Kiyotaka Otsubo

[KinchStalker]

Kiyotaka Otsubo (大坪清隆)

Profession: Wrestler, Trainer
Real name: Kiyotaka Otsubo
Professional names: Kiyotaka Otsubo, Hishakaku Ootsubo
Life: 7/10/1927-7/29/1982
Born: Tottori or Tokyo, Japan (sources vary)
Career: mid 1950s-1971
Height/Weight: 170cm/93kg (5’7”/205lbs.)
Signature moves: Boston crab
Promotions: International Pro Wrestling (Kimura), Japan Wrestling Association
Titles: none 

Kiyotaka Otsubo was most important as an early puroresu trainer.

Otsubo sits on Antonio Inoki as he performs a neck bridge.

Kiyotaka Otsubo was a 17-year-old judoka when he was inspired by the infamous Rikidozan vs. Masahiko Kimura match to enter pro wrestling. He joined Kimura’s International Pro Wrestling promotion, but Otsubo was one of five wrestlers from various regional promotions to join the JWA in 1956-7. He received the ring name Hishakaku, which was apparently some sort of reference to being a 5th dan as well as being a shogi player. While Otsubo wrestled until 1967, he never broke past the undercard. Instead, his greatest legacy was behind the curtain as a trainer. At some point in the early 1960s, he took over the head coach position from Hideyuki Nagasawa, and he played a major part in training the likes of Antonio Inoki. Otsubo’s background in Kosen judo formed the foundation of the JWA’s kimekko tradition of joint-based submission sparring, which would later be expanded when Karl Gotch coached for a year in 1968. In fact, Gotch made him his assistant.

Like Yusuf Turk and Kotetsu Yamamoto, Otsubo was fired from the JWA in January 1972 for cooperating with Inoki. Unlike them, though, he decided to quietly retire. (According to Killer Khan, nobody stepped up to replace him as a trainer.) In 1974, he was one of the names on the infamous “recommendation letter” pressuring Giant Baba to accept Inoki’s challenge. According to one tweet, he ran a coffee shop after his retirement. Otsubo drowned in 1982 after saving a friend’s child.