Motoyuki Kitazawa

[KinchStalker]

Motoyuki Kitazawa (北沢幹之)

Profession: Wrestler, Referee
Real name: Motoyuki Kitazawa
Professional names: Motoyuki Kitazawa, Sankichi Takasakiyama, Hirokatsu Shinkai, Shoji Kai
Life: 2/15/1942-
Born: Aki (now Kunisaki), Oita, Japan
Career: 1962-1981 (referee: 1984-5; 1988-1997; 2005-2008)
Height/Weight: 175cm/94kg (5’9”/207 lbs.)
Signature moves: Camel clutch
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Association, Tokyo Pro Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, UWF, Newborn UWF, Fighting Network RINGS
Titles: none
Tournament victories: Karl Gotch Cup [1x] (1976)

NJPW charter member Motoyuki Kitazawa was a respected undercard worker for two decades, and then a referee in shoot-style.

Young Kitazawa kneels in the center.

A young longshoreman from Ōita, the northeastern province of Kyushu island, Motoyuki Kitazawa originally intended to enter sumo. He traveled to Tokyo with the plan to apprentice under recently retired sekiwake Tamanoumi Daitaro, who had just opened his own Kataonami stable, but Kitazawa was rejected. He then spent about three months living in Yokohama, where he went to the gym while working at its port. Finally, in October 1961, Kitazawa entered the Japan Wrestling Association. Records state that he debuted against Koichi Hayashi on January 15, although in a 2014 G Spirits interview, he insisted that this was incorrect, and that he had debuted on an earlier show against Hideo Koma. Whatever the case, Kitazawa would become an undercard stalwart. Throughout his career, he was the debut opponent of several future legends. He would also serve as a valet to both Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba at different points, the only person to my knowledge who did so. In summer 1963, Toyonobori bestowed a new ring name upon him: Sankichi Takasakiyama, a reference to Ōita city’s Takasakiyama Zoo. (Even Showa Puroresu writer Dr. Mick called this name “ridiculous”.)

KItazawa with Inoki at some point after their return to the JWA.

In early 1966, as Toyonobori was ousted as JWA president for his gambling addiction, he plotted to start a new promotion that he initially spun as a new, Osaka-based wing of the JWA. Alongside Tadaharu Tanaka, Kitazawa was the only JWA member who initially joined him. However, Kitazawa was responsible for inviting Masanori Saito to join the promotion, which eventually led the Olympian recruit to become puroresu’s most revered lone wolf. Alongside new recruit Haruka Eigen, Kitazawa would serve once again as Inoki’s attendant. When Inoki split off the entire roster except Toyonobori and Tanaka into a new Tokyo Pro, Kitazawa was named a representative director, for which he would have to deal with creditors for some time. Finally, Kitazawa and Eigen would be allowed to return to the JWA in a package deal with Inoki. While Masa Saito would work the final World Big League tournament in 1972, Kitazawa is the only wrestler besides Inoki who was allowed to truly return to the JWA after leaving with Toyonobori. He was also, finally, allowed to drop the Takasakiyama name.

Kitazawa was among those who received instruction from Karl Gotch during his year as a JWA coach. As Kitazawa claimed in a 2010s NJPW book, Gotch expanded a hooking tradition that had existed in the Rikidozan-era JWA (which they had called kimekko, and which had originated with Kiyotaka Otsubo) by adding new holds and means of escape. For what it’s worth, Kitazawa is commonly regarded as one of, if not the most gifted hooker of pre-shoot style puroresu. However, Motoyuki spent a lot of time on the shelf during his second JWA tenure. On July 20, 1969, at a show in Gyoda, he ruptured a ligament in his right foot during a battle royal. He returned with the new ring name Hirokatsu Shinkai in January, but just one month later, he hurt his knee during another battle royal, and would not wrestle a full schedule again until August. It was during this time, though, that Kitazawa may have made his greatest contributions to the business. First, while he was in the waiting room of an orthopedic clinic in east Tokyo, Kitazawa struck up a conversation with a lanky rikishi named Motoshi Okuma and planted seeds for the future Killer Khan's career change. Later on, when he was staying in Beppu for its hot springs, he met a 16-year-old mechanic who wanted to wrestle but whose applications had been ignored. Kitazawa told Tatsumi Fujinami to meet up with the JWA on their June show in Shimonoseki. The rest is history. In June 1971, one month after defeating Fujinami in his singles debut, Kitazawa left for Mexico, where he worked with Katsuhisa Shibata. Salvador Lutteroth Jr. praised Kitazawa in a 2014 G Spirits interview.

