Jinsei Shinzaki

Kensuke Shinzaki (新崎 健介 Shinzaki Kensuke, born December 2, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive, better known by his ring name, Jinsei Shinzaki (新崎 人生 Shinzaki Jinsei).

He is currently signed to the Michinoku Pro Wrestling promotion where he is the promotion's president.

He also performs for Michinoku Pro as a wrestler, serving as the sole heavyweight wrestler on the roster.

Shinzaki is also known for his appearances with other Japanese promotions such as All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW).

Shinzaki trained in the Mexican style of lucha libre before debuting in Hamada's promotion Universal Lucha Libre in 1992, wrestling under a mask and the name of Mongolian Yuga.

In 1993, Shinzaki followed The Great Sasuke to his promotion Michinoku Pro Wrestling, becoming one of its founders.

In June 1993, Kensuke unmasked and changed his gimmick, re-debuting as Jinsei Shinzaki ("Jinsei" meaning "life" in Japanese), an aruki henro or Shikoku pilgrim.

Under this persona, Shinzaki wrestled in a slow, meditated style, and constantly performed prayers in the ring before every movement.

He also came to the arenas in full pilgrimage garments, including white robes and suge-kasa hats, and carried a shakujo staff and a kongo-zue.

Jinsei debuted as a silent heel, being introduced by Mr. Yamaguchi as a special member of Super Delfín's heel unit in order to "curse" The Great Sasuke with his prayers.

To American fans, Shinzaki is perhaps most known for his stint in the United States based World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1994 to 1996 under the ring name Hakushi (白紙).

A former soccer player, Shinzaki trained in amateur wrestling in high school.

He first worked as an actor, but he left for professional wrestling after meeting Gran Hamada.

However, after disagreements with them, Shinzaki turned face in 1994 and joined Sasuke and his allies.

In May 1994, Shinzaki wrestled on a World Wrestling Federation tour of Japan.

This led to him being offered a contract with the promotion later that year.

The promotion was looking for a Japanese wrestler for the roster; Hayabusa had rejected an offer, choosing to work for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling instead, and Shinzaki was given the Japanese wrestler spot.

In November 1994, Shinzaki traveled to the United States to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

He wrestled as Hakushi (白紙, "White Paper"), a derivation of his Michinoku Pro Wrestling persona.

This new character resembled Jinsei Shinzaki, but he was characterized by sporting Buddhist shakyo written all over his skin, in a reference to Japanese folk character Hoichi the Earless.

He was also accompanied by a facepaint-wearing cultist named Shinja.

Initially a heel, his first few matches were highlighted by victories over jobbers which included future star Matt Hardy and midcarders like Aldo Montoya, and 1-2-3 Kid.

Hakushi brought the wrestling style of lucharesu to the company, utilizing many aerial maneuvers, and stood out for using many of them to finish his matches as opposed to a single, established finishing move.

Hakushi had a brief alliance with ninja wrestler Kwang, calling themselves collectively "Shogun".

After losing a tag team match, Hakushi blamed Kwang and turned on him.

Hakushi subsequently defeated Kwang, in the Shogun team’s breakup and blow-off match.

This also happened to be the Kwang’s last appearance.

Hakushi then feuded with former WWF Champion Bret Hart, wrestling a number of competitive matches against him.

He also participated in a three-way feud with perennial jobber Barry Horowitz and Bodydonna Skip.

Horowitz, who lost for years on WWF programming to get over new talent, surprisingly used his three-quarter nelson to secure a victory over Skip.

Hakushi would also fall to Horowitz soon after because of interference from Skip.

His loss was a surprise to the fans, not only given Horowitz's long time losing record, but also given how well Hakushi did during his feud with Bret Hart in what had been Hakushi's first major feud in the company.

Hakushi and Horowitz would briefly form a tag team, leading to a face turn for Hakushi.

In Survivor Series, Hakushi was a member of The Underdogs team, but was eliminated after a kick from his enemy 1-2-3 Kid.

He also was a competitor in the 1996 Royal Rumble, where he was eliminated by Bret Hart's brother, Owen Hart.

During a match on Raw against Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw on the March 6 episode, Hakushi was hit by Bradshaw's branding iron after a loss.

That week on WWF Superstars, commentator Jim Ross reported that he had been so humiliated by the branding that he (kayfabe) left the WWF.

Upon leaving his stint in WWF, Shinzaki returned to Japan.

He made a single night appearance with New Japan Pro-Wrestling at "Battle Formation" on April 29, 1996, where he wrestled The Great Muta.

Shinzaki was introduced as a mystic, supernatural character very much like Muta, who embodied evil while Shinzaki embodied good.