This is a collection of 40 photos from the renju world. The first pictures are from the history. You will also find pictures of most of the best and famous players.
1. Takayama Goraku was the 1st Permanent Meijin (Meijin for life-time).
2. Takagi Rakuzan was the 3rd Permanent Meijin.
3. You can see 5 persons at the picture. It is from left a.Kyozo Isobe, 8 times Meijin by playing in a meijin match against e. b.Arai Kaseki, whos has written many books on renju. c.Gosi Sakata, was the 5th and last Permanent Meijin. d.Kuramochi. e.Toshio Nishimura. Ass a much older player he was no 3 in the 1st WC in Kyoto.
4. Wataru Ikawa, visiting Tommy Maltell in Helsingborg, Sweden in March 1992 just after the 2nd Swedish Championship of Renju. Wataru Ikawa is one of the writers of the first book on renju in English. He and I wrote a lot of letters to each other as we were international representatives of Japan and Sweden when or nations first got in touch with each other.
5. Swedish Open International Championship of Renju in Jönköping in December 1982 was the 1st international tournament of renju. The players standing from left are: Lars B Melin, Stig Werninger, Stefan Jansson, Ola Kårén, Ingvar Sundling and Christer Lorentsson, Jorma Karppinen, Peter Jonsson, Tord Andersson, Tommy Maltell, Ingemar Sundberg, Stefan Möller. The players sitting from left are: Tadayoshi Tanaka (the winner), Tuylushi Hayakawa, Kosho Hayakawa and Shoseki Honda. He was 81 then and he defeated all the 3 best Swedish players.He has then visited Sweden 4 times more and he took part in the Kyoto 1200-years jubilee tournament 1994.
6. 1993 I visited Japan. I was the first Swedish player visiting Japan. There I met Goro Sakata, one of the writers of the 1st book in English about renju. He showed me some of his old books on renju.
7. Visiting Japan 1993 I played in a tournament in Hakone. Several famous players took part. First from the left is Shunzo Ohno who like Shoseki Honda has visited Sweden a lot of times. He and Shoseki Honda is honarary members of the Swedish Association.
8. In Hakone I met Shigeru Nakamura for the first time. Here we are playing a game in the Japanese way by sitting on the floor. Shigeru Nakamura has been the best players in the World for many years. He won the 1st and the 2nd World Championships.
9. In the Hakone tournament Shigeru Nakamura won the 1st price and the 2nd price was given to Takahashi Hishashi. The girl is my daughter Ingela, the 8 years.
10.Visiting Japan I also went to Kyoto where I was very much welcomed by Kosho Hayakawa. Kosho Hayakawa is the leader of international contacts in Japan and the Vice President of RIF. Here is a picture from his renju school.