Rakuten’s Takayuki Kishi Achieves 20 Consecutive Winning Seasons… What Is the Pitching Philosophy Behind His Curveball—Learned from His Idol, Masumi Kuwata—and His Focus on a Limited Repertoire?
“I’ve always looked up to Masumi Kuwata (formerly of the Giants) as my role model, so this is truly an honor. When I was a kid, my father—who had played baseball—told me, ‘Watch how Kuwata pitches and learn from him.’ I used to watch every game Kuwata pitched on TV with rapt attention.”
So says Rakuten right-hander Takayuki Kishi (41). Kishi earned the win in the August 19 game against the Lotte Marines, notching his 174th career victory—surpassing his “idol,” Masumi Kuwata.He is a veteran who has remained a key starter even after turning 40 and has racked up wins for 20 consecutive years, starting from his rookie season (2007) with the Seibu Lions. Kishi continued:
“I think my father told me to ‘learn from’ Mr. Kuwata because of his various pitching skills—such as his refined windup form, his mastery of pickoff moves, and his quick fielding.
What I often imitated was Mr. Kuwata’s signature curveball—a pitch that breaks sharply downward. I remember how much fun it was as a kid to throw it with a tennis ball; it would curve so much it was almost funny.”
However, Kishi says he had never even considered turning pro until his high school days. After graduating from middle school, he chose his local high school, Miyagi Prefectural Natori North High School—a school with no reputation for baseball.
“The reason was that it was close to my parents’ house. I was a pitcher, but I wasn’t aiming for Koshien. If I had been, I think I would have gone to a different powerhouse school.”
“My curveball is pretty effective.”
Kishi became the ace pitcher in his second year of high school and gradually made a name for himself within the prefecture—including achieving a no-hit, no-run game (though it was an unofficial record due to a five-inning mercy rule) in the first round of the Miyagi Prefectural Tournament that summer (against Tagajo High School). It wasn’t until some time after he enrolled at Tohoku Gakuin University that he began to consider turning pro.
“During the spring league (Sendai Six Universities League) of my senior year (2006), I helped stop Tohoku Fukushi University—a powerhouse in the league—from achieving its 35th consecutive championship and, as the ace, contributed to our first championship in 18 years.
What really boosted my confidence, though, was the Japan-U.S. University Baseball Championship that same year, when I was selected for the Japanese national team.
In league play, I was throwing a lot of sliders, which were popular at the time, but in the Japan-U.S. Baseball Championship, I tried throwing the curveball I’d been practicing since I was a kid. The opposing batters couldn’t time it at all. I held the U.S. team scoreless and realized, ‘The curveball really works.’”
Kishi was drafted under the “Draft Hope” category and joined the Seibu Lions in 2007. Starting with the spring training games of his rookie year, he continued to pitch well, relying primarily on his curveball, and earned a spot in the opening-day rotation. He received advice from pitching coach Daisuke Araki (at the time) to “slow it down a bit,” which allowed him to further improve the accuracy of his curveball.
Even back then, Kishi relied on a limited repertoire of three to four pitches, including his fastball, curveball, and changeup. This is unusual in today’s game, where it’s common practice to utilize a diverse array of pitches—such as throwing two or three different types of fastballs based on detailed data.
“I did consider trying new pitches, like a forkball. But I didn’t have the courage to use them… Some of the veteran pitchers would say, ‘You won’t know until you try it in a game,’ but I didn’t want to regret getting hit by a pitch I wasn’t confident in.
I also didn’t want to learn other pitches and end up with reduced accuracy on my curveball or fastball—or end up with a half-baked repertoire. So I decided to focus on mastering the few pitches I had, ensuring I could place them precisely where I wanted and maintain perfect control over them.”
Kishi continues to hone the precision of his limited repertoire. Ichiro—who recorded a combined total of 4,367 hits in Japan and the U.S.—has particularly praised Kishi’s command and the sharpness of his fastball. When Kishi was selected as a candidate for the Japanese national team for the 2008 World Baseball Classic in December of that year, Ichiro had this to say:
“There aren’t many pitchers like Kishi who can get ahead in the count with a fastball. From a batter’s perspective, I think the ball looks different at the release point than it does when it actually reaches the bat.”
Kishi’s fastball clocking in at around 140 km/h is by no means fast. However, he keeps batters on their toes by leveraging the sharpness Ichiro praised, combined with a 30 km/h speed differential between his fastball and his curveball, which clocks in at less than 110 km/h.
“As a starter, I do want to pitch a complete game, but above all, I don’t want to derail the game. I don’t have a 160 km/h fastball, so when I need to back off, I back off. That might be what ultimately leads to pitching performances where I don’t completely fall apart.”
Kishi has continued to refine his limited repertoire of pitches, racking up wins for 20 consecutive years. In Part 2, we’ll delve into his pitching philosophy now that he’s 41, how he deals with failure, and his future goals, which he describes as “health first.”
From the October 16, 2026 issue of *FRIDAY*
PHOTO： Hiroyuki Komatsu