Born in 1875, Kita Fumiko was the daughter of Shiba Ryokai, one of the most famous men in Japanese medical history. He became a doctor himself, but his contributions were mainly as a linguist. He produced the first Japanese-German dictionary at a time when German was the main language of science, he acted as an interpreter in Tokyo for the English surgeon William Willis, and also interpreted for the Dutch naval surgeon Johannes Pompe who opened Japan's first modern western-style hospital in Nagasaki.

But he died qute young and left his wife and three young young children in difficult circumstances. The wife and one daughter went back home to the remote island of Sado, the eldest son was entrusted to a medical colleague to train with him, and Fumiko, just three, was given to Hayashi Sano for adoption.

Hayashi Sano was a well-known go player - the strongest woman so far. But she was 54 and already had a grown-up daughter established in the go world as a 1-dan. It is not entirely clear how this adoption was effected, and Sano was initially appalled at the idea, but Shiba Ryokai had been a go pupil of hers.

Fumiko knew nothing about go, but part of the thinking by her mother would have been that the little girl could train to be either a go player or a painter, the profession of Sano's husband. This was perfectly normal. Indeed, Kita Fumiko eventiually became famous as the "Mother of the Go World" because she had so many pupils who became pros. Nothing like as many as Kitani Minoru, but the bigger difference was that every pupil (bar one) she ever had knew nothing or virtually nothing about go when they arrived to live at her school. They were there to learn a trade, not because they were go geniuses.

The one exception was Honda Kazuko, the future wife of Sugiuchi Masao. Kita saw her beat Kitani Minoru one day in a five-stone exhibition game, and the very next day was knocking on the door of the little girl's house in Atami. It turned out that Mr Honda, a passionate go player, had three talented daughters he had taught to play go. They all became high-ranking pros, though Kazuko was the strongest and was the first woman to reach 8-dan. The Polgar sisters are nothing new.

The most famous aspect of Fumiko's life with Sano was that, after years of refusing to learn about either go or painting, she began to take an interest at the age of ten. She had been stuck at home with an attack of measles, and so watched as her adoptive mother taught her class of go pupils. Fumiko was not taught but picked up the game by observation.

This is an oft-repeated description of some genius's early introduction to go. The calculated impression is that they worked out the rules for themselves by watching two skilled players. In fact, Kita Fumiko revealed that most pupils were rank beginners, and what attracted her attention was descriptions of atari, kos, ladders and snapbacks.

But once Fumiko made it plain that she was willing to learn properly, it became a whole new board game. She was taken to a nearby hairdresser and had her hair cropped like a boy. She was draped in boy's clothes and was told she had to learn to compete with the brutes. But once she learned enough to become 1-dan, then she could grow her hair long again, and wear dainty kimonos.

Sano's point was that her previous daughter had not gone through this process and had "only" reached 1-dan.

For whatever reason, Fumiko certainly became much stronger than 1-dan, and achieved many outstanding results against men. Her own best pupil, Suzuki Hideko, was even inspired to follow the example and also dressed and acted as a boy until she made 1-dan. She too then had outstanding results against men in the Oteai.

Go Seigen first came across Kita Fumiko a week after he arrived in Japan in 1928. He had no Japanese clothes, which were really de rigueur for sitting on the floor to play go, and she was the one who had him fitted out for his first public foray to a go meeting organised by the politician Tokonami Takejiro. So Go too was dressed as a Japanese boy, and look where it got him!

Fumiko was already a figure of some stature by then. She had married Kita Roppeita, a famous No actor in 1895 (he was to be designated a Living National Treasure in 1955), but her own achievements at go had made her famous in her own right. On top of that, she had been in one of the leading figures in bringing harmony to the go world through the creation of the Nihon Ki-in in 1924. During her own apprenticeship, a remarkable number of top male players had given her special lessons. These included Honinbo Shuei, Honinbo Shusai, and Nakagawa Kamesaburo. These men were on opposite and changing sides but her links with all of them helped bring them together.

Fumiko also kept a motherly eye on the rather frail Go, and it was she and his teacher Segoe Kensaku who accompanied him to the sanatorium when he first succumbed to illness.

