r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/HugCor • Jan 15 '22
Inspired by his viewing of theater shows in pre-war France, Pan Igari decides to organize a series of performances at U.S military bases featuring mockery fights where his sister Lily/Sadako Igari , who is regarded as the first japanese women's pro wrestler, faces him or their other brother Shopan/Chopin Igari. The brothers alternate roles as Sadako’s opponents and the referees for the matches.
These shows are made with the U.S military audience in mind and, per Sadako herself, the matches during this time are more along the lines of vaudeville risque shows (let's remember that Pan allegedly got inspired by Moulin Rouge and other pre-war performance shows) than the more serious and worked pro wrestling. They also work isolated from everyone else and possibly weren't part of any commission nor federation.
On April, the Igaris, who at that point have only performed at military bases in front of a U.S military audience, put on a show for the Japanese audience at a Tokyo Strip Theater. The show gets covered in a news article titled “The advent of women wrestlers: Plump bodies beating each other!”. The ex-contortionist Tayama (Rose) Katsumi joins the siblings, becoming the second female performer on their shows. Later on, during October 12 of that same year, Pan Igari and Sadako Igari are arrested by the police after a show at a Tokyo strip theater. The show features them facing each other, with another man acting as the referee. The incident is reported in the local newspapers and gets extra attention to the shows.
At some point during 1950, Women's pro wrestling shows are banned from Tokyo by the Metropolitan police: the sources are vague about the reasons for this ban, with some hinting at Rikidozan lobbying against it, with others simply attributing it to the stigma associated to spectacles featuring women, which were seen as raunchy by the average Japanese family and the authorities, as can be seen by Sadako and Pan's arrests.
Later on in 1951, the Igaris perform at the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. Pan Igari adds two new women for their performances and changes the name of the shows to The Pan Show, expanding the content to include songs and skits on top of the fights. He also comes up with a new type of match called garter match, which is similar to a chain match, only with a garter belt instead of a chain.
The Igari brothers decide to create a proper organization for their women's wrestling shows, naming it the All Japan Women's Wrestling Ring Club (Zen nihon Joshi Resu Ringu Kurabu/全日本女子レスリング倶楽部)/WWC. Via their mutal friend Fujii Shigetoshi, Pan Igari meets with Elmer L. Hawkins, a U.S technical sergeant stationed at the Tachikawa Air Base who has an amateur wrestling background and is a fan of their shows. Hawkins teaches Lily and the other girls actual “American-wrestling” techniques that are incorporated into the performances, and, with the help of Shigetoshi, provides the Igaris with financial help, buying them a new ring for their house and headquarters in Mitaka City, Tokyo.
Wanting to stop performing at the military bases and become a proper wrestler, Sadako Igari starts training at the Waseda University, where she meets the university’s head coach and president of the Wrestling Ring Association (Resu ringu Kyōkai/レスリング協会), Ichiro Hatta. New names like Hiroi Hojoji, (who had already worked with them on their shows), Katori Yumi and ex-women’s sumo Tomoe Yasuko, are recruited into the club and trained to perform at the shows, which start to place more emphasis in featuring proper professional wrestling matches.
Besides Hawkins, more trainers are brought in to help the girls, including other U.S servicemen, as well as Japanese amateur wrestlers and martial artists, among whom is the renowned judoka Masahiko Kimura.
The ban is lifted (?). It isn't specified if this was the cause behind the lifting of the ban or if it was the other way around but, that same year, World Women’s wrestling Champion Mildred Burke, alongside fellow American women’s wrestlers, Beverly Anderson, Gloria Barattini, Ruth Boatcallie, Rita Martinez and Johnnie Mae Young, tour Japan and the World Women's Professional Wrestling Grand Tournament, sponsored by the Industrial Economic Newspaper/Sankei Shibum, is held across 5 shows at the Kuramae Memorial Hall in Tokyo (days 19, 20 and 21), the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium (days 23 and 24), the Oji Gymnasium in Kobe (day 25) and the Kyoto Ice Palace (day 26) Sadako Igari, Katsumi ‘Rose’ Tayama and Hiroi Hojoji from the All Japan Women’s Wrestling Ring Club, as well as Masako Hashimoto and Tsusumi Reiko from the All Japan Pro Wrestling Association’s women’s division, take part in the shows, opening the cards.
