Pachinko Man: The Life and Meaning of Pro Wrestling Legend Rikidōzan

He was Japan’s biggest celebrity — second only to the emperor. But his public image was a lie.

Pachinko Man reveals the man behind the myth, and the forces that shaped him.

As he pummeled American bad guys in the ring in the 1950s, Rikidōzan was a cultural phenomenon and a symbol of the defeated Japan’s restoration of postwar pride. But his birth name wasn’t actually Mitsuhiro Momota. In a fiercely guarded secret, he was born Kim Sim-rak, part of the persecuted minority from the former imperial occupied territory of Korea. Moreover, he was from North Korea, the communist bastion locked in Cold War conflict with U.S.-aligned South Korea. 

Pachinko Man is a riveting story of this sport’s manipulations of fact and fiction, along with its deceptively important relationship to larger political and cultural forces. Legendary wrestling historian Irvin Muchnick documents the birth of puroresu (Japanese pro wrestling) and its passionate swap of official storylines with the American brand. 

Rikidōzan’s instinctive genius in his genre, along with his huge appetites and human foibles, made for a titanic impact before his 1963 murder by a fellow traveler in the Yakuza, Japan’s organized crime syndicate. For the first time, North American readers can fully grasp the legacy of a man who didn’t just transform a sport — but helped shape a nation’s identity.