Mitsu Hirai

[KinchStalker]

Mitsu Hirai (ミツ・ヒライ)

Real name: Mitsuaki Hirai (平井光明)
Professional names: Mitsuaki Hirai, Shingo Hirai, Mitsu Hirai, Shintaro Fuji
Life: 2/15/1943-10/28/2003
Born: Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Career: 1959-1978
Height/Weight: 179cm/104kg
Signature moves: Sunset flip, dropkick
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Assocation, All Japan Pro Wrestling
Titles: NWA Mid-America Southern Tag Team [NWA Mid-America] (2x, w/Tojo Yamamoto)

Summary: Mitsu Hirai worked for two decades as a midcarder and coach.

Mitsuaki Hirai joined the JWA immediately after graduating from junior high. Debuting in 1959, Hirai wrestled under his real name while working as Rikidozan’s valet. In August 1963, Hirai began working as Shingo Hirai, and by this time, he had settled into a coaching role for young talent. He also booked their undercard matches. The Great Kabuki has spoken very highly of him in this regard, claiming that Hirai watched and critiqued their matches, and did not use corporal punishment.

Hirai stands on the far right in a famous 1971 photograph of the JWA's top stars.

In September 1964, Hirai left on an American expedition, where he would briefly hold tag gold with Tojo Yamamoto before returning twelve months later. He would work at least one South Korean tour for Kintaro Oki. In 1969, Hirai went on a Singaporean excursion, where he found some popularity as Shintaro Fuji. After his return, the perennial midcarder appeared in the only surviving match of his career, a March six-man with Inoki and Oki. That September, though, he would get the biggest opportunity of his Japanese career. When the JWA held the first NWA World Tag Team League, the first major annual tag team tournament in puroresu, it was decided that Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba would not work with each other due to Baba’s contractual exclusivity with Nippon Television. Hirai thus became Baba’s partner in the tournament.

The Showa Puroresu fanzine recalls a claim that Hirai harbored a personal dislike towards Inoki and spearheaded the effort to have him expelled after the 1971 coup attempt. Hirai would remain with the JWA until its closure, signing a three-year contract with Nippon TV to work with AJPW. While he never took a head coaching position, comments made by Genichiro Tenryu in a G Spirits feature suggest that he may have still had some coaching input. As Akihisa Takachiho (that is, Kabuki) took over head coaching duties for a time after Masio Koma’s death, this would make sense.

After his 1978 retirement, Hirai ran a coffee shop in Kobe, which had a corner dedicated to Rikidozan. He operated the store until the building was destroyed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and died of heart failure eight years later. Hirai’s eldest son is former SWS/WAR/AJPW wrestler Nobukazu Hirai.

Hirai's retirement ceremony was held at All Japan's August 27, 1978 show at Kobe Station Square.