The Nihon Ki-in preliminaries were grouped into 12 groups according to the zodiac sign of the player, see below.
Below the tournament winners. The first column links to the separate tournaments.
| # | year | winner | runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1995 | O Rissei | Cho Chikun |
| 2 | 1996 | Cho Chikun | Nakaonoda Tomomi |
| 3 | 1997 | Yoda Norimoto | Ryu Shikun |
| 4 | 1998 | Kato Atsushi | Cho Chikun |
| 5 | 1999 | Otake Hideo | Ishida Yoshio |
| # | year | Taurus | Aries | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra | Scorpion | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3/21-4/19 | 4/20-5/20 | 5/21-6/21 | 6/22-7/22 | 7/23-8/22 | 8/23-9/23 | 9/24-10/23 | 10/24-11/22 | 11/23-12/21 | 12/22-1/20 | 1/21-2/18 | 2/19-3/20 | ||
| 1 | 1995 | Cho Sonjin | Nishimura Keiji | Aoki Shinichi | Ishida Atsushi | Hane Naoki | Izumitani Hideo | Ishii Mamoru | Hidaka Toshiyuki | Miyazawa Goro | Sakai Takeshi | Sato Fumitoshi | Kosugi Kiyoshi |
| 2 | 1996 | Hisajima Kunio | Okada Shinichiro | Ko Mosei | Iwata Tatsuaki | Hashimoto Yujiro | |||||||
| 3 | 1997 | Ogaki Yusaku | Otake Hideo | Hisajima Kunio | Hane Yasumasa | Kataoka Satoshi | Kobayashi Koichi | Sugiuchi Masao | O Meien | Miyazawa Goro | Kanashima Tadashi | Hashimoto Yujiro | Hikosaka Naoto |
| 4 | 1998 | Cho Sonjin | Takanashi Seiken | Haruyama Isamu | Mimura Tomoyasu | Kato Atsushi | So Yokoku | Morita Michihiro | Takao Shinji | Hiroe Hiroyuki | Takemiya Masaki | Kim Sujun | Ueki Yoshio |
| 5 | 1999 | Kobayashi Satoru | Otake Hideo | Sanno Hirotaka | Ishida Atsushi | Ishida Yoshio | Yamashita Keigo | Goto Shungo | O Meien | Miyazawa Goro | Cho U | Kim Sujun | Kobayashi Kenji |
Dates given for zodiac signs vary a little. The choice made here accomodates Cho U *1980-01-20, Izumitani Hideo *1969-09-23, and O Meien *1961-11-22.