On March 7, 1952, Masako Katsura made history as the first woman to ever compete for an international billiards title.
To celebrate the Japanese sharpshooter’s achievement, Google on Sunday dedicated an animated Doodle to Katsura, widely known as “The First Lady of Billiards.”
Who was Masako Katsura?
Masako Katsura was born in Tokyo in 1913 and picked up billiards at age 12 from her brother-in-law, a game room owner. By 14, she was working at the parlor as an attendant and was practicing the sport diligently.
After Katsura moved to the US in 1951, eight-time world champion Welker Cochran came out of retirement to play her in a series of three-cushion matches. Sunday’s Doodle depicts how a point is scored in the game — the cue ball must strike three rail cushions before making contact with the second object ball.
Cochran was so impressed with her talent that he sponsored the World Championship Billiards tournament in 1952 in his San Francisco billiard room. And although she upset some of the sport’s finest players, she finished seventh, but ahead of three prominent male players.
After losing a 1961 title match, Katsura drifted from the spotlight for many years before making a surprise appearance at Palace Billiards in San Francisco in 1976. Using a borrowed pool cue, the 63-year-old ran up 100 points straight with ease. She bowed to the adoring crowd’s applause and vanished from America’s billiards stage.
Katsura was one of the first inductees of the Women’s Professional Billiard Association Hall of Fame in 1976. She moved back to Japan in the 1990s and died in 1995.
By the age of 15, Katsura was the Japanese women’s champion in straight rail – a challenging variation of carom billiards in which the cue ball must hit two balls in a row to score points.
After turning 19, Masako Katsura only competed in men’s tournaments; racking up 10,000 points at one exhibition in a mind-boggling four and a half hour run.
Why is Masako Katsura being celebrated with a Google Doodle?
Google is celebrating Katura’s historic achievement of being the first woman to be included in an international billiards championship.
Google has chosen this day, March 7, because it was the day Masako Katsura made history at that tournament in 1952.
What is a Google Doodle?
The first-ever Google Doodle was designed by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and honoured The Burning Man event in Nevada.
Subsequent Doodles have been designed by other people and a specific team of people called Doodlers.
By 2019, the team had created over 4,000 Doodles for Google homepages around the world.
Google releases Doodles to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays or days of note throughout history.
Today’s animated Google Doodle shows an example of three-cushions billiards in action.
That is an even tougher version of carom billiards that calls for the cue ball to hit at least three cushions before striking the two object balls for points.
By the time Katsura moved to the United States in 1937, word of her unprecedented talent had reached eight-time world champion Welker Cochran.
Welker Cochran organised the World Championship Billiards tournament in 1952 to watch her compete against world’s foremost billiards aficionados.
Katsura upset some of the sport’s best players to finish seventh in the tournament, while the progress she made for women in a traditionally male-dominated game was a first.
