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Image: Hokuriku Open Organizing Committee
Sunday, October 18.
JR Toyama Station, just before the Shinkansen ticket gates.
In a place people usually only pass through, a billiard table will be set.
The Hokuriku Open.
This year will be the thirty-seventh.
Since 1987
It began in 1987.
It is said to have begun as Japan’s first open billiards tournament.
In 1997, a women’s division was added.
For the three years from 2020, it did not take place.
Even so, one edition has followed another.
For many years, its stage was mostly in Ishikawa.
Kanazawa. Hakusan. Nonoichi.
In time it moved to Toyama, and this year will be the third time the final is played before the station’s ticket gates.
A place where it could be seen by people waiting for trains, by shoppers, by those who live nearby.
That is how the venue was introduced before last year’s tournament.
Last year’s final table
Last year, the men’s title went to Yoshihiro Kitatani.
His second win here, twelve years after his first.
His opponent in the final was Lo Li-wen.
The women’s title went to Miyuki Kuribayashi.
Her third win, ten years after her last.
Her opponent in the final was Takada.
The year before, it was here that Teruya won his first official title.
Among the women, Samia Konishi won in Hokuriku for the first time.
Twelve years. Ten years. A first.
Between the numbers in the results, each of them has an autumn folded away.
Two hundred eighty-two, and twenty-four
Saturday is for the qualifiers.
Players spread out across eleven pool halls in Toyama and Ishikawa.
Two hundred eighteen men. Sixty-four women.
The game is 9-ball, with alternating breaks.
In the qualifiers, one loss does not end it.
Those who lose are still left a path, up a second mountain.
On Sunday, those who make it to the ticket gates will be sixteen men and eight women.
Twenty-four, out of two hundred eighty-two.
Some of you may have lost once at a house tournament, then climbed back through the losers’ side, one match at a time.
You may remember a night when the wait for a table to come free felt strangely long.
The names on this year’s list
On the list of entrants are the names of last year’s two champions, Yoshihiro Kitatani and Miyuki Kuribayashi.
And Lo Li-wen, who stood at that final table.
Chihiro Kawahara, who two weeks ago reached the final four at the Women’s World 9-Ball Championship in Bali.
Inagawa, who won the fifth leg of the Grand Prix West at the start of October.
Teruya. Samia Konishi.
Yuki Hiraguchi. Tamami Okuda. Hiroko Sahara.
Sunday’s matches are scheduled to stream on the JPBA’s YouTube channel.
At the venue, there will also be a session where parents and children can try billiards together.
Students from a local high school billiards club will be helping out, we are told.
Sunday, Toyama Station
People step off the Shinkansen and pass through the gates.
The sound of rolling suitcases drifts across the floor.
Beyond the gates, there is a table.
Before the nine ball, the player holds the stance and, for a while, does not move.
Someone passing by stops.
Perhaps they do not know the rules of 9-ball.
Even so, the stillness before the stroke — that much reaches them.
Before the ticket gates, a table is set.
Tournament sources
– On the hill!, “2026 Hokuriku Open: Oct. 17-18 (Sat-Sun) [draw posted]” (in Japanese) https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/107794
– On the hill!, “CUE-SHOP.JP: The 37th Hokuriku Open, October 17-18, 2026; the final on a special stage at JR Toyama Station” (in Japanese) https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/106464
– Hokuriku Open official website (in Japanese) https://hokuriku-open-billiards.com/
– JPBA, “The 37th Hokuriku Open” (in Japanese) https://jpba.ne.jp/wp/info/info-25330/
– 2026 Hokuriku Open live scores https://billi-walker.jp/jpba/hokurikuopen/2026
– Billiards Days, “The Hokuriku Open this weekend; Sunday at the event space before the Shinkansen gates at JR Toyama Station” (October 9, 2025, in Japanese) https://www.billiards-days.com/20251009-2/
– On the hill!, “2025 Hokuriku Open: Miyuki Kuribayashi, third win in 10 years! Yoshihiro Kitatani, second win in 12 years!” (in Japanese) https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/95048
– On the hill!, “2024 Hokuriku Open: Teruya, at long last, a first official title!” (in Japanese) https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/83909
– JPBA official YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jpbaofficialsite
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