Joshi Spotlight: Bull Nakano Interviews Akira Hokuto

It’s time for another of MoskowDiskow’s recaps of a Bull Nakano interview! This time one with Akira Hokuto, one of the biggest stars in joshi puro history, and one of Bull’s closest friends & supporters in the business. Hokuto was a legit main eventer and the biggest draw of the early to mid-90s, but kept teasing retirements, quitting, etc., and was constantly injured, to the point where her box office diminished and she ended up in GAEA Japan. Notes from me will say “Jab’s Notes” and be in bold.

– They start off by talking about Hokuto’s stint as the president of Bull’s fanclub before joining Zenjo herself. Hokuto says she chose Bull because among the 1983 rookies, the other three (Ogura, Komatsu, Nagatomo) were small and/or cute, and Bull stood out for being big and chubby. Hokuto says she saw Bull trying hard during her matches, and started off by making cute homemade gifts and sending them to Bull. Bull brought one to the shoot and shows everyone.

– Bull says that as soon as Hokuto arrived at the Zenjo dojo, her level of athleticism was apparent – Bull says it was among the highest she’s ever seen in wrestling. Hokuto credits her hometown for this, as there was an enormous agricultural field in between her house and her school, making her choices a daily 2+ hour walk/run or a 50 minute bike ride. She says that this helped sharpen her natural physical gifts. Bull says that she immediately saw potential in Hokuto, and could see her as a future main eventer from the start.

(Jab’s Notes: This is a bit funny to think about, given how Hokuto wrestled the entire 1990s wrapped up like a mummy and relying on charisma, character and timing because her body was shot, but she was legit an amazing super-athlete before all the injuries)

– Bull tells an extended story about Hokuto being knocked out in training, and saying she saw flowers and happy children singing on the “other side”, and talks about crossing the Sanzu River, which is an afterlife thing in Japanese buddhism. I didn’t catch all of this as Bull tends to go on a bit, but TLDR is a near-death experience. Hokuto responds with “I don’t remember that…sounds heavy” while laughing.

– They talk about the broken neck Hokuto suffered during a match in 1987, and how she was told she would never wrestle again. Hokuto says that she’s thankful that Bull came to hang out often while she was bedridden during recovery. Hokuto talks about the difficulties of eating a meal while laying prone with an immobilized neck. Hokuto says it was like this for about two and a half months until the halo was ready to come off.

Akira Hokuto continues wrestling with a BROKEN FREAKIN' NECK
byu/sangjade inSquaredCircle

(Jab’s Notes: The match is horrifying to watch, as Hokuto is legit standing there on the apron holding her head steady with her own hands, then going in and wrestling some more. Absolute insanity and the kind of thing that shows you the lack of care towards bodies in that era. It makes AEW’s disastrous shit with the Hardys look minor. And of course I’ve heard it’s like some “start of the legend” thing in Japan, lol)

-They talk about how Zenjo ran a campaign where Hokuto could come back if she got more than 10K signatures. She got 80K. It became something of a grassroots campaign among the Zenjo fans of the time. Hokuto says that most of the other wrestlers didn’t want to work with someone coming off a broken neck, and says that Bull was one of the only wrestlers to take the time to encourage her not to give up. Bull says she didn’t want all of Hokuto’s hard work to be for nothing.

-Bull talks about doing the same spot (second rope tombstone) to Hokuto after her return, just to show that it could be done safely in an attempt alleviate concerns. She didn’t realize that Hokuto’s mom was in the front row, which made it a bit awkward. Hokuto says her parents were very supportive and trusted Bull very much as their daughter’s senior. They talk about how even though Bull was Hokuto’s big senior by two years, Hokuto was actually older by six months. This combined with them knowing each other before Hokuto joined gave them a unique relationship. (Jab’s Notes: I’m trying really hard not to read anything into this “Hokuto sent her cute gifts and is a bit older and they’re super close” thing, haha- Japan is a whole different culture and one shouldn’t make assumptions!)

– Hokuto talks more about coming back from a broken neck, saying that almost everyone told her not to return. Even the company chairman told her it was a useless pursuit. She says Bull was practically the only one that supported her decision at first. Bull says that because she had the power to influence the situation (as a big senior), she felt like it was her role to have Hokuto’s back.

