Professional shogi player

A professional shogi player (将棋棋士 shōgi kishi or プロ棋士 puro kishi "professional player") is a shogi player that is usually a member of a professional guild of shogi players.

There are two categories of professional players: professional and female profession. All male professional shogi players are members of the Japan Shogi Association (JSA). And, only male professional players are considered to be full-fledged members.

Female professional players are in groups distinct from male professional players. Currently, no female professional player has yet qualified to become a member of the same category as male professionals although there are some female shogi apprentices competing to become professional. Many female professional players are female members of the JSA. However, other female professional players are members of the Ladies Professional Shogi-players' Association of Japan () (LPSA), which is a professional guild of female players separate from the JSA. Before the creation of the female guilds, women were historically not allowed to become professional players.

Earlier, shogi followed an iemoto system centered around three families (schools): the Ōhashi (main) (), the Ōhashi (branch) () and the Itō (). Titles such as Meijin were hereditary and could only be held by members of these three families. These three schools were supported by the Tokugawa shogunate and thus controlled the professional shogi world up until 1868 when the Meiji Restoration began. By the time Sōin Itō (), the eighth and last head of the Itō school and the 11th Hereditary Meijin, had died in 1893, the influence of the families had decreased to such an extent that they had no real power at all.

The earliest form of the JSA was founded on September 8, 1924 as the Tokyo Shogi Federation (東京将棋連盟, tōkyō shōgi renmei) later renamed as the Japan Shogi Association (日本将棋連盟, nihon shōgi renmei).

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