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; 1991-1997; 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.

Most sources about Motoyuki Kitazawa state that he was born in Ōita, the northeastern province of Kyushu island. But Motoyuki himself told a different story, in the April 1980 issue of Monthly Pro Wrestling magazine. His father's wartime work was affiliated with the South Manchuria Railway, and he himself was born in Xinjiang, the middle of three children. When Motoyuki was four, the Kitazawas moved to Ōita, where his mother's family lived. His father got a job as a woodcutter for the coal mines, cutting pine wood to add structural support to tunnels. But Motoyuki's mother left the family when he was in fourth grade. He wanted to become famous enough to find her again, and as a child, the likeliest option seemed to become a sumo wrestler. Kitazawa wrote essays in school about his aspiration and became a fan of hometown hero Daitarō Tamanoumi.

According to a fan profile, Kitazawa worked as a longshoreman in Kitakyushu and Osaka. Then, around 1961, he tried to make his dream happen. Motoyuki traveled to Tokyo to seek apprenticeship under the recently retired Tamanoumi, who was in the process of opening his own Kataonami stable. But due to the "mess" involved in Tamanoumi's efforts to become independent from the Nishonoseki stable, Kitazawa was unable to even meet with him. He had no interest in wrestling for any other stable, so he chose to pivot to pro wrestling. He spent about three months living in Yokohama, where he went to the gym while working on the docks. Then he returned to Tokyo, and "ambushed" Rikidozan at the then newly completed Riki Sports Palace.

Kitazawa was allowed into the JWA in October 1961. He had entered the company as Rikidozan branched out into boxing; this meant that, like contemporaneous recruit Kantaro Hoshino, Kitazawa's wrestling training was supplemented with coaching in the sweet science from Eddie Townsend. Some records state that he debuted against Koichi Hayashi on January 15, 1962. However, Kitazawa insisted this was incorrect in a 2014 G Spirits interview and claimed he had debuted on a show against Hideo Koma. Kitazawa would 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, and rather ridiculous ring name upon him: Sankichi Takasakiyama. Sportswriter Kenta Tazaki wrote that this was a reference to the Takasaki mountain in Ōita prefecture, but I lean towards the sillier theory that I read from Showa Puroresu zine writer Koji "Dr. Mick" Mikuma, which is that Toyonobori was inspired by the Takasakiyama Zoo in Kitazawa's hometown.

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. He later stated that this had stemmed from the invitation of Shinya Kojika, who ultimately went back on his intent to join Tokyo Pro. However, Kitazawa was responsible for inviting Masanori Saito and Masao Kimura to join Toyonobori, to his later regret. 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 were allowed to return to the JWA in a package deal with their senpai; Tokyo Pro recruit Katsuhisa Shibata later followed them. While Masa Saito would wrestle on the final World Big League tournament in 1972, Kitazawa was 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 2014 NJPW book, Gotch expanded a shoot grappling tradition that had already existed in the Rikidozan-era JWA. Kitazawa’s comments in a G Spirits interview suggest that this “kimekko” tradition was derived from the “hooks” of Western pro wrestling. Motoyuki indicated that he first learned these from Oki Shikina, the referee and former wrestler who had coached Rikidozan in the early fifties. Kimekko also took influence from the backgrounds of two other coaches: the Kosen judo of Kiyotaka Otsubo, and the amateur wrestling of Isao Yoshiwara. When the JWA hired Gotch, he took Otsubo as his assistant and expanded the tradition, adding new holds and means of escape. Gotch taught Kitazawa how to apply a chickenwing to a larger opponent.

Kitazawa’s peers have commonly regarded his skill at this form of shoot grappling. He told G Spirits that he was “often chosen” to defend the business when martial artists came to challenge a pro wrestler, and alluded to a particular incident with an Okinawan karateka. In the ring, though, Kitazawa was a consummate professional, and he did not abuse his talent to assert his dominance over inexperienced or less skilled workers. (But when Samson Kutsuwada punched him in the jaw one night, he returned in kind.) Kitazawa was an undercard stalwart who served as the debut opponent of several future legends; Masio Koma once remarked that no wrestler who debuted against him would quit afterward. In fact, Kitazawa claimed that parents of trainees attempted to bribe him to be their son's debut opponent, but it wasn't his decision, and he "couldn't take" the money.

