Antonio Inoki’s 65-Year Legacy: The Four Women He Loved and the Loneliness Behind the Legend
Burning Spirit" was shy when it came to women, and he "refused anything that came his way.
The big stand-up fight between women
In the late 2000s, a dark shadow began to loom over Antonio Inoki’s marriage with A.
At that time, Inoki was living a life traveling back and forth between America, where A. and their child resided, and Japan. However, behind the scenes, he had grown close to a woman living in Tokyo—his final wife, photographer Tazuko Hashimoto (who passed away in 2019 at the age of 62).
Hashimoto, originally a still photographer, is said to have met Inoki in the mid-1990s. Later, she accompanied him on his visits to North Korea as a politician and acted as both his public and private partner. Meanwhile, she distanced his family, relatives, and old friends from him. Keisuke speculates that her intention was to monopolize the privileges that came with being Inoki’s wife.
Sensing the presence of another woman near her husband, A. returned to Japan and stormed into the office of IGF, the wrestling organization Inoki was involved with at the time. There, she confronted Hashimoto, and the two engaged in a fierce altercation.
“It was an intense shouting match between the legal wife and the mistress. Hashimoto even left a woman’s coat in Inoki’s car on purpose to make sure A. knew she was there.
Right before A. returned to Japan, a women’s weekly magazine exposed Inoki and Hashimoto’s hot affair, and it is said that this was part of her carefully planned strategy.”
In 2011, A. and Inoki divorced, and she cut all ties with the Inoki family.
“I am aware of the foolishness of speaking ill of the deceased, but even so, I cannot forgive Hashimoto to this day. Not just me—Hiroko, Inoki’s daughter with Mitsuko, and her children were also unable to maintain contact with him.
Because of this, my brother spent his final years in isolation from his family, forced to battle his illness alone. This, too, is part of the truth of his tumultuous life.”
The grave Hashimoto built in Tsuta Onsen, Aomori Prefecture, did not contain Inoki’s remains—this was Hiroko’s decision.
Never revealing his true self as a lonely man, the ‘charismatic figure of the wrestling world’ departed this life.
