger, who is selected by knockout tournament from the remaining professionals. Changing it to a title raises the prize money and the prestige of the championship. Incidentally, Ôza means "throne". ¶ Nakahara, who 7-dan at the time, became the first title holder in 1969 and successfully defended his title until 1975, when he lost to Kiriyama.... ¶ This year's event was in effect a return match for Nakahara, who took back his title with a score of 2–0....'

I'll keeping reading Shogi up around 1983–1985 to see if it reports anything else about the tournament. – ishwar  (speak) 14:25, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Another issue from 1978 says that there 6 major professional titles and Oza is not one of the them. – ishwar  (speak) 14:58, 13 April 2017 (UTC)