Five-star Kita Fumiko

Kita Fumiko of Japan was the world's first really strong professional go player. Unlike today's female professionals, her achievements were entirely against men. For her, 1911 was an annus mirabilis in which she achived the relatively rare achievement of five wins in a row. In modern terms, that woudl represent winning a title match.
But apart from her exploits on the go board, she was a major figure in general go history. She played a huge role in resolving the factionalism that bedevilled go in early 20th century Japan. She acted as a kind of surrogate mother for the young boy from China who was to become famous as Go Seigen. She taught most of the female players who became prominent in Japan after her. She remains the only woman to be inducted into go's Hall of Fame.

This book is an account of her annus mirabilis, with commentaries on five of her games by the top players of the age, including Honinbo Shusai (whom she defeated). An in-depth, illustrated account of Kita's go life, style and influence is given, with full biographical details of her opponents and commentators.

An important motive for producing this book was to provide a significant role model for female players in the west. But for go players in general, it also provides an even deeper look into go history already amply covered in the author's previous books.

John Fairbairn is a prolific and experienced translator and writer on go history for the western audience. Many of his books are available on demand from Amazon. He is also the curator of the celebrated GoGoD database of go games.