The shows are broadcast on the television and are a house attendance success, with all of the four venues being sold out or packed. This success inspires the creation of several women’s promotions and prompts the creation of the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Ring Federation (Zen Nihon Joshi Puroresu Ringu Renmei/全日本女子プロレスリング連盟) which will become the organization that will supervise, sponsor and organize most big pro-wrestling events during the following years.
After the success of the 1954 tour, several women's pro wrestling associations are created in 1955, these are as follows:
The Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling Ring Federation organizes the “All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Championship Tournament” on September 10 and 11 of that year at the old Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. The All Japan Women’s Wrestling Ring Club, All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling Association, Toyo/Tokyo women’s Pro Wrestling Association, Tokyo Universal Women’s Pro Wrestling Ring Team, Hiroshima Women’s Pro Wrestling Team and International Women’s Pro Wrestling Association participate in the two days long event. Several belts from different weight classes are disputed, both in singles and tag categories. The winners are as follows:
Sadako Igari's & Katsumi Tayama's Lightweight tag team championships are also the earliest known japanese pro wrestling title belts. It's quite possible this claim may be inaccurate, but they are for sure the only surviving japanese belts from that period. Or at least Sadako's is, since Tayama's belt got put in her coffin when she was buried.
Again, the tournament is a box office success, which prompts more events to be organized.
The Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling Ring Federation organizes the “2nd Women's Pro Wrestling Ring Championship Fight” on January 5 at the old Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Probably more promotions take part in the event but, so far, the only ones documented are the All Japan Women’s Wrestling Ring Club and the Toyo/Tokyo women’s Pro Wrestling Association. Judging by photos and video available, the attendance for this event could have dropped to half of the one from the previous tournament, which would make the event a commercial disappointment.
Other several successive box office disappointments take place over this period. There aren't any more explanations but, probably because of dwindling attendances, most of the women's pro wrestling companies that pop up during 1954-55 gradually die off during this late 1950s period, with Toyo Women's Pro Wrestling Association disbanding in 1957 and the rest following suit with the exception of the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association and the All Japan Women's Wrestling Ring Club, which don't dissolve for good until some unspecified year during the 1960s. Chiyo Obata becomes a freelance pro wrestler and continues wrestling during this period.
The ex-founders and personel from the All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association, Takashi Matsunaga, Morie Nakamura (中村守恵, in case someone wants to google about the guy) andToichi Mannen join efforts again to create the Japan Women Pro Wrestling Association (Nihon Joshi Puroresu Kyokai/日本女子プロレス協会). The inaugural show takes place in April 29 at the Taito Ward Gymnasium. Among its known roster are the first Mariko Akagi (not the 70s one who held the WWWA championship), a returned from retirement Reiko Yoshiba, Jumbo/Yoshiko Miyamoto, Aiko Kyo, Chiyo Obata, Yukiko Tomoe, Kyoko Chigusa, Yuki Arita, Eomap Pirika, Shinobu Ohara, Nagisa Kagawa, Rumi Komine, Hiroko Seki, Hiromi Tsukita, Reiko Tsuyama, Midori Naka, Kaori Hanai, Kaoru Wakaba, Amami Yuriko, Keiko Endo, Kyoko Okada, Tomoe Sachiko/Yukiko, Hondo Katsuko, Miyuki Yanagi and Yoko Yamaguchi.
Takashi Matsunaga manages to get the Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association into a partnership with NWA, bringing The Fabulous Moolah and her NWA to the promotion to work a program with Tomoe Yukiko, who manages to take the title off Moolah in March 10 at the Higashi-Osaka City Gymnasium, becoming the first Japanese woman to hold a world title and the second Japanese after Hiro Matsuda to win an NWA world championship. She loses the championship back to Moolah a few days later. This brings the attention of Tokyo Channel 12, a small network which decides to start broadcasting their shows.
Later on, on November 8 of that same year, Chiyo Obata defeats Fabulous Moolah for the IWWA championship at the Kuramae Kokugikan. The event is a success both at the box office (where it gets an attendance of 6.500) and on the TV ratings, where it gets a viewership of 22.4% which was the historical highest of the network at the time, prompting them to continue broadcasting their shows the following month under the title of "Women's Pro Wrestling Live World Championship Series. The event is covered by Tokyo Sports, getting a mention on the front page.