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. Kitazawa did not wrestle a full schedule again until August. It was during this time, though, that he 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, he got a tip from the JWA's secretary about an applicant from Kyushu. Kitazawa came to Beppu for its hot springs and met the applicant, a 16-year-old mechanic. Kitazawa told Tatsumi Fujinami to meet up with the JWA on their June show in Shimonoseki. The rest is history.

In the spring of 1971, Kitazawa's older sister regained contact with their mother. One night in May, he took a late-night cab to visit her. She was living alone in Yokohama, and after twenty years, she didn't recognize him until he told her his name. But even if Kitazawa hadn't become the next Tamanoumi, he had fulfilled his boyhood wish to find her. A month later, his mother saw him off at Haneda Airport and sent a set of necessities. Kitazawa was going to Mexico.

Kitazawa before and during the only title match of his career. He is accompanied by Dr. O'Borman in the prematch photo. (Photo credit: G Spirits Vol. 58, 2020)

Motoyuki was sent to EMLL to fill the spot left by Masio Koma, who had “promoted him a lot” before leaving for the US. He wrestled mononymously, under the slightly tweaked Kitasawa. He worked in a tag team with Katsuhisa Shibata, but he was also slotted into a program with Anibal, who had feuded with Koma before him. Salvador Lutteroth Jr. praised Kitazawa in a 2015 G Spirits interview, both for his skill as a wrestler and for his facial expressions. As he recalled, somebody gave Motoyuki the nickname “Jaguar”. On August 6, 1971, Kitazawa received the only title match of his career: a shot at Anibal’s NWA World Middleweight title in Arena Mexico. This show happened to coincide with the NWA’s annual meeting, which was held in Mexico City that year. Kitazawa’s boss back home, Junzo Hasegawa, was in attendance, as was Sam Muchnick. The match received substantial coverage in the Japanese press, as top reporters like Yasuo Sakurai and Satoshi Morioka were in town to cover the NWA General Assembly. Kitazawa lost the first fall but came back to win the second with a submission, which had been taught to him just before the match by Rayo de Jalisco (Sr.). However, Anibal won the last fall with a submission. 

In January 1972, Shibata left Mexico to work in Guatemala, leaving Kitazawa alone in EMLL. Kitazawa intended to fulfill his obligations in Mexico, but then, in the middle of the month, Antonio Inoki arrived. As Kitazawa claimed many years later, Mitsuko Baisho had called to tell him about the plan to form New Japan Pro Wrestling. He later admitted that he had wanted to continue working in Mexico, but his obligations to his senpai were paramount. There were early doubts as to whether Shibata would join New Japan, since he was in Guatemala, but Kitazawa’s involvement was confirmed immediately in the press. When Motoyuki returned to Japan, he learned that his mother had suffered a fatal stroke the week before. (A 2020 Tsutomu Shimizu article in G Spirits claims that he learned in January, but Kitazawa stated otherwise in Kenta Tazaki’s 2018 Satoru Sayama biography. I am going with Kitazawa's own testimony for now.)

Kitazawa and Inoki on February 15, 1972.

On New Japan's first show, on March 6, 1972, Kitazawa won his match against the Brooklyn Kid (Mike Conrad). He settled on the ring name that he would use for the rest of his career. Kitazawa had been given the name Shoji Kai by a Nichiren priest in Tokyo, to whom he was introduced by the mother of enka singer Kiyoko Suizenji. Kitazawa made a practical contribution to New Japan by connecting the promotion with Masanobu Takanashi, a Tokyo chef who had worked at the Riki Sports Palace's restaurant in the sixties and had dabbled in event promotion thereafter. Takanashi was among the very first promoters to take a chance on New Japan, and he did business with the promotion longer than Kitazawa himself would. Takanashi even fed wrestlers when money was tight. This would not be the last time that Kitazawa’s skill at networking helped his place of employment.

