Takayama Nonoka

Takayama Nonoka (Kanji: 高山　希々花; Hiragana: たかやま ののか) is a young Japanese female 1 dan.

Takayama was born on 6 December 2010 in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She learned Go aged 5 at the Hikaru no Go school in Sapporo, where her older brother and sister played. Her mother Momoyo, herself a strong player, made sure that all four of her children learned Go. She studied under Hon Seisen. She became shodan in April 2024 by winning 1st place in the Special Women’s Player Recruitment Examination, aged 13 years and 4 months. She is the youngest professional and only the second female professional from Hokkaido after Shimosaka Miori.

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Name

Her given name Takayama means “high mountain”. The characters would be pronounced Gāoshān in Chinese, with the same meaning. Her given name (with unconventional use of kanji) Nonoka means “rare flower”. The kanji can also be read more conventionally as “Kihana”, as some automatic translations of her names render it. But the phonetic hiragana script makes it clear that she is Nonoka.

Go career

Takayama is 1 year and 9 months younger than the girl prodigy Nakamura Sumire, but hasn’t achieved the successes that Nakamura had at her age. Takayama replaced Yanagihara Saki as the youngest female Japanese pro, being two months younger. On 28 Sep 2024, these two youngest pros played their only game against each other, with Yanagihara winning (W+7.5).

Takayama’s favourite player is Fujisawa Rina. She wants to become strong enough to play in title matches, and first to become strong enough to get into the main tournaments. Japan Women's Go League Team Igo Shogi Channel coach Suzuki Shinji (8p) has high hopes for her, and says she will certainly become stronger.

Links

• Nihon Kiin profile
• Go Ratings and Games
• Go4Go