Sales and Market Bullets PART CULTURAL HISTORY, PART SPORTS BIOGRAPHY: Wrestling fans will be drawn to this rich history of professional wrestling in Japan, while general readers will be captivated by the surprisingly deep influence of wrestling on popular culture and how the extraordinary story of Rikidozan helps illuminate the roots of the Korean Wave, from K-pop and K-dramas to global phenomena like Parasite and Squid Game . ADVANCE PRAISE: "This biography of Rikidozan is an important and long overdue contribution to the study of Japanese pop culture and Korean diaspora, and Irvin Muchnick is just the author to bring this amazing story to life." -- Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master's Son "An impressive, knowing biography of an iconic, legendary ring figure in Japan and Korea, and a primer on the world of professional wrestling at the same time -- densely researched, rich in detail, brimming with fascinating facts, memorable tidbits and insights." -- Robert Whiting, author of Tokyo Underworld and Tokyo Junkie THE FATHER OF JAPANESE PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING: Mitsuhiro Momota (born Kim Sin-rak), better known in the ring as Rikidozan, was a Korean-Japanese wrestler and sumo wrestler, who is known as the father of professional wrestling and nicknamed "The Father of Puroresu." He is considered one of the most influential people in professional wrestling and was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017, the first Korean inductee and third professional Japanese wrestler to be inducted. GLOBAL SCOPE: Rikidozan's story moves through Pyongyang and South Hamgyong Province, to Japan (especially Tokyo and Osaka's Koreatown) and onward to Honolulu, Hawaii, where a generation of Asian wrestlers were trained as villains for American wrestling audiences.