Source: 銀河戦でアマチュア棋士がプロ相手に6人抜き 折田翔吾アマ、木村孝太郎アマに聞く（文春オンライン） – Yahoo!ニュース

The amateur player Orita Shougo has won against 6 professional players at the tournament of Ginga. Orita was member of the Shoureikai and he even get to the 3rd dan but due to the age limitation he had to quit.

The Ginga tournamentis organized by the Igo&shogi channel, a TV station focused on Igo and Shogi. Within the 96 players that participate every year at the Ginga tournament there are 4 amateurs. The best player of each of the 8 groups will be able to play at the best 8 tournament.

There many very strong amateur players that are at the same level as professional ones but is very difficult to get the professional qualification.

Orita Ama (this is how is called non professional in shogi, shorted from amateur) has a youtube channel where he uploads his game in Shogi Wars with some comments and sometimes he also make some videos in English!