Fujisawa Rina 2p became the youngest ever women's titleholder in Japan by winning the inaugural Aidu Chuo Hospital Cup at the age of 15 years nine months. She defeated Okada Aya 3p in the final, which was also the first two-day game in a women's tournament. The game was played Thursday and Friday at the Konjyakutei (?) resort in Fukushima. The main time was five hours each. The first-day play began at 10 AM and adjourned at 4 PM.

The players wore traditional attire on the first day but was more contemporary for the second day.

First prize was worth ¥7 million, making it the most valuable women's title in Japan. The women's Honinbo is second at ¥5.8 million.

Edit: Fix links

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Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
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With the prize money for the men's Kisei at ¥45 million (according to Wikipedia), that says quite a lot about gender equality in Japan.

I'm surprised that female pros even bother - if the absolute elite players can only have a shot at earning $70,000 in one tournament once a year, what is the standard of living for the rest?

Since when does the Kisei not allow women to complete? As far as I know women are allowed to complete alongside men in all the major tournaments and additionally may play in the women's tournaments.

It seems to be that it says more about your sense of gender equality if you don't think female professionals can compete with males in the general tournaments.

Like 95% or 99% of all professional players they need additional income. Think teaching, sponsorship or other Go related activities (books, television, newspaper) and teaching plus some more teaching ...

And as most Go players are male being female could actually be an advantage in activities where presentation and looks are more important than being super-strong.

In China, the annual pro qualification exam is divided into two groups: men and women. The male candidates only play other male candidates.
The female candidates only play other female candidates.
After they make pro, then everyone, both males and females,
can play in the annual rank promotion tourney.
There are very few high dan women pros in China.
(Rui 9p, Feng Yun 9p.)

The first annual pro rank promotion tourney in China was in 1986.
This means that all the women who made pro before 1986
did not get their initial pro ranks from a promotion tourney —
instead, their initial pro ranks were "awarded" to them.

Of all the women in China who made pro since 1986,
the highest rank they have achieved is 5p (others with access
to databases can confirm or correct this.)

In Hikaru, they seemed to imply both male and female
candidates can take the annual pro qualification tourney in Japan.
But I don't know the current regulation.
I also heard that at the Kansai Kiin,
the requirements to make pro for women are
different from men's — others more knowledgeable
about this can shed some light.

I have no idea about the situation in the Korean pro scene.

It could be argued professional ranks mean very little in China, where some of the best players had 3 dan, 4 dan, 5 dan etc. ranks until they won an international tournament for promotion to 9 dan or where a 1 dan recently won a tournament defeating among others the current Mingren + Tianyuan title holder in the first round.

They actually have a numerical rating to at least two decimal places, published in Weiqitiandi, I think, so we can see
the ratings sorted by wins, by prize money, etc.
The best players all attain 9p (but 9p does not necessarily mean
also a high current rating, because of the high watermark problem.)

However, are there women pros in China who made pro after 1986
who have attained either higher than 5p (via the promotion tourney,
or by winning a world cup), or who have attained a top rating ?

1. Feng Yun -> 9d 1997
2. Zhang Xuan -> 8d 1997
3. Hua Xueming -> 6d 1993
4. Rui Naiwei -> 9d 1988

More if you ignore the weird 1986 cut-off date (official grades started in 1982 in China)

Also:

1. Joanne Missingham actually qualified as a pro in China (2008) and is already 6d
2. There have been a couple of jump promotions: Song Ronghui made 1d -> 5d in 2009 for outstanding results, and Xu Ying went 3d -> 5d for winning the Guiyang Women's World Championship.

There are also more than a handful of high dans who ride bikes without a crossbar in Japan and Korea, and Taiwan, despite a small pool, also has Zhang Kaixin at 5d.

The 1986 date is not weird because that was the first annual rank promotion tourney in China.
Feng Yun, Rui Naiwei, and Zhang Xuan all made pro before 1986, so they did not start out as 1p, I believe.
But Feng Yun, Rui Naiwei, and Zhang Xuan all made their 8p and 9p from the subsequent promotion tourneys.
I don't know about Ms. Hua Xueming.

The question remains: among all the 7p's and higher pros in China, what percentage is men, what percentage is women ?
Are over 95% of them men ?Indeed, small pool.

Men and women can compete for the open slots. There is also a female only spot available every year.

Way to go Fujisawa! That. Is awesome.

As title holder would we now refer to her as Fujisawa Rina Aidu Chuo? Or are such practices just for long established titles like Kisei, Honinbo and such.

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"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"

Generally just the big seven and when referring to the current holder in the current tournament in the smaller tournaments. So during the tournament next year, she would have some title as winner. I'm not sure if they will make it as wordy as "Aidu Chuo Hospital".

1st day:Traditional dress, looks very nice.


2nd day:Casual dress.

Mmm feels heavy and over concentrated plus "Hospital" doesn't sound as cool as Honinbo. Maybe just call her Dr. Fujisawa Rina?

_________________
"Tsumegos are for reading power and Tesujis for knowing which moves to read"