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Special Cooperation / East Japan Railway, HITACHI, Japan Airlines
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| Scenes from the Tournament |
November 15th (Sunday) Award Ceremony
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| « Awards Ceremony and Farewell Party » |
Next, the Closing Ceremony and Awards Ceremony. The competitors who had fought so fiercely and had so much fun gathered together. Everyone had a smile, as if they had been waiting for this moment. Animated conversations that disdained barriers of language were taking place here and there. This happens every year, but it’s still a sight to make the heart dance. The excitement was heightened by alcohol, and the hall was filled with cheerful voices.
To lead off, there was a speech by Masatake Matsuda, President of the Japan Pair Go Association. ‘Year by year this tournament has flourished more and more and has now reached its 20th year. It’s become an adult. This year, too, a large number of people took part, we were blessed with good weather, and it’s been a great tournament. I’m grateful to everyone who took part. The large number of young people really makes me happy. The competition makes the tournament more exciting. I would like to thank, first of all, the winning pair and all the other pairs for making the tournament more exciting.’
A number of congratulatory telegrams, including one from the Minister for Education and Science, were read out, though the MC, Yoshiko Inaba, apologized that there wasn’t time to introduce all of them. The MC, on behalf of the organizers: ‘Thank you very much for all the words of encouragement and heart-warming support and congratulations. With your words as support, we will continue to do our best to popularize and promote pair go. Thank you very much.’
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The awards ceremony is about to begin
Prize winners
Presenters of prizes for the Main Tournament
Speech by Masatake Matsuda, President of the Japan Pair Go Association
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Next, the Awards Ceremony. The triumphant Korean pair of Song and Lee received the I.A.P. Go Cup, a certificate, the victory cup, a shield, and, as a supplementary prize, a pair trip to Hawaii and 100,000 yen. Next came the award of the Prime Minister’s Prize and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Cup. The smiles never left the faces of the winning pair.
Oda and Nagayo, the winners of second place, came up on to the stage. They received the J.A.P. Go Cup, for the top Japanese pair, a shield, and a domestic return air ticket from JAL as a supplementary prize. They missed out on victory, but they received an enthusiastic round of applause from the audience for their splendid achievement in winning their way from the qualifying tournaments to the final.
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Presentation of the I・A・P・GO Cup diploma to the champion pair
by Masatake Matsuda
Presentation of the I・A・P・GO Cup to the champion pair
by Masatake Matsuda
Presentation of the Prime Minister’s Prize to the champion pair
by Mr. Tadao Maekawa, public affairs manager of East Japan Railway
Presentation of the Foreign Minister’s Cup to the champion pair
by Yuichi Iwasaki, Managing Director of the Japan Pair Go Association
Presentation of the J・A・P－GO Cup to thetop Japanese pair
by Eitaro Iwama, Chairman of the Board of
Directors of the Japan Pair Go Association
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Next, the awards for the Araki Cup handicap tournaments.
Winners of the A Block were the Kazuko Kanai/Yuki Nakamura pair. Nakamura, who is still a high-school student, became interested in Go when he read Hikaru no Go when he was in second grade of elementary school. He began commuting to classes at the Nihon Ki-in. Later, when he was in second year of junior high, ‘I was scouted by my senior Hirotetsu’ at the Johoku Middle School and High School cultural festival, said Nakamura. Hirotetsu is the second son of Kazuko Kanai (he came to the tournament, of course, to cheer Nakamura on). With a smile covering her whole face, Kanai said: ‘I’m really happy, because it’s a long time since I had a win.’
Results in each block are as given below.
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A block
| winner |
Kazuko Kanai (Tokyo, 6-dan) / Yuki Nakamura (tokyo 5-dan) |
| 2 |
Yoko Kawamura (Kanagawa, 2-dan) / Norio Kikoku (Kanagawa, 6-dan) |
| 3 |
Hiroe Yoneda (Kanagawa, 4-dan) / Nobuhiro Ozawa (Tokyo, 6-dan) |
B block
| winner |
Risako Kanno (Tokyo, 1-kyu) / Jun Mitsui (Saitama, 6-dan) |
| 2 |
Masako Kawamura (Tokyo, 1-dan) / Yuichi Tanimiya (Tokyo, 6-dan) |
| 3 |
Noriko Moue (Tokyo, 2-dan) / Jun Ito (Tokyo, 4-dan) |
C block
| winner |
Kumiko Ishii (Saitama, 5-dan) / Daisuke Hara (Saitama, 11-kyu) |
| 2 |
Kayoko Matsuda (Saitama, 14-kyu) / Atsuyuki Mori (Chiba, 8-dan) |
| 3 |
Kumi Hasegawa (Tokyo, 6-kyu) / Yoshinobu Hasegawa (Tokyo, 3-dan) |
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Presenters of prizes for the Handicap Tournament
Presentation of a diploma to the A Block winning pair
by Mr. Tadashi Seyama, ｍanaging director of Japan Freight Railway Company
Presentation of the Minister of Education's Encouragement Trophy
to the A Block winning pair
by Shinji Iwasaki, Vice President of the Japan Pair Go Association
Presentation of a
Shield to the B Block winning pair by Mr.Shigeru Matsuki
Presentation of a diploma to the C Block winning pair
by Mr.Akira Shiota
The handicap tournaments' Go Stone Quiz being conducted
by Michael Redmond 9-dan
The handicap tournaments’ Go Stone Quiz being conducted
by Michael Redmond 9-dan
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At this point, the persons who received awards on Saturday for meritorious services to Pair Go (for the development of this tournament and the Popularization of Pair Go) were introduced again on the screen on the stage.
One of the seven Japanese awardees, Imayo Matsumoto of Ehime Prefecture, is a strong player who takes part in the Handicap Tournament every year. Three years ago, her husband passed away, and she now teams up with her son Akio. The latter said: ‘Although my mother is now over 80, she comes by herself to Tokyo by plane. It’s great to see her in such good health. I live in Tokyo, so I do my duty as a son once a year.’
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