Yoshinori Nishi studied under judoka Masahiko Kimura at Takushoku University and has competed in various genres of martial arts including Daidojuku.
[Serial:1993MartialArtsBigBang!]No. 31
K-1, the hero of stand-up martial arts. UFC is the world leader in MMA (mixed martial arts). Pancrase has evolved from a UWF style to full-fledged MMA. All of this started in 1993. What was happening in the martial arts world during this era that led to the explosive boom that followed?
■We were also fighting against that “Yamashita of the world”!
“I’ll let you win.”
There is a Japanese fighter who has challenged all genres of martial arts while uttering such a decisive line.
Yoshinori Nishi of the Wajutsukeishukai.
Kickboxing, Daido Juku, Shoot Boxing, Martial Arts Olympics, Karate Japan Open, Rings, Valitudo Japan Open… At a time when mixed martial arts and K-1 formats had not yet been established, Nishi continued to compete at the forefront of martial arts, participating in various competitions and tournaments.
No matter where you look in the world, there is no other fighter who has fought against Rickson Gracie, the undefeated man in 400 fights, and Rob Carman, the king of kicking. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for MMA fighters to try kickboxing, or vice versa. However, in the early 1990s, there was no Japanese other than Nishi who was able to compete in multiple sports without hesitation due to different rules. He truly was a “general” martial artist.
Why was the West able to fight using different rules? Digging deeper into his martial arts history, the situation surrounding martial arts in Japan since the 1990s, or even the 1970s, becomes clear.
Born in 1955, Nishi’s first experience with martial arts was judo, which he began in junior high school. Judo has traditionally been popular in Kyushu. There was a time when teams from Kyushu dominated the top ranks when it came to national high school tournaments.
This spring, I met Nishi for the first time in a while in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, where he was born and raised and where he is currently based. Although he is 69 years old this year, his back is still as strong as ever, as he practices for himself every day.
“In those days, there were schools in Kyushu that didn’t have baseball teams, but there were no schools that didn’t have judo clubs.It was a time when as long as you had a dojo, you could go to any dojo or school.”
Nishi was led to the path of ju because many of his relatives and family members were involved in the practice.
“Ojiki (my uncle) originally worked for the Manchurian Police Department, and his son and my brother also worked there, which was a big factor.”
From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, when Nishi spent his junior high and high school years, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Kumamoto were strong in Kyushu, followed by Nagasaki, Saga, and Miyazaki, where Nishi’s alma mater, Kaisei High School, was located. I was drawing a diagram.
“Compared to Fukuoka, for example, Kagoshima’s judo was not as refined.And you couldn’t beat Fukuoka even if you did regular judo, so the players from Kanami got better at ground-waza.”
Kami refers to Kagoshima Jitsugyo, which is famous as a strong judo school.
“In our era, it was okay to go to bed right after the ‘beginning’, so it was OK to pull in.Kami’s athletes would perform kei nage from a nearly sleeping state, or do leg throws like in today’s judo. It wasn’t a world where it was bad if you touched the body. There were also developments like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu where you could use your legs after sleeping.”
Although it is simply called judo, the practice differs depending on the era. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the point of contact between Nishi and mixed martial arts lies in the judo that he practiced since junior high school.
“In the prefectural qualifying rounds, when my opponent started clinging to my legs, I felt the urge to hit him (smiles).”
When he was in his third year of high school, he competed against Yasuhiro Yamashita of Kyushu Gakuin, who later became the “Yamashita of the World,” in the national qualifiers. Yamashita was two years younger than Nishi, and was already being called a “monster,” and people even said, “If you wrestle with Yamashita, a high school student should last a minute.”
What was the result of the match with Yamashita?
“I remember it was 48 seconds. I thought it was a middling time (bitter smile). But it was really strong. It felt like the soles of my feet were stuck to the tatami.”
I didn’t know that he was fighting not only Hickson and Carman, but also Yamashita from all over the world! If there is footage of the match, it would be a treasure. He also has the experience of competing against Tsuyoshi Suwa (Kagoshima Jitsugyo), who competed with Yamashita in the final at the 1973 Inter-High Championships. The match came down to a decision and was a draw. Suwa later won three consecutive Kodokan Cup titles and participated in the World Championships, so it can be said that Nishi’s potential as a judoka was extremely high.
