Mimura Kaori

Mimura Kaori (三村芳織, born July 31, 1981) is a Nihon Ki-in female professional 3 dan. She is a disciple of Honda Sachiko.

Table of contents Family and name Promotion history Achievements Links Pictures

Family and name

Née Mukai (向井) Kaori and her two younger sisters Nagashima Kozue and Mukai Chiaki. They are also professionals and fellow pupils of Honda Sachiko, herself one of three go-playing professional sisters.

Her maiden surname Mukai 向井 means “Towards the well (i.e. water well)”, from 向 (Mu) = towards, direction, facing; and 井 (Kai) meaning well or spring. The characters in Chinese have the same meaning, but are pronounced Xiàngjǐng or Xiàngjǐ. Her married name Mimura (三村) means “three villages” or “third village”, from 三 (mi (or san)) = 3 and 村 mura = village.

Her given name Kaori 芳織 means “fragance”. However, the Kanji could also be read as “Yori” or “Yoshiori”. Another fellow female professional with the same given name, Chinen Kaori (知念 かおり ), writes her given name in the phonetic Hiragana script to avoid pronunciation ambiguity.

The four Kobayashi siblings (Kobayashi Chizu, Kobayashi Satoru, Kobayashi Kenji, and Kobayashi Takayuki, are her first cousins once removed (her mother's cousins; Kobayashis' father and Mimura's maternal grandfather were brothers).

Mukai Kaori married Mimura Tomoyasu (now 9 dan) on 1 Jan 2009. Her teacher Honda Sachiko attended, and the bride gave her a surprise gift and bouquet (See [“Wedding of 9 Dan Mimura Tomoyasu (with Mukai Kaori]” (In Japanese, with pics) | http://yisao.blog45.fc2.com/blog-entry-6.html]). On 2 Sept 2009, she took her husband's surname Mimura.

On 20 Jan 2010, she gave birth to their first child, a son Haruta. On 19 Jan 2012, she bore twin sons.

Kaori was Mimura Tomoyasu's second wife. He also has two sons by his ex-wife Makihata Taeko.

Promotion history

• 2005 April 1, 1 Dan
• 2009 April 3, 2 Dan
• 2015 June 12, 3 Dan

Achievements

On the World Women's rating lists of 2006-01-01 and 2007-01-01, the then Mukai Kaori was the #2 ranked Japanese woman.

On 22 Nov 2014, Mimura Tomoyasu and Kaori were the runners-up in an unofficial “Married Couple Go Tournament”, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Japan Go Association.

Links

• Japanese Wikipedia
• Nihon Ki-in player profile
• Japanese Go blog of all three Mukai sisters
• Go Ratings and Games: as Mukai Kaori and as Mimura Kaori

Pictures

Mimura Kaori and Mimura Tomoyasu wedding, 2009-01-01(Image credit: Isao Yamashita blog