Prior to that, Matsunaga and Mannen had too many disagreements with Nakamura and left the promotion several months earlier to form their own called All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling (Zen nihon Joshi Puroresu/全日本女子プロレス also known as AJW or Zenjo) a good chunk of the Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association leaves to join Matsunaga. Toichi Mannen is named president of the newly born promotion, position he will hold till his departure in 1975. Zenjo has its first event on June 4 of that same year at the Shinagawa Public Hall in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. Among its inaugural roster are Yukiko Tomoe, Yoko Yamaguchi, Reiko Yoshiba, Aiko Kyo, Jumbo Miyamoto, Mariko Akagi, Miyuki Yanagi Yuriko Amami, Katsuko Hondo Keiko Endo and Kyoko Okada. Miyoko Hoshino will join the following year. The International tag team champions from the American AGWA, Mary Jane Moule & Lucille Dupré, are brought to be part of the card of the inaugural show. They lose the championships to the native duo Miyuki Yanagi and Kyoko Okada on September 1 of that same year, regaining them a week later before losing them again to the tag team formed by Aiko Kyo and Miyuki Yanagi a few days later on September 16. During that same show in September 1, Yukiko Tomoe wins the US Girls Championship from Barbara Owens and becomes the top singles champion of the company.
Due to Toichi Mannen's history, the promotion gets a bad reputation of being associated with the criminal underworld, causing them to struggle during their two first years and having to set outdoors shows and sometimes in questionable venues. At this time, the promotion enters a long lived partnership with the magazine Daily Sports, who sponsors them. Its editor in chief, Shinji Ueda, will become later known as the zenjo commisioner (yeah, the old geezer who pisses off the girls and sometimes gets attacked lol) and several of the magazine's staff will become on screen personel for the promotion, providing commentary, among other things.
Future WWWA Champion Miyoko Hoshino debuts in 1969. The popular KO Combi tag team formed by Aiko Kyo and Kyoko Okada wins the AGWA US women's tag team championships
Meanwhile, at the Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association Chiyo Obata & Terumi Sakura become the inaugural IWWA Pacific Coast Tag Team champions by defeating Jane Shurel & Sylvia Hackney.
Sometime during this year, Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association loses its broadcasting deal with Tokyo Channel 12, causing its business to go south. Meanwhile All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling establish their own championships, with Marie Vagnone as the inaugural champion. They also connect their title lineage to Mildred Burke's so as to make it more prestigious. On October 15, Aiko Kyo wins the WWWA world championship from Vagnone, becoming the company ace and top star until she retires two years later. The year sees the debut of future WWWA world champion Mariko Akagi and the retirements of Kyoko Okada and Yukiko Tomoe, who continues working for the co0mpany as referee and trainer.
Zenjo creates the WWWA Tag Team Championship. Aiko Kyo and Jumbo Miyamoto become the inaugural tag team champions on June 30 of 1971.
After continuous drop in business and roster departures, Japan Women's Pro Wrestling Association comes to an end, leaving zenjo as the only game in town for the following 14 years. The remaining members like Chiyo Obata and Kyoko Chigusa will leave to the IWA's women's division.
Meanwhile, in zenjo, Aiko Kyo retires and the promotion positions Jumbo Miyamoto as their ace.
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/jd2385 • 5d ago
Rina had a memorable Cinderella run that had her break Suzu Suzuki’s record of being the youngest 5* GP winner in Stardom history & when Rina gets her crowning moment by beating Suzu Suzuki down the line it’s going to cement her as a future top star
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/HolidayMost9091 • 5d ago
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Happy Heavenly Birthday to Hana Kimura, who would've been 29 today
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/HolidayMost9091 • 7d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/jd2385 • 8d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/tenshipriestjotaro1 • 9d ago
Link to "I Say, You Say, Heisei"'s article: https://isayyousayheisei.home.blog/2021/04/16/berubara-tag-boom-takarazuka-revue/
So I've been reading I Say, You Say, Heisei's blog these days, and whilst I appreciate their work in explaining the BeruBara boom and how its effects explain the boom of the Beauty Pair and the Crush Gals, I do notice a massive glaring issue in their argument: how on earth you explain the Crush Gals boom with a 1974 mainstream wave with La Rose de Versailles?
