Ogawa Tomoko
Ogawa Tomoko's Nihon Ki-in photograph
Ogawa Tomoko (小川 誠子, born 1 April 1951, died 15 November 2019) was a Japanese 6-dan professional Go player. As is customary, she was promoted by one dan after death, so she is recorded as a 7-dan professional. Her surname means small river.
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Early career
Ogawa was born in Kanagawa and at age 14 she won the Ladies' Amateur Honinbo title. After that she became an insei of Kitani Minoru and turned professional in 1970.
Achievements
Ogawa won the Female Honinbo tournament in 1986, beating the title-holder Kusunoki Teruko. However, Ogawa lost the title back to Kusunoki the following year, and was runner-up to her in the next two finals.
Ogawa also won the All-Japan Women's Championship twice, in 1979 and 1980, beating Kobayashi Chizu both times. She was runner-up twice: in 1978 (losing to Kobayashi Chizu) and 1981 (losing to Honda Sachiko). In 1987, Ogawa beat Sugiuchi Kazuko to win the Women's Kakusei. But she lost it to Miyazaki Shimako the next year, and was runner up to Kobayashi Chizu the year after that.
Ogawa was also runner up in the Women's Meijin three times, and once in the old Female Meijin in 1973. At the age of 51, in 2002, she was runner up to Chinen Kaori in the Female Kisei. In 2008, she became the second female to score 500 professional wins.
On the World Women's Rating Lists of ![[ext]](images/extlink.gif)
1987-01-01 and 1988-01-01, Ogawa was the #1 Japanese woman and #7 ranked woman in the world.
Head-to-head scores against other leading female players
(Based on Ogawa Tomoko, Go rating profile and game list.
- Sugiuchi Kazuko, 8p, 4ื All-Japan Women's Championship, 4ื Women's Meijin, 2ื Women's Kakusei: 95
- Honda Sachiko, 7p, Sugiuchi Kazuko's younger sister, 2ื Female Honinbo, 5ื All-Japan Women's Championship: 62
- Kusunoki Teruko, 8p, Sugiuchi Kazuko's youngest sister, 5ื Female Honinbo, 3ื Women's Kakusei: 311
- Shiratori Sumiko, 6p, longest lived professional player in history: 10
- Kobayashi Reiko, 7p, 6ื All-Japan Women's Championship, 2ื (Old) Women's Meijin: 22
- Kobayashi Chizu, 6p, 3ื Women's Kakusei and All-Japan Women's Championship: 31
- Suzuki Tsuna, 5p,once Women's Kakusei: 01
- Aoki Kikuyo, 8p, 5ื Women's Meijin, 4ื Women's Kakusei, once Female Kisei: 45
- Nakazawa Ayako, 5p, 2ื Women's Honinbo, 2ื Women's Kakusei: 20
- Yoshida Mika, 8p, 4ื Women's Honinbo, 4ื Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Women's Kakusei: 62
- Suzuki Ayumi, 7p, #7 female in Japan, #33 female in world, twice Female Strongest, once Female Kisei: 01
- Koyama Terumi, 6p, n้e Nishida, 4ื Women's Meijin: 27
- Konishi Kazuko, 8p, Once Kansai Ladies' Tournament and Teikei Cup Female Legends: 02
- Mukai Chiaki, 6p, once Women's Honinbo: 10
- Umezawa Yukari, 6p, 3ื Female Kisei: 11
- Chinen Kaori, 6p, 5ื Female Kisei 3ื Female Honinbo: 47
- Kobayashi Izumi, 7p, Kobayashi Reiko's daughter, 2ื Female Kisei, 3ื Women's Meijin, 3ื Female Honinbo: 12
- Kato Keiko, 6p, once Female Strongest and Women's Meijin: 01
- Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #8 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 01
- Mannami Nao, 4p, once Female Strongest: 03
Go writing and presentation
Ogawa Tomoko is best known to the English speaking go world by the book on endgame theory she co-authored with James Davies ("The Endgame"). In Japan, she was host of the NHK Go program?, and very popular because of her cheerful personality. She was also in charge of the Tsumego series for 29 years in Sports Hochi?.
Personal life
Ogawa married actor Yamamoto Kei (19402022) in 1977, and their daughter was born in 1986 just before she won the Female Honinbo tournament.
In 2014, Ogawa developed colorectal cancer, and surgery in 2016 seemed to be successful. But she died suddenly in hospital in 2019, aged only 68. ( Farewell party for Ogawa Tomoko, 6th Dan. Play Go even in heaven
; in Japanese. Google Translate sometimes translates Ogawa-sensei's given name 誠子 as Seiko, and Makoto would be another rendering)
Go player Ogawa Tomoko passes away suddenly, in charge of Tsumego series for 29 years in Sports Hochi (In Japanese).
She was a very good friend of leading Japanese actress Yoshinaga/Okuda Sayuri (b. 1949) both personally and publicly. Ogawa supervised Go scenes in her blockbuster movie A Thousand Years of Love: The Tale of Genji (2001). Yoshinaga was devastated and speechless when she learned of Ogawas sudden death.
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