Kitazawa and Inoki on February 15, 1972.

Inoki stopped in Mexico the following February while searching for allies in North America. There were reportedly early doubts as to whether Shibata would join New Japan Pro-Wrestling, but Kitazawa seems to have gotten on board instantly. In fact, as he claimed many years later, Mitsuko Baisho had called Kitazawa and let him in on her husband's plans. On March 6, 1972, Kitazawa adopted his final ring name, Shoji Kai, and won against the Brooklyn Kid (Mike Conrad). In a company filled with young lions, Kitazawa had an important role as a veteran in the undercard. Kuniaki Kobayashi regarded Kitazawa highly among the undercard workers of early New Japan: ““He brought out something in me, or rather, he let me wrestle properly”. During his NJPW tenure, Kitazawa also earned a reputation for cooking one of puroresu’s best chanko recipes: one which Rikidozan had loved, and which had been preserved by referee Yonetaro Tanaka. From 1974 to 1976, Kitazawa entered the three Karl Gotch Cups, and won the final one against Seiei Kimura. On April 3, 1981, after five months of inactivity he wrestled his final match: a tag with Haruka Eigen against Kantaro Hoshino and Osamu Kido, which went to a double countout. When the tour ended three weeks later, on a show that saw the debut of Tiger Mask, the shocking first NJPW appearance of Abdullah the Butcher, and the final NWF Heavyweight title match, Kitazawa received a retirement ceremony.

Three years later, Kitazawa began the second phase of his career as a referee for the UWF. According to a 2020 Igapro article, Kitazawa played a small but pivotal part in Satoru Sayama’s return to wrestling. The previous year, after Naoki Otsuka had uncovered Inoki’s embezzlement of two billion yen in a shareholder’s report, Sayama and his new manager Shunji Koncha had taken part in initial discussions towards a coup d’état. Ultimately, they had disagreed with the proposed direction of forming a new company in the name of World Pro Wrestling. Instead, Tiger Mask suddenly decided to retire and then unmask on a TV Asahi variety show. Since then, Koncha had partnered with Sayama in opening his Tiger Gym. Unbeknownst to his client, though, Shunji had strung Sayama along into signing a contract that essentially gave him total control, and Koncha had aspirations to sell a returning Tiger Mask to AJPW, no matter what Sayama felt about it. Kitazawa was responsible for uncovering Koncha’s criminal past, a rap sheet with eight prior convictions. This led Sayama to leave the first Tiger Gym, start a new one with disciples Kazuo Yamazaki and Shigeo Miyato, and ultimately, to join the UWF, albeit at great cost to the company’s image.¹

Anyway, when the UWF merged with NJPW, Kitazawa would not referee for his old company. I do know that he had a construction company in this period because he had briefly employed Ryuma Go. But when Akira Maeda revived shoot-style with Newborn UWF, Kitazawa was brought back on as a referee. He would follow Maeda to Fighting Network RINGS, where he worked until retiring at the Fighting Extension show on March 28, 1997. He returned for the 30^th anniversary ceremony at NJPW’s May 2, 2002 Tokyo Dome show, and seven years later, he was inducted into the NJPW Greatest Wrestlers hall of fame. In the mid-to-late 2000s, Kitazawa was a freelance referee for the likes of Big Mouth Loud, Dradition, and the Showa Pro Wrestling independent events of 2008.

Fumi Saito, Shigeo Miyato, Kitazawa, and Masanori Toguchi enjoy a pot of Kitazawa's chanko at Miyato’s CACC Snake Pit dojo (c. August 2018).

 

FOOTNOTES

Spoiler

1. Since I have only told the story on PWO in passing, I am putting this here so as not to leave readers hanging. Company president Noburo Urata pressured Koncha to sign an agreement to let Sayama out of his contract and had a gang leader associated with Koncha appear as a witness. Koncha accused Urata of extortion, for which he was jailed for most of the UWF’s existence.

 

Edited February 5 by KinchStalker
added childhood photograph