Naoko Hayashiba

Naoko Hayashiba (林葉 直子), who is also known by the pen name Masaru Katori (かとり まさる), is a Japanese writer and manga artist from Fukuoka.

She won the Women's Amateur Meijin tournament in 1979 when she was 11 years old.

Hayashiba has received a number of Japan Shogi Association Annual Shogi Awards in recognition of her accomplishments in shogi.

Since she won the Women's Ōshō title more than 5 times, she was the first to qualify for the prestigious Lifetime Women's Ōshō (Queen Ōshō) title in 1985.

However, since she left the JSA instead of retiring via the normal channels, she was not given the title.

She had the record for the highest yearly winning rate of 0.852 (23 wins out of 27) in 1989 until it was surpassed by Ichiyo Shimizu in 1993 (0.897) and the record winning streak of 17 games in a row in 1982 until it was beaten by Hiroe Nakai in 2010 (19 games) and Kana Satomi in 2015 (21 games).

Hayashiba won a total of 15 titles in her career.

She won the Women's Meijin title 4 times, the Women's Ōshō title 10 times, and the Kurashiki Tōka Cup 1 time.

When she was 15 years old, she became the youngest to win the Women's Meijin and the first as well as youngest to win two titles (2 crowns) at the same time.

She won the Ladies Open Tournament once in 1989.

Hayashiba defeated professional shogi player Kinji Shiihashi in a 1991 Ginga Tournament game using the rare Sleeve Rook opening as Black, which made her the first female professional to defeat a male in a tournament game.

She had a successful career as professional shogi player but quit during a sex scandal with another professional player, Makoto Nakahara, in 1995.

Since then, she has focused on writing and TV work.

She has written two novel series, Tondemo Police and Kiss Dakeja Iya, and the manga Shion no Ō.

Hayashiba's victory, however, is considered to be an "unofficial" because the Ginga Tournament did not become an official tournament until 2000.

In 2010, after a 15-year absence, she returned to shogi.