Sanshiro Murao’s fight to be ‘real’ in judo is far from over; frustration in Paris makes him aim for Los Angeles

Since he was a child, Sanshiro Murao has challenged tougher opponents in his quest to “be real.” At the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, the 23-year-old Japanese judoka faced his toughest opponent of all: Georgia’s Lasha Bekauri, the world’s No. 1 judoka and gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics.

Murao, competing in the 90-kilogram division, was now just one step away from the top of his judo adventure. He took the lead with a waza-ari. But in the end he lost to Bekauri by ippon.

“I’m really disappointed that I didn’t win the gold medal I was hoping for,” Murao said in a strained voice, fighting back tears.

Murao’s father is Japanese and his mother is American. He was given the old-fashioned name “Sanshiro” in the hope that he would “grow up to be a real Japanese.” Murao gained both flexibility and strength by also doing gymnastics, rugby and sumo.

The judo club he joined when he was 5 had a training ground at Tsukuba University, a school with a highly competitive judo team. It was here that he learned the orthodox style of grabbing an opponent to prepare for a throw.

“The way of practicing has brought me to where I am today,” said Murao.

He ran alone before practicing in the dojo. In sixth grade, he was not satisfied with practicing on high school students and fought female university students in the hopes of “becoming stronger.”

Before entering high school, Murao visited leading schools in Japan, choosing Nada Junior High School in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, for its “most intensive training.” He scribbled in his “judo notebook” that “I am the strongest” and left his dojo to train against corporate athletes.

To fulfill his dream of competing in the Olympics, Murao enrolled at Toin Gakuen Senior High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, where he was urged to “aim for the world.” During his time there, he also visited judo powerhouses such as Tokai University and Kokushikan University to train with athletes competing on the world stage.

Murao missed out on a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics, which left him feeling like the big stage was “so close and yet so far away.”

He said his turning point was the final of the 2022 All Japan Student Judo Championships in the team competition, where he said he “broke out of his shell”.

As the Tokai University ace, Murao fought against Tatsuru Saito of Kokushikan University, who is now representing Japan in Paris in the 100-kilogram weight class. After more than 16 minutes of heated combat, Murao pinned his opponent — who outweighed him by a whopping 80 kilograms — to win by ippon.

“I was able to win a match when it was impossible,” Murao recalls of the moment he gained confidence in himself.

Murao has the iconic words of former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson etched in his mind: “Be real.” Murao interprets the phrase as “being the real thing.”

“I don’t want to win for the sake of winning,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be the real thing.”

But Murao’s public image is enhanced by fiction. “Sugata Sanshiro” happens to be an old Japanese novel whose title character is a judoka.

There have been “true Sanshiro” in the judo world from every era: the 1964 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Isao Okano, now 80, who is known as the “Sanshiro of the Showa era,” and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics gold medalist Toshihiko Koga, now deceased, who was nicknamed the “Sanshiro of the Heisei era.”

Murao, who can be called the “Sanshiro of the Reiwa era”, came very close to winning his own gold, but fell just short.

“I want to come back in four years,” Murao said. He promises to take gold at the next Olympics in Los Angeles — for real.