– Hokuto talks about when she was thinking about getting married the first time, that Bull also was one of the only ones to tell her to go for it. Bull said she thought she could be “the Seiko Matsuda of wrestling”, a reference to a singer that is known for bucking entertainment industry conventions by having a married family life while active. Hokuto jokes that she’s like Matsuda with a completely different face (i.e. much uglier). (Jab’s Notes: Like Kyoko, Akira is rather dismissive of her own looks. It’d take a few years for fans to appreciate her… unique appearance)

– Going back to before the injury, Bull talks about how unfortunate the timing was, as she felt that the junior team of Hokuto & Hotta could have been the next Crush Gals. Hokuto says that when the company told her she would be teaming with Hotta, she was in favor of it because they were familiar with each other as 1985 classmates, and friendly outside the ring (which continues to this day). Bull talks about how the tag paradigm shifted from Boyish/Cute teams to Boyish/Boyish teams as Crush evolved. (Jab’s Notes: I’ve read that this is somewhat related to the Rose of Versailles manga, which had a woman dressing as a man as the main character and was bodyguard to a more feminine girl, and that Zenjo formed Beauty Pair to evoke this, and then just kept going to that well again and again)

– After the neck injury, Hokuto was put with Suzuka Minami in the team Marine Wolf (Jab’s Notes: Marine Wolf, Dream Orca, Fire Jets, Calgary Typhoons- Zenjo has some BOMB-ASS tag team names. And some very weird ones). She says that there was an impression that it was a team of partners that don’t get along, because they were rarely seen together outside the ring. However, Hokuto says that they got along well, and that Minami is just a quiet person that doesn’t really like hanging out with groups in general. Hokuto says she wasn’t sure that they would be a good match as a team though. Bull puts Minami over as a textbook wrestler that excelled at the finer points, like bumping and movement, who rarely got lost or botched. Meanwhile, Hokuto was a loose cannon that didn’t do anything the way she was taught (Hokuto corpses at this). “You would just pick people up and drop them on their heads, DANGEROUS QUEEN.”-Bull.

(Jab’s Notes: Another note Moskow adds:)

This one was pretty interesting, lots of talk about Hokuto’s “reign of terror” era. For those not aware, Hokuto in the 90-92 period was known for taking liberties and stepping on others (typically her juniors) in order to get herself over. She had a bit of heat for this at the time and other wrestlers were actually afraid of her to an extent since she was temperamental and working with her was a bit of an injury risk. (Jab’s Notes: There’s a clip of her essentially inventing a new kind of suplex on Bison Kimura where Bison has a very clear “What the fuck are you doing?” look on her face- this is a BIG no-no in wrestling, for obvious reasons)

Insane Akira Hokuto suplex 1992
byu/ShiroAbesPants inJoshiPuroIsland

(Jab’s Notes: The suplex in question)

Akira Hokuto losing her cool part 2: Bison Kimura
byu/ShiroAbesPants inJoshiPuroIsland

(Jab’s Notes: A clip of Hokuto going nuts after a stiff Bison shot, Bison standing her ground and firing back to create a fun sequence until Bull- aka big senior- comes in to settle things down)

– They talk a bit about the dynamics of being in a tag team, specifically the importance of being on the same page in terms of goals and motivations. This moves into a broader discussion of the determination needed to make it to the top. Hokuto says she was extremely cocky at this point in her career, wrestling with the intent of eating her opponents alive in order to get over. She hated losing, and says that she feels a wrestler needs some degree of this mentality to have any chance of making it (Jab’s Notes: It’s naturally SUPER EASY to overdo it, but she’s probably right- guys who don’t mind doing jobs will probably be doing a lot of them, and that will screw you as a rising midcarder). She says Bull had this mentality as well, and that they pushed each other to excel when they were #1a and #1b of Zenjo.

– They talk a bit about the singing and dancing aspect of 80’s Zenjo, and how this wasn’t either of their strong points. Hokuto says she knew she wasn’t good at it, and didn’t like doing it but was kind of just like ‘whatever’ about it. She says you need to have Crush level popularity for the record to have any chance of selling (so it was kind of like “what are we even doing here?”). Hokuto was so focused on excelling in wrestling that it was more of a distraction than anything. She also felt that the singing/dancing babyface image was at odds with what she wanted to do in the ring (i.e. intense violence).

– Bull talks about how Hokuto’s style changed to being more heelish, and Hokuto says that “I just started doing what I wanted to do.” She talks about walking backstage after what she felt was a great match, and the president telling her “Hokuto, we’re sending you to Mexico.” While there, she was informed didn’t have to come back if she didn’t want to, since she wasn’t getting over in Japan anyway. Hokuto says she thought of just quitting Zenjo and staying in Mexico at this time, but the reality of language and cultural barriers hit her in the face and she returned with the mindset of doing whatever it takes to get herself over. (Jab’s Notes: Moskow adds “Also, the ‘sending you to Mexico’ thing was very much taken as a diss”)

