Kita Fumiko

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Kita Fumiko 喜多文子, nee Shiba Fumi (1875-1950), was a female professional Go player at Hoensha.

She was awarded 1-dan in 1889. She married the Noh actor Kita Roppeita in 1895. She returned to Go in 1907. She became 4-dan in 1907, 5-dan in 1921, and 6-dan in 1938. In 1924, she played an important role in the unification of Japanese go through the founding of the Nihon Ki-in. Having taken lessons from Honinbo Shuei, Honinbo Shusai, and Nakagawa Kamesaburo, she maintained good relations with all three, she could bring the rival factions together.

Kita Fumiko giving a lesson

Nearly all Japanese female professional go players prior to World War II were students of Kita Fumiko.

An adopted daughter of Hayashi Sano of the Hayashi go house, she was one of the few Meiji-era woman Go players. She was the first Meiji-era woman to reach the rank of 4-dan. A good story about a battle of wills between Sano and her daughter Fumi can be found in the essay The Art of Resigning contained in Nakayama Noriyuki's book The Treasure Chest Enigma. A record, with comments, of a handicap game between Kita Fumiko and Shuei can be found in Masterpieces of Handicap Go, Volume 1.

Kita Fumiko's pupils


This is a copy of the living page "Kita Fumiko" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2011 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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