O what a rare event

[John Fairbairn]

Mars is evidently in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter been's playing with his joss sticks again, because we now have a rare event in go.

There are several cases of a pro having several sons follow him on to the go stage. But it is rather rare to mix and match male and female. The last case I can recall in Japan was Kanai Shigeru who had one son and one daughter turn pro just before World War II.

Now we have O Rissei. His daughter O Keii became pro in 2008. Now son O Keiko has joined her as a 1-dan at the Kansai Ki-in via the "mature students" route. Keii was late in qualifying because she went to university first. Given the importance Taiwanese attach to higher education, I imagine Keiko (23) also graduated first.

There is a case in China that looks odd on the face of it. Huang Yongji has daughter Huang Liping (who will be know to many in the USA) but son Jiang Zhiqiang. I don't know how the different surname came about.

I can't at the moment think of a case of a pro with several pro daughters, although Rin Kaiho's two daughters work in go. Anyone?