Suzuki Hideko

Suzuki Hideko (鈴木秀子, 1900–1949), was a female professional Go player who reached 4-dan in 1932. Née Taoka Fumiko (田岡 文子). Her uncle was Iwasaki Kenzo, and she descended from samurai.

Fumiko changed her name to Hideko on becoming a pupil of Kita Fumiko, with even the same Kanji, to avoid confusion. She also followed Kita’s example of wearing boys’ clothes and cutting her hair short until she became a 1 dan pro. But in Hideko’s case, it was voluntary, while Kita was forced to do so by her adoptive mother and teacher Hayashi Sano.

She married Suzuki Tamejiro, 17 years older, in 1923, the first marriage between two modern professional Go players. She helped teach his pupils. But later they separated, because he complained that she would stay up studying instead of coming to bed.

In her later years, she had financial problems, because she sold her large city house cheaply during the war, planning to retreat into the country. But the war soon ended. She died in 1949 after being hit by an electric train during a rainstorm—the low visibility and her umbrella stopped her seeing the track. (From John Fairbairn, Ogawa Doteki: Go Prodigy, p. 19, 2022.)

Her pupils were Kano Yoshinori and Ozaki Suzuko.