– They talk briefly about Zenjo’s attempts to open up other countries in the early 90s (Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, etc). At first they were looking forward to going, but it was soon apparent that it was going to take some work to get over in these new markets. Hokuto says her initial reaction was anger at being put in the situation to begin with. They talk about being hit with rocks, beer, and piss cups thrown by unruly overseas fans. Bull asks Hokuto how all of this made her feel, and her response was “Pissed off”. (Jab’s Notes: I’ve heard that the Indonesian fans were turned-off by the intense physicality and so plans to expand there never took off. “Mexico Runs” also seemed to diminish after a point)

– Talking specifically of her time in Mexico, Hokuto says she felt like she should have stayed in Japan, but since she was there she was aiming to take the top spot. She says that she had trouble communicating “Hokuto” to Spanish speakers, so she used her shoot last name instead – Uno. (bc shes number one you see). She talks about her struggles to learn Spanish while working in Mexico, and says that one time she was at a gathering where there was a dog trained to say AGUA (in a dog’s voice!) when it wanted water. She was amazed by this, but then someone turned to her and said “dogs can talk, so why can’t you?”. Bull points out that Hokuto is still visibly angry about this just from telling the story 30 years later. (Jab’s Notes: YA THINK? This also reminds me of Tetsuya Naito using Mexican fans’ racial taunts at him and adopting them as his own taunt- the “open eye” gesture is thrown to Asians to mock their epicanthal folds)

-She says that her while her experience in Mexico was generally frustrating the upside is that it gave her the idea for her Las Cachorras Orientales heel stable (Jab’s Notes: it being Spanish for “The Oriental Bitches”). It was originally formed as a tag team with Etsuko Mita, who had also just returned from Mexico. Hokuto says that Mima Shimoda was then added in an attempt to salvage Shimoda’s career, as she had been floundering and was on the verge of being let go at this point. This was all worked into an angle where Shimoda begged Hokuto to join her after a match in the summer of 1992. Hokuto says she didn’t like the nurturing aspects of having to protect a younger partner (Mita), and Bull ribs her for being way too picky since this was the angle that launched Hokuto to stardom.

(Jab’s Notes: Having watched all of 1992 in succession, it’s really clear how forgotten Shimoda is until this point- the class of 1987 includes the tag champs Toyota/Yamada, plus Mita as Hokuto’s subordinate… and there’s Shimoda in a generic singlet having generic matches with no personality. Joining LCO not only saved her career, but led to her being a main event tag star in 1997 and beyond)

-Bull talks about how quickly LCO took off, and Hokuto says they found their own niche in between the heels (Gokumon) and the babyfaces. Bull says that their style (this is where Hokuto’s wild hair/makeup era began) gave them a cool, marketable look. Bull points out that this was actually one of the first times that a Zenjo wrestler had worn gear that exposed the belly. Hokuto says it was a bit sexy and Bull ribs her like “i’m not sure how many people were saying it was -sexy- exactly…”

– They jump all the way ahead to Hokuto’s decision to retire in 2001 (Jab’s Notes: Agh, that’s annoying. I guess you couldn’t do her entire career without a 3-hour sit-down, but still). Hokuto says she had been balancing work life and family life for years at this point, but there was an event where a family member became ill and due to work commitments, Hokuto was unable to visit them before they passed away (i -think- this was the story, it was a bit confusing). Once she realized that work had taken priority over family life, she decided to retire on the spot. She talks about her retirement match, which was based around those that came before her (Chigusa Nagayo) and those that will carry the torch after her (Meiko Satomura). Ayako Hamada was also added (bc Mexico) (Jab’s Notes: I believe referring to Hokuto’s run there- Hamada is half-Mexican).

– In terms of career regrets, never making it to MSG is tops on her list. Bull on the other hand, did this at 17 years old in 1985 when Hokuto was a rookie. It was a goal that Hokuto set for herself at that time but never managed to achieve. (Jab’s Notes: Aja Kong was also obsessed with working MSG. It’s interesting how that arena is so famous that the puro people all seem to obsess over working it- Moskow says it’s likely just kind of come to be the “embodiment of overseas success”) She talks about never winning the red belt (Jab’s Notes: Zenjo’s WWWA Title, which is red), and says that even though there were points where she turned it down, she still would have liked to have been able to check it off the list at some point and often wonders how her reign would have unfolded if it had happened. She says her happiest time as a wrestler was around the time when she first became Akira Hokuto (1989-91). She says this was when she started believing in herself and realizing why she was chosen in the top 10 of 5000 applicants as a rookie. She says that once she made it to the top, things got a lot more stressful. Hokuto plugs her youtube and her Assemble wrestling project, and it’s a wrap.

(Jab’s Notes: An interesting one, albeit one that jumps across the entire timeline- there’s a LOT that could be said about her middle years in Zenjo, her injuries, nearly retiring, leaving for GAEA Japan, and the reactions with the Matsunagas in the office- but it’s probably so much dirty laundry that even she might not want to go into it)