The Rise and Fall of Rikidozan: A Novel in Seventeen Matches

On a May afternoon in Tokyo, crotchety pensioner Michiaki Yamada attempts to distract his three difficult grandchildren by telling them the story of his small but important part in creating the legend of Japan’s greatest sporting icon: the professional wrestler Rikidozan, who helped a traumatised nation recover its self-belief after defeat in the Second World War by taking on and beating armies of fearsome American villains in the ring. As he graduates from teenage superfan to junior office worker in the juggernaut known as the Japanese Wrestling Association, the young Michiaki soon gets over the shock of finding out that Rikidozan’s fights are staged, reasoning that keeping up the pretence makes the country happy. But as he is drawn more deeply into the strange and shadowy world of wrestling, and closer to the almost mythical figure pulling the strings at its centre, he finds that discovering his boyhood hero may be far from the man he thought he was is a far tougher thing with which to grapple. Read more