When she showed up at the 924 Club at fifth and Market in San Francisco-a wonderfully ornate and atmospheric billiard parlor that Willie Hoppe had called the best room in the country when it opened in 1909-Katsura caused a sensation.Owner Welker Cochran many times world champion in balkline and three cushion,was stunned.He had heard about her from servicemen returning from Japan,but discounted the rumors of her skill until he could watch her play in person.When he did it he came out of retirement and played a series of three cushion matches with her in portland,Kansas City,Chicago Detroit,New York and San Francisco.A year later he staged a world tournament to see how she’d do against Hoppe,Irving Crane,Joe Chamaco and other world class proffessionals. “She was a mere slip of a thing,5 feet tall and 96 pounds,but what a phenomenal billiard player!She was petite,polite,precise,feminine,charming,modest,entrancing and a scoring machine unlike any other.Masako Katsura of Tokyo on the American scene in 1951 at the age of 37 and proved that size,strength and sex need have nothing to do with cue skill.She had proved the point in Japanpounding on the male players if they were so many temple gongs,and male-dominant Japan had a hard time accepting it.American men as well still have trouble accepting defeat at the hands of a woman.
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