Masako Katsura
Masako Katsura won the women’s championship straight rail tournament of Japan at the age of 15. She emigrated to the United States in 1951 and competed in the 1952 U.S. -sponsored World Three-Cushion Championship. In 1959, she made two television appearances on ABC’s You Asked for It, and one on the CBS primetime television hit What’s My Line? Katsura disappeared from the sport thereafter, only making a brief impromptu appearance in 1976. She moved back to Japan around 1990 and died in 1995.
About Masako Katsura in brief
Masako Katsura was a Japanese carom billiards player who was most active in the 1950s. She became Japan’s only female professional player. Katsura emigrated to the United States in 1951 and competed in the 1952 U.S. -sponsored World Three-Cushion Championship. In 1959, she made two television appearances on ABC’s You Asked for It, and one on the CBS primetime television hit What’s My Line? Katsura disappeared from the sport thereafter, only making a brief impromptu appearance in 1976. She moved back to Japan around 1990 and died in 1995. She was nicknamed “Katsy” and sometimes called the \”First Lady of Billiards\”, sometimes referred to as “The First Lady of Carom Billiard” Katsura won the women’s championship straight rail tournament of Japan at the age of 15. She married a U. S. Army non-commissioned officer in 1950 and had two second-place finishes at Japan’s national three-cushion championship; one year prior to their wedding she claimed the runner-up spot for a third time the year of her marriage. In exhibition she was noted for running 10,000 points at the game of straight rail in an exhibition by nursing the balls around the table over 27 hours. She died in Japan in 1995, aged 83. She had three sisters and a brother. Her father died when she was 12 years old and she went to live with her older sister and her sister’s husband, Tomio Kobashi, who owned a billiard parlor. By 13 she was spending time in her brother-in-law’s billiard room, and by 14 she was working as aBilliard attendant there.
In 1937, Katsura met Kinrey Matsuyama, who had won Japan’s national billiard championship multiple times and had four second-places in world competition at 18. Matsuyamas was impressed with Katsura and began teaching her top level play. At just 15, she won the Women’s Championship Straight Rail Tournament of Japan. At 18, she turned professional and began touring with a sister all over Japan, China and Formosa. At the time of their marriage in 1950, she boasted two second place finishes at the national championship. She never had any children with her husband, Vernon Greenleaf, but she was quickly smitten with him. In 1947 Katsura caught the eye of American serviceman Vernon Green leaf, a master sergeant in the U. s. Army’s Quartermaster Corps who had been in the armed services for 22 years. She began taking lessons from Greenleaf and was quickly taken in by him. She claimed the third-place spot at the country’s national championship three- cushion tournament the year before their wedding. In 1953 and 1954, she again competed for the world three- Cushion crown, taking fifth and fourth places respectively. She made 30 exhibition appearances in 1958, and went on a one-week exhibition engagement the following year with Harold Worst, but did not compete in any professional tournaments. In 1961, she returned to competition in 1961, playing a challenge match for the World Three Cushions title against reigning world champion Harold Worst.
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