Life In 19x19

The Nihon Kiin (Osaka) has granted pro status to Sekiyama Honoka, 5th in a line of Go professionals. Sadaharu posted a translation on reddit. I wanted to check with other translators and such because there are two things that jump to my mind, but I haven't been able and the weekend 's reaching its end.

1. She's breaking with a family tradition of Kansai Kiin membership. That's... significant?

2. Either the article in the original makes it somehow clear that it's referring to modern Go or I find the claim that it's the first time in Go history that someone makes a 5 generation continuous line suspect. Even accounting for excluded adoptions.

Any thoughts? Take care.

The "in history" bit is not in the original (though it may be true - off the top of my head the only 4-generation string of pros I can think of is the Fujisawa one). The original is saying that it's the first time there have been five generations of pros who have been Nihon Ki-in or Kansai Ki-in players. As such, there is no break with the Kansai Ki-in. Honoka's great and great-great grandfather were Nihon Ki-in pros, and Riichi was in both Ki-in's.

I suspect the change of Ki-in reflects the fact that Honoka got her 1-dan by recommendation. I'm not sure the Kansai Ki-in offers that route, and it may also be that being recommended by a Ki-in to which her predecessors belonged may have looked shifty.

John Fairbairn wrote:off the top of my head the only 4-generation string of pros I can think of is the Fujisawa one).

Cho Kosumi and Koharu are 4th generation pros IIRC. Kitani-Kobayashi Reiko-Kobayashi Izumi-the Cho's