Rashomon Tsunagoro

[KinchStalker]

Rashomon Tsunagoro (羅生門綱五郎)

Profession: Wrestler
Real name: Zhuo Yiyue
Professional names: Zhuo Yiyue, Niitakayama, Rashomon Tsunegoro
Life: 3/5/1920-unknown
Born: Taiwan
Career: 1954-1957
Height/Weight: 203cm/125kg (6’8”/276lbs)
Signature moves: single-leg crab
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Association
Titles: none

The tallest man in puroresu for its first several years, Rashomon Tsunagoro is more noted now for his subsequent acting work.

Standing at 6’8”, the Taiwanese Zhuo Yiyue entered sumo through the Hanago stable in 1940. First given the name Niitakayama, after the name given to Taiwan’s tallest mountain when it was a subject of Imperial Japan, Zhuo changed his name to Izuminishiki. He retired in 1946 after having stalled out at the makushita division. Eight years later, Zhuo entered pro wrestling through the JWA, and would go by various names through a four-year stint. The tallest man in puroresu until Giant Baba, for whom he has been mistaken by modern viewers, the man best remembered as Rashomon Tsunegoro was noted for his tag team with a former stablemate, the 5’6” Fujitayama. As the JWA entered its first decline, Rashomon left wrestling in late 1957. He would make a successful pivot into acting, as his frame found him steady work as a bit player in late 50s and early 60s productions. The most notable of these, certainly to Western audiences, was as a henchman in Akira Kurosawa’s classic Yojimbo. 

Rashomon stands out in Yojimbo.