Normal amateur ranks are up to 4th dan. To get 5th dan I think a player has to qualify for a major amateur national championship (Meijin, Ryuo, Osho) by winning their relevent prefectural tournament. 6th dan requires winning the Ama Meijin three times and there are some homourary 7th dans. Titles can be awarded for other reasons too, for example Tamiya Katsuya, the inventor of Kyouto Shogi has a 4th dan for tsumeshogi composition. Students enter the Shoureikai when they're around 10-12 years old, at that age they are usually already amateur 5th dan, apart from their previous results they have a pretty stiff written exam before being admitted.