Aoki Kikuyo

Aoki Kikuyo (青木喜久代, b. 24 June 1968 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese, female professional 8-dan of the Nihon Ki-in. She was the pupil of Kikuchi Yasuro; and her older brother is Aoki Shin'ichi. She set a record for fastest female to 8-dan (in 2000) and youngest woman to reach 400 career wins (in 2005).

Table of contents Family Career highlights Rank Promotion Titles Runners-up Head-to-head scores against current female rivals Links Pictures

Family

Aoki married in 1999. She took maternity leave in 2000 and 2002 for the birth of her first and second daughters.

Career highlights

Aoki has won 12 female titles, the fourth highest number after Xie Yimin (27), Fujisawa Rina (26), and Ueno Asami (14).

On the World Women's Rating Lists of 1989-01-01 to 1993-01-01 and 2000-01-01 to 2003-01-01, and 2005-01-01 Aoki was the #1 Japanese woman.

Aoki was the second Japanese female professional to win 700 professional games, after Yoshida Mika. She has an overall professional game record of 1329 games, 715 wins, 610 losses, and 4 jigos, for a 54.0% win rate (as of 2024/08/27).

Rank Promotion

• 1981: Insei
• 1986: 1-dan
• 1987: 2-dan
• 1989: 3-dan
• 1991: 4-dan
• 1992: 5-dan
• 1994: 6-dan
• 1997: 7-dan
• 2000: 8-dan

Titles

• 1990: 2nd Female Meijin
• 1991: 13th Women's Kakusei
• 1992: 14th Women's Kakusei
• 1994: 16th Women's Kakusei
• 1999: 11th Female Meijin
• 2000: 12th Female Meijin
• 2000: 22nd Women's Kakusei
• 2001: 3rd Women's Saikyo Tournament
• 2002: 14th Female Meijin
• 2006: 18th Female Meijin
• 2012: 15th Female Kisei
• 2021: 1st Teikei Cup Female Legends

Runners-up

• 1991: 3rd Old Women's Mingren
• 1997: 22nd Shinjin O, the first time a woman had reached the final of this tournament

Head-to-head scores against current female rivals

(Based on Aoki Kikuyo, Go Ratings and game list), as of 31 May 2024)

• Xie Yimin, 7p, #1 female in Japan for years: 4–13
• Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #9 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 2–5
• Ueno Asami, 6p, according to rating list, #5 female and #200 overall in the world, and #1 female and #27 overall in Japan: 0–3
• Nakamura Sumire, 3p, girl prodigy, #21 ranked female and #3 female teenager in the world, #3 ranked female in Japan, once Female Kisei: 1–0
• Ueno Risa, 3p, Asami's younger sister, #22 female and #4 female teenager in world, #4 female in Japan, 2× Female Kisei: 0–1
• Yoshida Mika, 8p, 4× Women's Honinbo, 4× Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Women's Kakusei: 9–4
• Sugiuchi Kazuko, 8p, 4× All-Japan Women's Championship, 4× Women's Meijin, 2× Women's Kakusei: 5–7
• Chinen Kaori, 6p, 5× Female Kisei, 4× Women's Honinbo: 8–5
• Kobayashi Izumi, 7p, 3× Female Honinbo], 3× Female Meijin, 2× Female Kisei, o

2× Teikei Cup Female Legends: 6–10

• Kobayashi Chizu, 6p,Women's Kakusei and All-Japan Women's Championship: 6–1
• Kato Keiko, 6p, once Women's Meijin, once Female Strongest: 7–6
• Yashiro Kumiko, 6p, 2× Women's Honinbo, 2–3
• Umezawa Yukari, 6p, 3× Female Kisei: 5–0
• Suzuki Ayumi, 7p, #7 female in Japan, #33 female in world, twice Female Strongest, once Female Kisei: 2–5
• Koyama Terumi, 6p, 4× Women's Meijin: 6–4
• Nyu Eiko, 4p, 2× Female Strongest: 0–1
• Konishi Kazuko, 8p, once Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 3–1
• Mukai Chiaki, 6p, once Women's Honinbo: 9–3
• Mannami Kana, 4p, 2× Female Kisei: 3–1
• Mannami Nao, 4p, Kana's younger sister, once Female Strongest: 3–1
• Nakazawa Ayako, 5p, 2× Women's Honinbo, 2× Women's Kakusei: 6–2
• Hoshiai Shiho, 4p, once Female Honinbo challenger: 0–2
• Joanne Missingham, 7p, aka Hei Jiajia, #1 female in Taiwan, #39 female in world: 0–2
• Rui Naiwei, 9p, long-time world female #1: 0–3
• Choi Jeong, 9p, current Korean and World #1 female: 0–2
• Yu Zhiying, 6p, current China #1 and World #2 female: 0–2
• Song Ronghui, 5p, #49 female in world: 1–1
• Cho Hyeyeon, 9p, once World #1 and often World #2 behind Rui Naiwei: 0–1
• Kim Chaeyeong, 8p, #8 female in world, #4 female in South Korea, once Women's Kuksu, 0–1
• Wang Chenxing, 5p, #16 female in world, #8 female in China: 1–0
• Kim Hye-min, 9p, #25 female in the world, #8 female player in Korea: 0–3

Links

• Aoki Kikuyo, Japanese Wikipedia
• Aoki Kikuyo, Nihon Kiin profile
• Aoki Kikuyo, Go Ratings and Games
• Aoki Kikuyo, Go4Go

Pictures

Aoki Kikuyo vs Yamada Kimio, 1997 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

Suzuki Shinji, Aoki Kikuyo, and Aoki Hirotaka, July 2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)