Umezawa Yukari

Umezawa Yukari (梅沢由香里, born 4 October 1973 in Tokyo) is a professional of the Nihon Ki-in. 6 dan in 2013. Pupil of Kato Masao.

She was a relatively late developer by professional standards, but became one of the strongest and most popular female Go professionals in Japan.

Table of contents Name Go career Titles Head-to-head scores against current female rivals Hikaru No Go Links Pictures

Name

Though her name may be better known as "Yukari Umezawa" (the Western order, given name before the family name), Sensei's Library uses the Japanese order, family name first. Following her marriage to YOSHIHARA Shin'ya (吉原慎也), a professional soccer player in 2002, she is legally known as Yoshihara Yukari (吉原 由香里). They have one son born in March 2011, currently in his second year of junior high school.

On 1 April 2011, she changed her professional name to match her legal name. Unfortunately the Go ratings and game page hasn't realized that, and has two separate lists for Umezawa Yukari up to 2011-02-01, and Yoshihara Yukari from 2011-05-26.

Her given name Yukari (由香里) is composed of three characters yu/由 (reason, origin) ka/香 (fragrant, scent), and ri/里 (village). So it gives the impression of both a sense of purpose and the pleasant aromas of a village. In Chinese, it would be pronounced Yóuxiānglǐ. Her maiden name Umezawa/梅沢 is combined from ume/梅 = plum and Sawa/沢 = abundant or marsh, so means either "abundant plum" or "plum marsh". Her married name Yoshihara/吉原 is a combination of yoshi/吉 = fortunate or auspicious and hara/原 = plain or field, so means fortunate field.

Go career

Yukari was taught Go by her father while she was in elementary school. She probably surpassed him in strength within a year.

In 1985, when she was 12, she placed 8th in the All Japan Women's Amateur Go Championship. In 1987, she became a student of Kato Masao in Go. In 1994, she was the first woman to win the Amateur Honinbo tournament.

However, she had trouble passing the Professional Go exam for many years. She even briefly quit Go. But Yukari's persistence paid off, and she passed in December 1995, to the delight of her mother and teacher. She was just sad that her father had died the previous year, so didn't live to see her become a pro.

In March 1996, she graduated from Keio University in Faculty of Environment and Information Studies. Next month, she offially became a Go professional. She was promoted to 2 dan in 1998, 3 dan in 1999, 4 dan in 2000, 5 dan in 2002, and 6 dan in 2013.

She had wanted to have children for many years, and in October 2010, she announced that she was pregnant. So she declined to play overseas for Japan in the Asian Games in China that November. But she played locally right up to February 2011, when she was 8 months pregnant and beat Inoue Kunio 8p. Next month, 23 March 2021 she gave birth to her son, and a few days later she announced she was already a doting mother.

Titles

Umezawa won the 10th Female Kisei in 2007, beating the title holder Mannami Kana 2–1 in the 3-game match. This was her first challenge and win for a top title, she defended it in 2008 and 2009, she finally lost it to Xie Yimin in 2010. She later challenged Xie twice, in 2011 and 2016, both unsuccessfully.

Head-to-head scores against current female rivals

(Based on Go Ratings and game lists for Umezawa Yukari and Yoshihara Yukari, as of 28 May 2024

• Xie Yimin, 7p, #1 female in Japan for years: 1–9
• Fujisawa Rina, 7p, #9 female in world, #2 female in Japan: 0–1
• Ueno Asami, 5p, according to rating list, #5 female and #200 overall in the world, and #1 female and #27 overall in Japan: 0–1
• Nakamura Sumire, 3p, girl prodigy, #21 ranked female and #4 female teenager in the world, #3 ranked female in Japan, once Female Kisei: 0–1
• Aoki Kikuyo, 8p, 5× Women's Meijin, 4× Women's Kakusei, once Female Kisei: 0–5
• Yoshida Mika, 8p, 4× Women's Honinbo, 4× Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Women's Kakusei: 6–3
• Chinen Kaori, 6p, 5× Female Kisei, 4× Women's Honinbo: 2–6
• Kobayashi Izumi, 7p, 3× Female Honinbo], 3× Female Meijin, 2× Female Kisei, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 4–4
• Kato Keiko, 6p, once Women's Meijin, once Female Strongest: 7–4
• Yashiro Kumiko, 6p, 2× Women's Honinbo, 3–1
• Suzuki Ayumi, 7p, #7 female in Japan, #33 female in world, twice Female Strongest, once Female Kisei: 2–6
• Koyama Terumi, 6p, 4× Women's Meijin: 0–3
• Nyu Eiko, 4p, 2× Female Strongest: 1–1
• Konishi Kazuko, 8p, once Kansai Ladies' Tournament, once Teikei Cup Female Legends: 0–1
• Mukai Chiaki, 6p, once Women's Honinbo: 4–3
• Kobayashi Chizu, 6p, 3× Women's Kakusei and All-Japan Women's Championship: 1–0
• Mannami Kana, 4p, 2× Female Kisei: 3–2
• Mannami Nao, 4p, Kana's younger sister, once Female Strongest: 3–2
• Rui Naiwei, 9p, long-time world female #1: 0–1
• Sugiuchi Kazuko, 8p, 4× All-Japan Women's Championship, 4× Women's Meijin, 2× Women's Kakusei: 1–0

Hikaru No Go

She is credited with technical advice for Hikaru no Go^[1]. She stars as the teacher in Go Go Igo.

Links

• Her official website: Yukari House
• Nihon Ki-in player profile
• Jan van der Steen's brief GoBase biography links to 15 games by Umezawa.
• Twitter/X page
• Japanese Wikipedia article

Pictures

yukari umezawa jul2023 (Image credit: Foxwq.com)

[1] Regarding Hikaru no Go, Pieter Mioch wrote in rec.games.go (2001-Dec-02):

The number of children coming every Sunday to the Nagoya branch of the Nihon Ki-In to join the Children's Go Class has doubled in one month time. This is without a doubt the "Hikaru No Go Effect" the cartoon is still going strong and finally seems to move youngsters to pick up the game.

Umezawa 4p admits she does not actually supervise the technical aspects of "Hikaru No Go" although her name is on the front cover with the claim she does. A source working at a TV station mentioned that during a later cut part of an interview Umezawa Yukari said she never read through the books before they'd hit the press. For technical support the writer of HikaGo, Mrs. Hotta Yumi, often contacts pros from the Central Japan Branch of the Nihon Ki-In. During the first books especially her former go-teacher, Mizuno Yoshika 2p from Gifu pref often helped Mrs. Hotta out.