“Shoji Kai” never became a star, but he played a crucial role. In a company that quickly developed a surplus of rookies, Kitazawa’s experience gave these “young lions” a steady hand to learn their craft. As Kuniaki Kobayashi told G Spirits in 2018, "he brought out something in me, or rather, he let me wrestle properly”. During his NJPW tenure, Kitazawa also earned a reputation as one of puroresu's best chanko cooks. Although he later developed a kimchi variation of the sumo stew, his specialty was a chanko which had been beloved by Rikidozan, and was passed down to Kitazawa by Yonetaro Tanaka. "Carefully made" with chicken stock, seasoned with soy, and sweetened by coarse fish, this so-called "sop cooking" chanko has become legendary. (In 2019, at a special event organized by writer Hiroaki Yasuda, Kitazawa got to serve a batch to fans.)

From 1974 to 1976, Kitazawa entered the three Karl Gotch Cups, the original incarnation of the Young Lion Cup. He won the final one against Seiei Kimura. On April 3, 1981, after five months of inactivity, he wrestled his final match: a tag with Eigen against Kantaro Hoshino and Osamu Kido, which went to a double countout. Kitazawa received a retirement ceremony on New Japan’s famous April 23 show. After he was finished with pro wrestling, he started an interior design business. But pro wrestling was not finished with Kitazawa.

In 1984, Kitazawa was approached by salesman Minoru Yoshida to join Hisashi Shinma’s new organization, the UWF, as a referee. He declined, as he did not want to sacrifice his business to reenter pro wrestling. But the two mens’ wives were friends, and that social connection gave the salesman chances to keep offering a job. When Kitazawa joined the UWF in the summer of 1984, he made a substantial contribution. The promotion needed an office and training space, so Kitazawa convinced an old acquaintance, who now ran the Daiichi Jidosha transport company, to rent out 200 square meters of his Setagaya warehouse to the UWF. But Kitazawa did even more than this, for he may very well have been the reason that Satoru Sayama ever joined the UWF.

In the summer of 1983, after New Japan sales head Naoki Otsuka uncovered Inoki’s embezzlement 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 reportedly 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.

Kitazawa remained with the UWF for the rest of its existence, but did not follow them back to New Japan. Nor did he return for the Newborn UWF in the late 1980s. However, Kitazawa had a chance encounter with Akira Maeda shortly before the second UWF's implosion. He accepted Maeda's invitation to referee for Fighting Network RINGS, which he did until 1997. (Maeda later claimed that Kitazawa impressed Volk Han and Andrei Kopylov in a friendly spar.) Kitazawa returned to New Japan for the 30^th anniversary ceremony at their May 2, 2002 Tokyo Dome show. 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).

[KinchStalker]

I have substantially expanded this profile with information about Kitazawa's early life, details on his practical contributions to New Japan and the UWF, and some important corrections. Mighty Inoue's passing and the lackluster obituaries he received in the West have made it clear that my profiles here must stand as the definitive English obituaries of these legends. All of my profiles are living documents, but I have a responsibility to make them the best that I can make them while their subjects are still living.

[DGinnetty]

Pro-Wrestling International Competitions, New Year Series #6

　 1962/01/20, Sat (18:30) Taito Ward, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan @ Tokyo Prefecture Taito Municipal Taito Gymnasium
 1) Hideo Koma vs. Motoyuki Kitazawa (Kitazawa's debut match).
 2) 1 fall, 20 min. time limit: Isao Yoshiwara pinned Mr. Chin at 11:56 or 11:54.
 3) 1 fall, 20 min. time limit: Kiyotaka Otsubo submitted Mitsuaki Hirai with a half boston crab at 13:11.
 4) 1 fall, 20 min. time limit: Kanji Inoki beat Yonetaro Katsurahama at 9:52.
 5) 1 fall, 30 min. time limit: Hideyuki Nagasawa pinned Yusef Turko at 12:02.
 6) Best 2 out of 3 fall, 45 min. time limit: Michiaki Yoshimura beat Kintaro Ohki (2-1).
 1st fall: Ohki submitted Yoshimura with an arm lock at 19:32.
 2nd fall: Yoshimura pinned Ohki at 2:32.
 3rd fall: Yoshimura Ohki by default at 0:00.
 7) Best 2 out of 3 fall, 60 min. time limit: Ronnie Etchison & Rocky Hamilton & Ricky Waldo beat Mitsuhiro Rikidozan & Michiharu Toyonobori & Michiaki Yoshimura Kokichi Endo (1-0).
 1st fall: Hamilton pinned Endo at 31:20.
 2nd fall: Both teams went to a time limit draw.
Luther Lindsay was absent from the show.