Masakata Mukai

Masakata Mukai (Japanese: 向井 正剛, Hepburn: Mukai Masakata, born February 11, 1935) is a Japanese educator and former high school baseball manager. He is the only high school baseball manager from Okayama Prefecture to have won a national championship in either the spring or summer Koshien tournaments. While managing Okayama Higashi Commercial High School, he led the team—featuring ace pitcher Masaji Hiramatsu, also from his hometown—to victory in the Spring Koshien. He was born in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture.

Biography and career

Early life and education Mukai was born in 1935 in Takahashi, Okayama Prefecture. After World War II, he attended Okayama Prefectural Takahashi High School. His classmates included Toru Hashimoto, who would become president of Fuji Bank (now part of Mizuho Financial Group) and president of the Development Bank of Japan; Kanji Morisawa, future executive vice president of Itochu Corporation; and Satoshi Minami, who became a university professor. After graduation, Mukai moved to Tokyo and enrolled in the Department of Health Sciences within the Faculty of Physical Education at Tokyo University of Education (now University of Tsukuba). He graduated in 1957 and, in the same year, began working as a teacher at Okayama Higashi Commercial High School.

This victory marked the first ever Koshien championship for a team from Okayama Prefecture. That same year, the team also won the high school hardball division of the National Sports Festival of Japan. In the summer of 1971, the team reached the semifinals in the 53rd National High School Baseball Championship. As of today, that 1965 spring victory remains the only Koshien championship for a team from Okayama Prefecture. Following this, he served as a research officer for the Japan-Korea Joint Bid Committee for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and became a professor in the graduate school of Sendai University in 1997. Recognized for his contributions, he was appointed the 9th president of Sendai University in 2002, serving until 2008.