Female Honinbo
This is the female-only equivalent of the Japanese Honinbo title. Unlike the Honinbo title, this tournament is conducted using the single knockout format to determine a challenger. The title is then decided by a best of five match (best of three prior to 1995) with the previous year's title holder. The winner's prize is ¥5,800,000.
The 16th Women's Honinbo tournament in 1997 involved huge press coverage at the time due to the fact that challenger Chinen Kaori was quite far along in her first pregnancy when the title match games were being played. Game four (which she won, along with the title) was actually played on chairs in the Yugen no Ma room of the Nihon Ki-in. As by that point in time, the baby was expected any day.
Winners:
1st 1982 Honda Sachiko (d. Kobayashi Reiko 2-1) 2nd 1983 Kusunoki Teruko (d. Honda Sachiko 2-1) 3rd 1984 Honda Sachiko (d. Kusunoki Teruko 2-0) 4th 1985 Kusunoki Teruko (d. Honda Sachiko 2-1) 5th 1986 Ogawa Tomoko (d. Kusunoki Teruko 2-0) 6th 1987 Kusunoki Teruko (d. Ogawa Tomoko 2-1) 7th 1988 Kusunoki Teruko (d. Ogawa Tomoko 2-0) 8th 1989 Kusunoki Teruko (d. Ogawa Tomoko 2-0) 9th 1990 Nakazawa Ayako (d. Kusunoki Teruko 2-1) 10th 1991 Nakazawa Ayako (d. Kobayashi Chizu 2-1) 11th 1992 Kato Tomoko (d. Nakazawa Ayako 2-0) 12th 1993 Yoshida Mika (d. Kato Tomoko 2-1) 13th 1994 Yoshida Mika (d. Tsukuda Akiko 2-0) 14th 1995 Yoshida Mika (d. Chinen Kaori 3-1) 15th 1996 Yoshida Mika (d. Nakazawa Ayako 3-0) 16th 1997 Chinen Kaori (d. Yoshida Mika 3-1) 17th 1998 Chinen Kaori (d. Kato Tomoko 3-0) 18th 1999 Chinen Kaori (d. Kobayashi Izumi 3-0) 19th 2000 Inori Yoko (d. Chinen Kaori 3-2) 20th 2001 Kobayashi Izumi (d. Inori Yoko 3-1) 21st 2002 Kobayashi Izumi (d. Chinen Kaori 3-2) 22nd 2003 Kobayashi Izumi (d. Yashiro Kumiko 3-1) 23rd 2004 Chinen Kaori (d. Kobayashi Izumi 3-1) 24th 2005 Yashiro Kumiko (d. Chinen Kaori 3-0) 25th 2006 Yashiro Kumiko (d. Inori Yoko 3-1)