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Sunday, October 18.
JR Toyama Station, before the Shinkansen ticket gates.
The 37th Hokuriku Open.
Satoshi Kawabata won the men’s title. Chihiro Kawahara won the women’s.
The first round, and the final
Satoshi Kawabata’s four matches in the final stage.
First round, against Tomoya Iima: seven to six.
Second round, against Norio Ogawa: seven to five.
Semifinal, against Yoshioka: seven to five.
Final, against Inagawa: seven to six.
Two of the four went all the way to the last rack.
The first match, and the last.
In the final, Inagawa reached the hill first, at six to five.
From there, Satoshi Kawabata took the last two.
The last rack, he ran from the break.
His first title at this tournament.
The other road to the final
Inagawa had won the fifth leg of the Grand Prix West only at the start of October.
On this day, too, he beat Yamakawa seven to three in the first round, and Takenaka seven to four in the second.
In the semifinal, against Yoshihiro Kitatani, who won this tournament last year: seven to three.
The final ended seven to six.
One rack is the difference the record keeps.
The last rack
Six to six.
For both of them, one rack to go.
Twelve racks played, and what remains at the end is a single break.
The score, seven to six, speaks only of that last rack.
Not of the racks that piled up before it.
The women: a fourth title
Chihiro Kawahara’s three matches.
First round, against Muramatsu: six to two.
Semifinal, against Chie Aoki: six to two.
Final, against Yuki Hiraguchi: six to three.
Her fourth Hokuriku Open title.
This autumn, she had reached the final four at the Women’s World 9-Ball Championship in Bali.
Her opponent in the final, Yuki Hiraguchi, beat Yukawa six to three in the first round and Tamami Okuda six to two in the semifinal.
Before the gates, she played on to the last table.
The day billiards came to the ticket gates
At midday before the gates, children stood at small tables, cues in hand.
A kids’ billiards session, for parents and children to play together.
Someone put a table up on a big screen and walked people new to billiards through the rules and the flow of a match.
Around the tables of the final stage, a ring of people formed.
Up on the second-floor railing, too, people stand in a row, looking down.
Some have stopped where they are, a suitcase still at their side.
Those who knew the rules and those who did not were watching the same shot.
When the matches were over, the space before the gates soon went back to an ordinary night.
People step off the Shinkansen, pass through the gates, and head home, each to their own.
Even so, on this day, in this place, a great many people had a brush with billiards.
A child who held a cue at a small table may, one day, have a cue of their own.
And, at some Hokuriku Open many editions from now, may step up to a table before the gates.
Sources for the results
- 2026 Hokuriku Open [official] bracket (final stage, special venue at JR Toyama Station) https://billi-walker.jp/jpba/hokurikuopen/2026/draws
- On the hill!, “2026 Hokuriku Open: Satoshi Kawabata, first Hokuriku Open title!! Chihiro Kawahara takes her 4th in the women’s!” (in Japanese) https://www.onthehill.jp/archives/107794
- The 37th Hokuriku Open official website (in Japanese) https://hokuriku-open-billiards.com/
👉 Billiards resources from Japan and around the world, organized by purpose: Billiards in Depth (latest updated hourly)