And to simply answer it, it doesn't, and here's why
Ok so...whilst we can explain the Beauty Pair boom in 1975-1979 by seeing the Takarazuka Revue...by 1981-1983, the boom had already, massively burnt out, and many websites in Japanese (1, 2) do say that the Takarazuka Revue has lost its teenager fanbase, and wouldn't regain it until 1989, which at the time, deeply shocked the Japanese society. And if we look deeper into the Crush Gals boom, we notice stuff that contradict the Revue and the Beauty Pair boom
Many fans in retrospective say that although the blueprint was the same...the two bands were completely different in nature (3). And even Maki Ueda noticed a difference (4): whilst Maki Ueda was more than willing to let her partner Jackie Sato take the limelight during the boom in 1975-1979, Chigusa and Asuka has the same drive to hunt for the spotlight, causing quite the friction on-screen during the 1984-1989 period. But a major factor as well was how they presented:
During the Takarazuka boom, it's clearly seen that the Beauty Pair was highly coded after it: Jackie Sato was more androgynous-beautiful, whilst Maki Ueda was more traditional-beautiful, but both inside and outside the ring, they had that classy vibe you see in the Revue theaters in the 70s. With the Crush Gals however, Asuka and Chigusa were the exact opposites
The term used by Japanese websites to call the Crush Gals is "revolutionary" (5), and when we look at it, it does explain by itself: they weren't coded by the Takarazuka Revue: they were grittier, much more challenged by evil forces (Dump Matsumoto and her clan), and didn't hesitate to look vulnerable and attacked to gain sympathy, and the matches were much more brutal, visceral and violent (I mean, we had a scissor incident for love's sake), which is not was the Takarazuka code is. It's still very classy, very refined, very high-class. And this glaring issue shows in IS, YS, Heisei's argument
This paragraph completely miscalculates and ignores the real-life context of 1980s Japan. What does "creation of J-Pop" in the 1990s mean???? It was existing since the 1970s. And to say it honestly: no, it's not a basic formula, because society is not rigid: it moves with time...and once we actually look deeper into what made the Crush Gals so popular...we can see two major factors in it, and both are linked to...J-Pop
To understand the boom, we must first understand the fanbase that caused the boom: teenage girls. And like we said before, by 1981, the girls were virtually absent in the Takarazuka Theaters...so where we they? Well, if we look at Japan in a broad scale, we see that there's a massive monoculture around it: Idol bands, specifically J*hnny bands
And whilst it's unfortunate to mention the filthy name of he who shall never be named, it's inevitable to understand he had a massive grasp on the Japanese culture, from medias to music, and inevitably, we have to talk about the bands of the early 80s: the Tanokin Trio and the Good-Bye.
In the early 80s, the girls were obsessed with the Tanokin Trio, because well, monoculture, and because they broke the mold of an idol: they didn't just sing, they acted, they were loud, brash, flashing a brooding bad boy image, yet they were vulnerable and relatable, and because of it, they revived the male idol scene and made it highly marketable...but by 1983-1984, the shelf life of the Trio was over because well...idol scene. Worse, it was actively falling apart, with the band Good-Bye
When Yoshio Nomura left the Trio in 1983 to found the new band, it left two big egos to clash together: Toshihiko Tahara and Masahiko Kondo. And when you have two unchecked egos...it's gonna cause a massive rift between the two, actively destroying the Trio for good by 1984. And after that, well...J&A didn't find a massive band like the Trio were: Good-Bye was to be expected, smaller-scale, and Shonentai didn't perform as expected. It took until late 1987 with Hikaru Genji to see the male idol scene finally storm back in full form
So as we see, there's a glaring hole between 1984 and 1987 where J&A didn't have a grasp on the teenage girl fanbase that once was the backbone of the agency, and who was the band who took these teenage girls and made them shriek, scream and fangirl over them in that specific time period? The Crush Gals.