But the most important part she played in his life was in his marriage. It is sometimes said she was his matchmaker. But Go explained it was not quite like that. "It wasn't quite arranged. At that time I was absorbed in the Red Swastika faith and so I believed I could not marry someone who was not able to understand this. Kita Fumiko was concerned for me. She was then teaching go once a week to a geisha in Shinbashi. Her pupil was the first geisha to reach 1-dan. She left the geisha world and married a Shinto adherent. Kita herself was very religious and initially devoted herself to Buddhism, but under the influence of this woman she eventually became more keen on Shinto. Through that connection she also knew Minemura Kyohei, who practised Shintoism and kindly introduced me to the eldest daughter - now my wife (Kazuko) - of the Nakahara family, who were indirectly related to Mr Minemura. So it was a marriage of faiths."

It appears that this religious element in Go life's will be a major theme in the film, if Jikoson is indeed a major part. Religion had always been a large factor in his life. On one occasion he even disappeared from Japan without telling anyone and turned up in Tianjin back in China, all on the strength of a religious experience.

But Jikoson was very much a Japanese religious figure. It needs to be recalled that Shintoism grew in strength during the years of nationalist fervour before the war, but the final period of the war was especially stressful, especially for people living through the Tokyo bombardments, and so the appearance of someone like her, offering a quick fix, was probably inevitable.

She was then known as Madam Kabata and she used to gather followers by claiming to cure people and do other miracles while propounding the teachings of Kobo Daishi in the Tokyo-Yokohama area. She was originally simply Nagaoka Nagako, born in 1903, but, amid the disorder, was able to propagate a religion called Jiu kyo (religion of the cosmic signs).

As with many such people, she had a flair for PR. She proclaimed herself a living deity and, under the banner of the "ideal" of putting the world to rights, propagated the theory of catastrophism. New religions were blossoming then, as they have often done off and on in Japan, but she managed to stand out with a remarkable coup of issuing an "edict" to General MacArthur. She had also written a book called Makoto no Hito and in it there was a passage that said, "One evening I had a dream of the Sun Goddess and she told me to save the people of the world." That involved lese majesty against the Emperor of Japan, the "true" descendant of the Sun Goddess.

She was arrested by the police. Go Seigen and the champion sumo wrestler Futabayama happened to be in her house at the time. Go's description of the scene where the tiny police came up against the man mountain as he tried to protect her would make a classic movie scene. Her followers put it about that she was being pursued by the thought-police because of the insult to the Emperor, but they were probably investigating black market operations.

Go himself, of course, was unblemished, but he did confess to a fascination with Jikoson. He gives an impression that her religious message was of no special interest to him. Rather he was fascinated by the way she was able to stay calm throughout all the tumult in her life. He even described one scene during the fire bombing with Jikoson and others where they were being spattered with red-hot dust from the fires raging around them. Go ran around with a big bottle of cooling water, sprinkling it on everyone, but Jikoson remained quite imperturbable.

Given the rigours of his own life over the previous decade and a half as a foreigner living in an enemy country, not to mention the current bombing and his very uncertain future, both financially and politically, it is easy to see why he was seeking answers in religion.

He has never lost that solid core of religious belief. Since it appears that he had some sort of role of advisor in the film, it would be no surprise if this element in his life is treated thoroughly. If that is the case, it raises the fascinating question of how the topic of religion will be dealt with in a film coming out of mainland China.

Quite how go will be dealt with is another fascination, but it surely has to remain a central topic, too. There is one poignant episode in real life - we have no idea whether this appears in the film either - that illustrates that. Shortly after Go Seigen demolished Karigane Junichi in a match in 1942, Kita Fumiko was offered a "just once in our lives" kind of game with Go. Remarkably there was no game on the record between them before then. They went to Atami and played for three days. We know she took Black, but we don't know the result or how many games were played. The game records may or may not exist.

Kita was then not far short of 70 and Go was then clearly the best player in the world. It would be absurd to imagine that the result was anything other than a clear victory for him, but it is still a great shame not to see the actual course of the game. After all, any game with The Go Master has to be worth placing on the record.

It would be a lovely touch if someone's memory is jogged when the film is shown, and a game between Go and Kita eventually appears. It would be quite enough, though, if the film simply does anything like justice to professional go players. The message of friendship and support between ordinary citizens from different lands while their governments battle with each other is one the go world can be proud of, not just then but even now. It would also be the most honest message about The Master of Go's life.

Kita Fumiko and Hayashi Sano are treated in much more detail on the upcoming GoGoD CD, which also has 845 games by Go Seigen (and over 50 by Kita), not to mention the oustanding Pieter Mioch interview with Go.

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