Masataka Gōda

Masataka Goda is the kind of shogi pro who makes you feel slightly inadequate just by existing. Born in Tokyo in 1971, he's spent decades grinding through the brutal hierarchy of professional shogi — a world where most people burn out or fade long before they rack up honors like the Shogi Eiyo-sho and the Eiyo Kanto-sho, which he picked up in 2007 and 2015 respectively. That's not luck; that's the result of sitting across from some of the sharpest minds in the country, under serious pressure, and not blinking. I don't get the sense he's ever chased the spotlight — he just shows up to the board and does the work, which honestly makes him more interesting than a dozen louder personalities. There's something quietly compelling about a guy who lets the results speak for themselves over a thirty-year career.

Masataka Gōda is a Japanese professional shogi player born on March 17, 1971, in Tokyo. He has competed at the top level of professional shogi for many years, earning the Shogi Honor Award in 2007 and the Shogi Honor Fighting Spirit Award in 2015. He holds the zodiac sign Pisces and was born in the Year of the Boar under the traditional East Asian calendar.

Name (English)

Masataka Gōda

Name (Japanese)

郷田真隆

Reading

ごうだ まさたか

Born

March 17, 1971 (age 55)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Year of the Boar (亥)

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Professional Shogi Player

Awards & achievements

• 2007 — Shogi Honor Award (将棋栄誉賞)
• 2015 — Shogi Honor Fighting Spirit Award (将棋栄誉敢闘賞)

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%B7%E7%94%B0%E7%9C%9F%E9%9A%86

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Shogi Player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.