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There might be at least the following types of Go professionals:
A professional might belong to more than one type. Being professional often means 'earning money'. In practice one should recognise some degree of semi-professionalism.
The usual way of defining professionalism is in terms of membership of a professional organisation - a guild-like group of strong players. The major examples are
These were all founded during the twentieth century. There are smaller groups in Japan, and a pro organisation in Taiwan. There is also some structure for professionals in North America. There may be other places with some recognised pros.
If a professional is a person whose primary occupation is go, then concept of "professional" players has existed for centuries. The traditional term in Japan is kishi.
Go teachers often make their primary income from teaching and writing about go. Unless they are affiliated with one of the Go associations, they are still considered 'amateurs', i.e. not pros. Kikuchi is one example of a very strong player who is not an accredited pro. Yasunaga had a pro diploma, but did not claim pro status or compete (he played in the WAGC).
In Japan, prior to the Meiji Restoration, the four houses essentially controlled Go. They were sponsored by the shogunate, and indeed played their most important games before the shogun. These castle games, as they were known, were the central fixture of historical Japanese Go, and helped to establish the reputation of several players we study even now. Shusaku, for instance, is famous partially because he never lost in a castle game. After the eventual collapse of the four houses, the professional organizations as we know them today--the Nihon Ki-in and Kansai Ki-in--arose.
There have been also some changes in ranking systems and titles. Historically, there could be only one Meijin, which is the equivalent of 9-dan professional, at a time. Today, there is no such distinction. There are many professionals who have attained a 9p rank, as determined by their respective Go associations. The title "Meijin" has become one of the Japanese big titles. Similarly, the last hereditary Honinbo, Shusai, allowed the title to be made into a tournament. None of the other four houses followed this route, however.
This list is extremely cursory; there are many more historical professionals, some of whom may be discussed elsewhere on Sensei's Library.