Kana Satomi


Kana Satomi is a Japanese women's professional shogi player ranked 6-dan. She is the current holder of the Women's and titles as well as the and titles, thus making her a Professional shogi player#Women's tournaments.
Satomi is also the first female to have been promoted to Japan Shogi Association's apprentice rank of 3-dan.

Early life

Satomi was born in Izumo, Shimane on March 2, 1992. In 2003, she represented Shimane Prefecture in the 28th as a
fifth-grade elementary school student, and advanced to the semifinals before losing to future shogi professional Takuya Nishida.
Later in 2003, Satomi entered the Japan Shogi Association's Women's Professional Apprentice League under the guidance of shogi professional. She was awarded the rank of women's professional 2-kyū in October 2004.

Women's shogi professional

In September 2008, Satomi defeated Tomomi Kai to in the final of the challenger tournament to advance to the best-of-three title match against Ichiyo Shimizu. Satomi's victory over Kai also meant that she satisfied the criteria for promotion to women's professional 2-dan. Satomi went on to defeat Shimizu 2 games to none to win her first major title. Satomi successfully defended her title from 2009 until 2012,. Satomi's victory in 2012 qualified her for the lifetime title of "Queen Kurashiki Toka", thus making her at 20 years old the youngest women's professional to ever qualify for a lifetime title. Satomi lost to Kai 2 games to 1 in the final of the 21st Kurashiki Tōka Cup in November 2013, but recaptured the title from Kai in November 2015 by the score of 2 games to none in the 23rd Kurashiki Tōka Cup. She successfully defended her title in both 2016 and 2017.　
In February 2019, Satomi defended her Women's Meijin title against Sae Itō, winning the 45th Women's Meijin match 3 games to 1. Satomi's win was the tenth consecutive time she's won the Meijin title, which tied the record for consecutive wins of a women's title set by Naoko Hayashiba in 1991.
Satomi earned the right to challenge Tomoka Nishiyama for the 12th Women's title in AprilMay 2019, but Nishiyama defended her title 3 games to 1.
In June 2018, Satomi lost her title to challenger Mana Watanabe 3 games to 1 in the 29th Women's Ōi title match. The two met again the following year in the 30th Women's Ōi title match, and Satomi regained her title 3 games to 1. The victory was Satomi's fifth Women's Ōi title over all, which not only returned her to 5-crown title holder status, but also earned her the lifetime title "Queen Ōi".
On June 28, 2019, Satomi defeated shogi professional Ryūma Tonari in the preliminary round of the 91st Kisei tournament to become the first women's professional to win four consecutive official games against regular professionals. She was, however, unable to extend winning streak to five games when she lost to Takahiro Ōhashi in her next game against a male professional. On July 21, 2019, Satomi became just the third women's professional to win a NHK Cup TV Tournament game against a male professional when she defeated Issei Takazaki in Round 1 of the tournament.
In September 2019, Satomi defeated Kai 3 games to none to win the inaugural. The win made Satomi the first :Professional shogi player#Women's tournaments|6-crown title holder in women's professional shogi. Satomi, however, was only able to retain her 6-crown status for about two months and dropped back down to 5-crown status after losing the 41st Women's Ōshō title to Nishiyama 2 games to 1.
In November 2019, Satomi defended her Kurashiki Tōka title by defeating Itō 2 games to 1 in the 27th Kurashiki Tōka title match.
In OctoberDecember 2019, Satomi defended her Women's Ōza title against Nishiyama, the third time in six months the two met in a major title match. Satomi lost the 9th Women's Ōza match 3 games to 1 to drop back to a 4-crown title holder status.
Satomi won the Women's Meijin title for the eleventh consecutive time when she defeated Yuki Taniguchi 3 games to none to win the 46th Women's Meijin match. The victory also gave Satomi sole possession of the record for the most consecutive wins of a women's major title.
In June 2020, Satomi successfully defended her Women's Ōi by defeating Momoko Katō 3 games to none.

Apprentice professional

In April 2011, Satomi, who was already quite successful as a women's shogi professional, informed the Japan Shogi Association of her desire to enter its apprentice school at the rank of apprentice professional 1-kyū in an attempt to obtain full professional status. A series of three official games against existing shogi apprentices were arranged as her entrance exam. She split the first two games held on May 3, 2011, but then won the third game on May 21, 2011, to pass the exam. She was awarded the rank of apprentice 1-kyū that same day.
In January 2012, Satomi became the first female under the current apprentice system to be promoted to the rank of apprentice 1-dan after she achieved the threshold of 12 wins and 4 losses in apprentice school play. In July 2013, Satomi then became the first female to be promoted to apprentice 2-dan after once again reaching 12 wins and 4 losses. In December of that same year, she became the first female to be promoted to apprentice 3-dan, thus earning her the right to be the first female to participate in the 3-Dan League: the final stage for those aspiring to be awarded regular professional status.
Satomi's first season of 3-dan league play was supposed to be the 55th 3-dan League, but health issues forced her to take a leave of absence from all professional games from April 1, 2014, until August 31, 2014. Satomi's health problems did not improve, so her leave of absence was subsequently extended to December 31, 2014; this meant she would miss the 56th 3-dan League as well. On November 10, 2014, the JSA announced that Satomi would be returning to official women's professional shogi play as of January 1, 2015, but that she was being allowed to withdraw from the 57th 3-dan league.
Satomi's returned from her leave of absence for the 58th 3-dan League, and finished with a losing record of 5 wins and 13 losses. Her records in the 59th, 60th and 61st 3-dan Leagues were 711, 810 and 711 respectively.
Satomi was already 25 years old when she started 62nd 3-dan league play which meant she needed to either win the league outright and obtain full professional status, or finish with a winning record to avoid losing her qualifications for the apprentice school due to the 26-year-old age limit set in place by the JSA. Satomi's record after twelve games was 7 wins and 5 losses, so it seemed like she might be able to qualify for a one-season extension to continue her attempt for full professional status. However, she proceeded to lose her next four games which meant the best she could finish was 9 wins and 9 losses, which confirmed that she would have to leave the apprentice school. The option of becoming a "regular" professional via the professional admission test remains open to her, and her leaving the apprentice school does not affect her status as a women's professional player.

Personal life

Satomi's younger sister Saki is also a women's professional shogi player. The two are the third pair of sisters to be awarded women's professional status by the JSA.

Promotion history

Satomi has been promoted as follows:
Note: All ranks are women's professional ranks.

Major titles

Satomi has appeared in major title matches 48 times and has won a total of 40 titles. She has won the eleven times, the titles ten times, the title seven times, the title six times, the title four times, and the and titles once each. She has been awarded the lifetime titles of,, and. In September 2019, she became the first 6-crown title holder in women's professional shogi.
TitleYearsNumber of times overall
200919 11
200812, 201519 10
201012, 2015187
2012, 201517, 2020 6
2013, 201620184
20131
2019 1

Awards and honors

Satomi has received a number of Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards and other awards in recognition of her accomplishments in shogi and contributions made to Japanese society.

Annual shogi awards