Official News Release

On January 5th, 2016, the regular new year's event "Shogi-do Prayer Ceremony" was held at Hatonomori Hachiman Shrine in Sendagaya, Tokyo.

"New Year's First Game Ceremony" was also held at Shogi-Kaikan in Tokyo and Osaka, where many professional players and related parties attended.

2016 Shogi-do Prayer Ceremony

2016 New Year's First Game Ceremony

Shogi-kaikan, Tokyo
　

A student from the Shogi-kaikan Children's Class

　
Ryu-ou Akira Watanabe and Ou-shou Masataka Gouda attended as well

Shogi-kaikan, Osaka
　
　
New Year's First Game was played also in Kansai Shogi-kaikan (Osaka)

Happy New Year.
First I would like to express my wish that 2016 will be a wonderful year for all shogi fans.

Ei-ou Tournament, newly started last year, was won by 8-Dan Takayuki Yamasaki. You could expect exciting games in the Den-nou 2-game Match in spring.
Japan Series Children's Shogi Tournament gathered more than 10,000 participants for the first time as a sum of 11 locations. This is entirely thanks to the continued efforts by the shogi fans, members of JSA branches, and official trainers. I would like to express my gratitude once again to all of you.

Last year we saw a trend that more and more people are starting to be familiarized with shogi, seeing Ms. Karin Itou of Nogizaka 46 being the presenter of Shogi Focus on NHK, as well as figure skater Mr. Yuzuru Hanyu talking about shogi in his interview.
And this year, "March comes in like a lion" and "Satoshi-no-seishun" (Satoshi's Youth) are going to be made into films. We hope to be able to provide many new pleasant topics for the shogi fans.
We would like to thank you in advance for your continued support.

January 2016
Chairman Koji Tanigawa