Saikyo
Saikyo (最強 Saikyō), the Japanese word for Strongest, was a title from 1959-1961, and is one of many obsolete titles in Japanese Go.
Winners
1958 Go Seigen (8-1-1)
Ahead of Kitani Minoru, Sakata Eio, Hashimoto Utaro, Takagawa Kaku and Fujisawa Hosai.
1959 Sakata Eio (8-1-1)
Ahead of Kitani Minoru, Go Seigen, Iwata Masao, Hashimoto Utaro and Takagawa Kaku.
1960 Jointly Go Seigen and Sakata Eio (6-3-1)
Ahead of Iwata Masao, Hashimoto Utaro, Hashimoto Shoji and Kitani Minoru
The system was a league of six players, each playing the others twice (there was no komi).
See http://gobase.org/games/japan/TITLES/saikyo.html.
This title was replaced in 1962 by the Meijin title.
With the exception of Iwata all were 9 dan, at a time when there were very few 9 dans. The series probably evolved from the 1957-1958 Japan's Strongest Deciding Matches.
--TimBrent
mgoetze: I thought Takagawa was still 8 dan at this time?
The 1st Nihon Saikyo games took place 1956-1958, for example. There is some scrambled information around for the late 1950s. Charles Matthews