Fujiwara Akiko

Fujiwara Akiko (Kanji: 藤原 彰子) is a well-known Japanese female amateur 6-dan Go player who is a former Insei at Nihon Ki-in. She is an alumna of the Waseda University Go Club, a Japanese private university go club where Aragaki Miki, Shimosaka Miori, and Aoba Kaori graduated. She has many records in various tournaments.

Achievements

• 2014 and 2015: Female Amateur Champion ( News release, Game records of semi-final and final in 2015)
• 2015: Tokyo area representative at the All Japan Students Go Best 10, which is a tournament not only for undergraduate students but also for high school and graduate students ( Tournament result by the Kanto Student Go Association). She was also placed third in the High School Championship ( Result announcement). She was a student at Shinjuku-Yamabuki High School (Tsuji Hana also graduated from here).
• 2016–2018: Champion at the Female Student Honinbo ( Waseda Weekly, Asahi Shinbun). She is the third player to win this championship three times.
• 2017 and 2018: Represented Japan at the World Students Go Oza Championship.
• 2016 and 2018: Top 8 players at the Female Amateur Championship, note that Oshima Reina was the champion in 2016.
• 2018: Runner-up to the 9-year-old prodigy “genius girl” Nakamura Sumire in the 4th Pandanet Ladies Go Tournament (see crosstable)
• 2019: Finalist at the All Japan Female Amateur Championship ( Result announcement) and the Female Student Honinbo ( Mainichi Shinbun)
• 2019: Reached finals of the 30th International Amateur Pairs Go Championship (IAPG Cup / JAPG Cup)? (partnered with Tsuda Hirō amateur 7 dan, lost to Korean pair).
• 2020: Invited to the Kanto Student Pair Go Games, which was limited to regional top players due to COVID-19. She also represented Japan at the UKAI Cup World Women Amateur Go Championship (ranked in 3rd place).

Links

• 2018 interview after she won the Female Student Honinbo for the second time.

Trivia

Fujiwara Akiko (or Fujiwara no Akiko) was also the birth name of Empress Shōshi (988–1074), Empress Consort of the the 66th Emperor of Japan, Emperor Ichijō. She was also the mother of the 68th and 69th Emperors of Japan, Emperor Go-Ichijō and Emperor Go-Suzaku.

The Fujiwara clan was most influential during the Heian period, and she wasn’t the only Fujiwara daughter to become Empress and mother of Emperors. The family name is probably best known to the west by the fictional ghost of the go genius Fujiwara no Sai, the deuteragonist of the manga and anime Hikaru no Go.