Tomoko Ogawa was born in 1951 in Nagoya and died in 2020. In 1965, at the age of fourteen, she won the Women's Amateur Honinbo Tournament, which led the following year to her entrance into the Kitani Go School in Tokyo. There she became a professional go player. Her promotion record is: Shodan 1970 2-dan 1971 3-dan 1974 4-dan 1975 5-dan 1992 6-dan 1995 In 1975 she scored an impressive 18 wins, 7 losses in professional competition and was named the outstanding woman player of the year by Kido magazine. She is also well-known abroad, having made go-playing visits to China and Europe.