Kokushimusou gimmick

[OrangeCrush51]

I wasn't sure if I should put this in the All Japan thread, but it's a Mutoh question, not a AJPW question.

Okay, I knew about Keiji Mutoh as the Great Muta. And I knew about Keiji Mutoh as Keiji Mutoh. But now I find this third gimmick with him hailing from China and covered in Japanese/Chinese (I'm not sure which) and other words... Here's a pics: http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com...eatmuta/24.jpg
http://ajpw.puroresufan.com/images/kokushi.jpg

Basically, what is the story behind the gimmick? If anyone knows. Personally, I think it looks kick-***.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

I may be wrong, but I believe it was Mutoh teaming with Jinsei "Hakushi" Shinzaki in a few matches in Michinoku Pro and he just adopted the same look.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

That's probably right.

This is hard to understand unless you have some knowledge of the Japanese language.

I believe "Hakushi" (white angel) is a made-up word when "Byakushi" (white death) would be very hard for American audience to pronounce when Shinzaki started in WWF. I couldn't find Hakushi with the combination of kanji (Chinese characters) in dictionary. Of course, there are many words with the same pronunciation with different kanji.

"Kokushi" (as "black angel") couldn't be found in dictionary, either. Then again, there are many words with the same pronunciation but with different kanji combinations.

With a different kanji combination, "kokushi muso" means the most distinguished person in the nation. It's also the name of a superspecial winning combination of tiles in mahjong game. I guess that's how Mutoh dubbed the name.

[Luds]

THanks for that information Hisa, it's always hard for us to figure out any of this stuff!

[OrangeCrush51]

Yeah, I actually found out about the Kokushi thing on some obscure Web site... Apparently he only used the "black angel" thing a few times in his career, I think mostly during a feud with Shinzaki and a handful of other matches... In a way it's cheap because it's just playing off Shinzaki's gimmick, but it's actually the cooler gimmick in my opinion...

EDIT: Oh, and Hisa, it is definitely nice having you here for info. Any idea what Hakushi/Kokushi write on themselves? Are they like Buddhist prayers or what?

[El Pollo Guerrera]

"I wrestled in the WWF and all I got were these tattoos!"