Mid-Year 2025 Update #5
Promotions
To 8-dan (150 wins): Fujita Akihiko (as of May 23)
To 7-dan (120 wins): Mitsunaga Junzo (as of Feb. 7)
To 6-dan (90 wins): Sakamoto Yasuo (as of Jan. 31); Ando Kazushige (as of June
3); Ito Masashi (as of June 10)
To 5-dan (70 wins): (Ms.) Okuda Aya (as of March 28); Muramoto Wataru (as of April 25); Takeuchi Kosuke (as of July 29)
To 4-dan (50 wins): Mito Yukari (as of July 29)
To 3-dan (40 wins): (Ms.) Moro Arisa (as of April 4); Kondo Toshiki (as of April 8)
To 2-dan (30 wins): Kitazawa Masaki (as of Jan. 24); Goto Hajimu (as of April
15)
Retirements
Konagai Masaru 9-dan, as of March 31. Konagai was born in Tokyo on Nov. 11, 1963. He became a disciple of the late Izumitani Masanori 9-dan. He graduated from the College of Arts at Meiji University. He became 1-dan in 1982, reached 8-dan in 2001. He was promoted to 9-dan after his retirement.
Hiramoto Yasei 7-dan, as of April 1. Hiramoto was born in Tokyo on Oct. 30, 1952. He graduated from the College of Social Studies, Hitotsubashi Univerity. He became 1-dan in 1977 and was promoted to 6-dan in 1996 and to 7-dan after his retirement. His former name was Hata Hidefumi. He is known for his life-and-death problems using letters.
Kobayashi Kenji 7-dan retired on May 22. He was born in Nagano Prefecture on March 17, 1958. He entered the Kitani school and made 1-dan in 1975. He reached 7-dan in 2000 and was promoted to 8-dan on his retirement. He is a member of the famous Kobayashi family: his older sister Chizu is 6-dan; his older brother Takayuki 4-dan is a teaching professional; his younger brother is Satoru, who has won 11 titles, including the Kisei.
Obituaries
Tominaga Takeshi
Tominaga Takeshi was born in Tokyo on Oct. 8, 1969. He became a disciple of Ando Takeo 7-dan and qualified as a professional in 1992. He reached 4-dan in 2010 and retired in 2024, after which he was promoted to 5-dan. He died on April 9, 2025 and was posthumously promoted to 6-dan.
Osuka Seira
Osuka Seira 2-dan suffered a head injury in an accident and died on June 7. Born in Saitama Prefecture on Jan. 20, 2004, Osuka was a disciple of Hong Malgeunsaem 4-dan. She became 1-dan in 2020 by the special recommendation system for promising female players. She earned promotion to 2-dan in 2023 and was posthumously promoted to 3-dan. (Note: Hong is a member of the Kansai Ki-in and is better known in Japan as Hon Seisen. He has a large school of disciples, many of whom belong to the Nihon Ki-in. One of them is Miura Taro, mentioned above.)