Kakutogi Road Presents: Sayama’s Corner "The Story of Shooto Vol.3"
Note: This is a continuation of where we left of last week, as we continue to rappel the depths of all shoot-mysteries. In this case, as we forge ahead with our translation of “Shooting: The Technical Shooting Fight” from 1986. If you appreciate what we are doing, then please consider becoming a member of our Patreon, over at
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Satoru Sayama: Human Story
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Previous Page Translated
Prologue
Sayama was born on November 27th, 1957, in the city of Seki in Yamaguchi prefecture. In October of this year the Soviet Union had succeeded in launching the first artificial satellite in the history of humankind, Sputnik 1.
Sayama made his first cry of a newborn at the same time as the opening of the space age. The success of the launching of Sputnik 1 greatly changed the wordview accumulated by the human race.
For the first time man was able to take as common sense the existence of the universe through something other than religion. What is the relation between Sputnik 1 and Sayama’s birth?
If asked this question, unfortunately we can only answer, “there is no relation.” But perhaps we can say the following.
When new values or a new common sense emerges, man has the ability to receive them equally. When Sayama was born into this world, an artificial satellite was orbiting the earth.
With the foundation of this common sense, Sayama got off to a good start in his life. So then what about the world of prowrestling into which Sayama entered after growing up?
On October 2nd, 1957, “Iron man” Lous Thesz, who was called the greatest wrestler of the 20thcentury made his first visit to Japan. On October 7th he competed in the NWA world heavy weight title match on a specially built ring at the Korakuen Baseball Stadium and defeated his challenger, Rikidozan, with a backdrop [suplex].
Six days later on the 13th, he defended his title again against Rikidozan on a specially built ring at the Ogimachi Swimming Pool arena in Osaka, and this time the match ended in a draw due to double count-out after each scoring a fall [in a 2 out of 3 falls match].
Lou Thesz at this time was 41 years old and Rikidozan was 33 years old. If Rikidozan was still alive he would now be 61 years old. If we consider Sayama and Rikidozan side by side, one cannot help but be surprised by the immense passing of time beyond imagination.
The successful launching of the artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and the first NWA world heavy weight title match in the history of prowrestling in Japan, Rikidozan vs. Lou Thesz:
These two events that happened a month before Sayama’s birth provides some kind of premonition to Sayama.
On the basis of what others have already accomplished, Sayama is a man who seeks his own path.
He is a person with an extremely intense
personal curiosity and interest. Or perhaps we can see that he is the type in whom curiosity is concentrated in a single point. In other words, shooting is what is about to be completed through this concentration of his personal curiosity.
Shooting as the product of his personal curiosity is presently gradually beginning [p. 13] to spread among people. But like Sputnik 1, it is not easy.
After all, public interest is low since what Sayama is aiming at is not a challenge towards outer space but the challenge of a new combat sport.
The only way is to appeal his personal curiosity to the masses with perseverance. Speaking of which, Sayama is someone with clear awareness of purpose.
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The lad embraces ambition
During his juvenile days, he had already decided to become a prowrestler. He had the dream of prowrestling similar to the longing common in boyhood. But he wasn’t satisfied with mere longing and actively chose the path of becoming a proewrestler.
Like his classmates, he was a lad drunk on Rikidozan’s karate chops and Lou Thesz’ back drop [suplexes] and who detested [Freddie] Blassie’s biting.
What distinguished him was that he could learn the prowrestling moves more quickly than any of his classmates and he was unsurpassed in sumo or fighting.
When he came home, Sayama’s personal curiosity would cause him to roll up the thick winter futon and tie it with a rope so that he could practice back drops [suplexes] with it.
Thanks to this, he became good at bridging, but on the other hand he was severely scolded by his father for loosening a floor board. But he was not someone who would bend his convictions just for being scolded by his father.
Sayama, who had decided in his heart to become a prowrestler, would secretly get up in the middle of the night to continue his basic training by running or doing pushups and so on.
This attitude of immediately putting it into action once he set his purpose became even more intense as he grew older.
That is not all. Once he decided to become a prowrestler, Sayama even started enjoying carrots that he used to hate eating up to that point, and he gained the ability to concentrate.
At the same time that he was amazed at “how strange this is,” this also confirmed his belief that “becoming a prowrestler is the right path.”
For Sayama this experience was a confirmation that “for man, it is good to do what he believes in.” Since he became able to eat what he couldn’t previously and he gained the power to concentrate, we can say that this conclusion is natural.
The dream of becoming a prowrestler: its difficulty
On April 1st, 1970, he entered the Ricchōfu Junior High School. In school he joined the Judo club. Of course, this was for the purpose of becoming a prowrestler in the future.
Here as well Sayama, keeping his concrete goal, went about his business systematically. He was by far strong among the freshmen, was not lacking even in practice with the senior students.
Interestingly in his matches he often used prowrestling moves. His decisive move were all
ippon [full point] wins by back drops [suplexes].
As one can see in this Sayama was thorough in that his longing for prowrestling made him use back drops [suplexes] in judo matches.
Nonetheless up until junior high school, Sayama’s stubborn personality never caused any collision with his surrounding. Only when graduating junior high school did he come into conflict head-on with his parents.
Concluding that three years of high school life would be a detour, he intended, as soon as he graduated, to head on to Tokyo to knock on the door of New Japan Prowrestling.
In order to achieve his goal as soon as possible, Sayama decided to accelerate his start. His parents were fiercely opposed. Sayama was a child born after his parents were already old and they did not want to allow their loving son to have nothing but a junior high school degree.
His father was born into what had been for generations a family of doctors in Tokyo, and his mother grew up in a family lineage that had once served the Choshu domain.
His proud parents were opposed to Sayama’s plan and tried to persuade him to enter high school. His parents asserted that although they “don’t mind him becoming a prowrestler, it wouldn’t be too late to pursue that after graduating high school.”
In this way the 15 year old youth and his parents, who were passed 50, collided head-on concerning the crossroads of life. Sayama possessed no vision for high school.
He also held no vision for university above high school. Generally ordinary people decide their course in accordance with the route that a great majority in the world follows. At age 15 Sayama held his own individual goal.
He had judged that “in order to become a professional as quickly as possible, he would need to build up his body while increasing his weight.”
But for this even his parents had no intent at all to make an easy compromise. He could have put his parents—who were worried, thinking about their son’s future—at ease had he uttered the simple phrase that “I’ll go to high school.” Instead he didn’t budge.
This was Sayama’s strong personality but on the other hand he also had a weak side. When his junior high school teacher Mr. Uryū acted as an intermediary, he [finally] said, “OK, I’ll go to high school.”