Current Yoshinori Nishi. Even at the age of 69, he still practices every day (Photo by the author)
■Masahiko Kimura answered immediately.“That’s a middle finger.”
After graduating from high school, Nishi moved to Tokyo and entered Takushoku University. Immediately after joining the judo club, he had the opportunity to wrestle with a player who made it to the top four at the Tokyo tournament during his high school days, but he was disappointed.
“Weak, weak. I thought Kyushu’s strength at that time was beyond compare.”
Speaking of Takudai at that time, the coach was Masahiko Kimura, an unparalleled judoka who was said to have said, “There was no Kimura before Kimura, and there was no Kimura after Kimura.” It is said that there was also a point of contact.
“Mr. Kimura came to see me once because a monk at a local temple (in Nagasaki) was Mr. Kimura’s senior.I thought it was amazing just to see him walking.”
At that time, Kimura did not lend his heart to the students, but he did give them direct advice. Nishi asked practical questions without hesitation.
“When setting up Osoto-kari, where should I put my weight on the pivot foot? The thumb or the little finger?”
Kimura answered immediately.
“That’s your middle finger. Put it on the inside of your middle finger. Don’t use your thumb.”
The Osoto-kari method based on the way the center of gravity is applied is Kimura’s style, and Nishi later said that this method was unique to Kimura’s best disciple, Kaneo Iwatsuri, who almost joined All Japan Pro Wrestling after becoming the All Japan Champion. I realized that I couldn’t do it.
The reason I went to Taku University was because my older brother, who is four years older than me, also went to Taku University. Nishi joined the judo club without hesitation.
“I went to Taku University’s sports dormitory, and basically 80% of them were from Kyushu. Half of those Kyushu people were from Kumamoto.”
The time is the busy Showa era. Orders from seniors were absolute, and it was a daily occurrence for lower-classmen to be forced to take advantage of them. The game began with a group of upperclassmen surrounding a lowerclassman who had been made to sit upright, asking, “Kisama, do you understand?”
“It was always the stomach that got hit. If you get hit in the stomach, you’ll fall down with an exaggerated groan. In short, you have to pretend to be hurt. Some people try to soften the blow by hiding a comic magazine in their stomach. I did it. When I tried to imitate it, people found out right away (lol).”
He laughs and says that the unreasonable demands from his seniors are now fond memories.
“At night, they give me a five-yen coin and ask me to buy pig’s feet.I have no choice, so I ask the police officer at the police station in front of Myogadani Station, “Excuse me, do you know of a store that sells pig’s feet?” So I go buy it, but there’s no way I can buy it for 5 yen.In the end, I have to spend my own money (lol).
There is more to this episode.
When Nishi held out a pig’s trotter and said, “I bought it,” the senior said with a nonchalant look on his face.
“Nishi, do you have any change?”
There was a time when I got into a fight with the karate club next door, and the two clubs got into a battle royale.
“The coaches were aware of this, but they just sat there thinking, ‘Oh, they’re fighting.’ I think it was an amazing time.”
Four months later, Nishi resigned from the judo club. It’s not that I’m tired of the unreasonable bullying from my seniors or that I don’t like judo. He really wanted to try Kyokushin Karate.
In fact, Nishi was of the generation that was deeply influenced by Ikki Kajiwara’s karate manga even before “Karate Baka Ichidai” began serialization in “Weekly Shonen Magazine.”
“Before “Karate Baka Ichidai,” there was a karate manga originally written by Ikki Kajiwara called “The Fist That Calls the Rainbow.” There was a scene in the manga in which a log flowing from a river was broken with a straight fist. I read it around the time, and I thought, “If you train your fists, your hitting will be amazing.”
Another factor was that a classmate’s father, a traditional karate practitioner, lived nearby.
“His main job was as a postal worker, but he had a hunched back and gave off a strange aura.In Nagasaki, there is a traditional event called Spirit Nagashi, and if there was any trouble during that event, the old man would step in and stop it.” I was impressed and thought, “Is it possible to do something like this while practicing karate?”
Could it be that the training he received from the masters of judo and karate in his hometown of Nagasaki from an early age led to Kyokushin Karate, which was gaining popularity due to the influence of “Karate Baka Ichidai”? Kyokushin was happy to accept Nishi, whose body had already been trained through judo.
(to be continued)
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