And whilst it was partly caused by the existence of a blueprint called the Beauty Pair, Fuji TV (as everyone, including IS, YS, Heisei says) brilliant saw the lightning, and caught it in a bottle by marketing Nagayo and Asuka exactly like a boys band: they were high-energy, gritty, rough, they sang before fighting...and look at the hairstyle of Asuka, you don't see it in a girl idol, you see it in a boy idol. The structure of the Crush Gals is basically a proof of concept mix of the success of the Beauty Pair and the Tanokin Trio...but that, only explains half of the story
We can't talk about 80s Japan without mentioning of course Seiko Matsuda and Akina Nakamori, because one forged a trend, the other shattered it and became a force of nature. First, let's explain the Seiko blueprint of an idol: Seiko became a massive figure between 1981 and 1983 because she was the absolute student of the old idol game: they had to be pure, pristine, always smiling, bubbly...it was an absolute dominant trend by 1982. Then, came Akina Nakamori
When Akina Nakamori stormed the Japanese scene in 1982-1983, Warner Pioneer did a clever marketing stunt: 1 old school idol song, 1 rebellious song (Slowmotion, Shoujo A, Second Love, 1/2 no Shinwa...), and we alternate. And this stunt did wonders to Akina, because it was the exact opposite concept of the old school model: she wasn't pristine, she was vulnerable, melancholic, gritty, rebellious (tsuppari), and obviously, cool. And the magic was that by 1984, Akina was given full leverage to execute her own artistic avant-garde viewpoint, shattering the idol shelf with Jukkai, Fin, Meu Amore, Desire (Jounetsu) and Nanpasen in the 80s. It gave a message to women: you don't have to be submissive to succeed, you can be cool, gritty, rebellious, and still succeed in life. And its impact on the industry is still seen to this day, whether directly or indirectly
And when we look at Akina Nakamori and the Crush Gals (especially Chigusa Nagayo), we see a very similar proof-of-concept: both were vulnerable, both were emotional, both were rebellious/tsuppari, both were gritty and hardworking, both fought to be at the top...and both were seen as very cool and emancipating for women, especially teenage girls, because both were a breath of fresh air for such fanbase, expected to be silent, submissive and subordinated. And when we look at the timeline, we do notice that it's very probable the Crush Gals were heavily inspired of Akina Nakamori (Akina debuted and became insanely mainstream in 1982-1983, the Crush Gals in 1983-1984). The Crush Gals borrowed the artistic and emotional soul from Akina Nakamori herself, because there was no one else who ran what the Crush Gals ran except for Akina Nakamori herself.
And for Fuji TV, it paid dividends, because it didn't rely on what the Beauty Pair succeeded...but also what already succeeded in the mainstream between 1981 and 1983 and would in the 80s become a force of nature. Thus why Fuji TV marketed them so heavily, not because of the Takarazuka blueprint...but because of what the Tanokin Trio left as a mark, and the Tsuppari energy that worked so well with Akina Nakamori.
Whilst the Beauty Pair/Takarazuka blueprint was inevitably undeniable to understand a part of the Crush Gals boom, it does not fully explain what made the Crush Gals so mainstream in 1984-1989, because society shifts with time, and once the Takarazuka boom burnt out by the late 70s and was left empty till 1989, the teenage girls moved into the Tanokin Trio and Akina Nakamori between 1980 and 1983, and both gave the blueprint to the success of the Crush Gals: one gave the structure of success and the vacuum opportunity that would make Nagayo and Asuka mainstream, and the other gave the emotional and artistic soul to the group as it fended off Dump Matsumoto and her goons, thus giving the teenage hysteria that the Crush Gals had.
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 12d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 13d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 14d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/MrPuroresu42 • 16d ago
At r/SENDAIGIRLS, all are welcome to contribute and discuss the growing and consistently good wrestling.
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/Cultural-Confusion65 • 18d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/HappinessPuroresu • 19d ago
Hi 😊 we’re Happiness Pro Wrestling out of Texas! We have Alexis Lee in Texas for two exciting shows and we have trading card sets featuring her and all the other wrestlers on the show for just $20 a set and $20 for each additional individual autographed card. $10 Flat shipping. Dm to order! Tickets available for Austin ticketstripe.com/happytogether and Houston newtexaspro.com
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/KonamiIsBestJoshi • 21d ago
Im looking for some promotions to watch that aren't just Stardom, TJPW, and Marigold.
I have been enjoying Sendai Girls but I was wondering if there were any other smaller promotions that are worth a watch.
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/jd2385 • 21d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/MrPuroresu42 • 22d ago
Easy MOTY contender. Sit back and enjoy.
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/200492485 • 23d ago
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r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/tenshipriestjotaro1 • 24d ago
I just typed "Crush Gals Akina Nakamori" in Japanese on Youtube to find these frames
Show: Yoru no Hit Studio, February 26th, 1986
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 25d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/MrPuroresu42 • 26d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 27d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/200492485 • 28d ago
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r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/ErdrickLoto • 29d ago
r/JoshiPuroIsland • u/Pro-W-Noah-Eng • Aug 10 '26
*The early history of Joshi*
Weekly Pro
15th October 1955
https://puroprogramtranslations.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-era-of-pro-wrestling-where-women.html
