Kita Fumiko (1875-1950)
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senzenwomenKita Fumiko was born in 1875 in Tokyo as the second daughter of a doctor; her birth name was Shiba Fumi. After her father’s death, she was adopted at the age of three (“I don’t remember being homesick at all. I loved my new home”) by Hayashi Sano, the leading female go player of her generation, and raised to play go after showing an early talent for it; she was dressed by her adoptive mother in boys’ clothes and a shaved head until she reached 1-dan rank in 1889 (or 1891?). Her relationship with Sano was complicated and difficult all their lives, although they were very close.
In 1895 she married the Noh actor Kita Roppeita and became known as Kita Fumiko. She stopped playing go to concentrate on her marriage, but returned to it in 1907 at her husband’s urging. Their house served as a waystation for numerous go students, all female, and Noh apprentices, all male; the latter were too intimidated by the former to play go games for fun in their off hours. In 1908 she played an exhibition game with the go-loving businesswoman Hirooka Asako; in 1911 she won five games in a row against masters, in the equivalent of today’s title championships.
In 1924 Fumiko was active in bringing the various rival houses of go together to form the Japan Go Association, having studied with representatives of nearly all the houses. She reached 6-dan rank in 1938. All or most of the women go players of the next generation were her students (one of them, Sugiuchi Kazuko, is still living today); she was also a mentor to Go Seigen (Wu Qingyuan) in his youth. She died in 1950.
Sources
Shimamoto
https://senseis.xmp.net/?KitaFumiko (English) Go-related site with links in text to biographies of other prominent female players, etc.
In 1895 she married the Noh actor Kita Roppeita and became known as Kita Fumiko. She stopped playing go to concentrate on her marriage, but returned to it in 1907 at her husband’s urging. Their house served as a waystation for numerous go students, all female, and Noh apprentices, all male; the latter were too intimidated by the former to play go games for fun in their off hours. In 1908 she played an exhibition game with the go-loving businesswoman Hirooka Asako; in 1911 she won five games in a row against masters, in the equivalent of today’s title championships.
In 1924 Fumiko was active in bringing the various rival houses of go together to form the Japan Go Association, having studied with representatives of nearly all the houses. She reached 6-dan rank in 1938. All or most of the women go players of the next generation were her students (one of them, Sugiuchi Kazuko, is still living today); she was also a mentor to Go Seigen (Wu Qingyuan) in his youth. She died in 1950.
Sources
Shimamoto
https://senseis.xmp.net/?KitaFumiko (English) Go-related site with links in text to biographies of other prominent female players, etc.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-12 12:45 pm (UTC)IF the book I have is accurate, Sano was a family friend who had played go with Fumiko's father before his death and stayed in touch with her mother afterward; her birth mother apparently had to be very insistent to get Sano to agree to adopt her, saying that someone with Sano's strength of personality was needed to bring Fumiko up right, while Sano eventually agreed on the basis that Fumiko might be a promising daughter if she had her birth father's intelligence (which in the event she did).
curious about adoption in this period in Japan in general, and how formal it was
I don't know much either, but I think it was probably, if not entirely informal (on account of family registers etc.), less systematized than modern-day, certainly. I had to translate a large prewar family register for work a while back, and noticed that it included first, second, and fourth daughters but not third; eventually it became clear that the third daughter had been adopted by a childless aunt and uncle, so I think relatively casual "evening out" of children like this would have been less of a big deal than nowadays, for instance.