Hana Kimura: The Most Beautiful Flowers Are Picked First

Words fail to make sense of something, that ironically, words caused. As most of us with a Twitter account know, Hana Kimura committed suicide on May 23rd; after enduring endless insults stemming from her time on Terrace House. While I don’t have any cute stories, you can see from her short time on Earth, she did touch many people. Let’s take a step back for a second, for my personal take on things.

2018 was an interesting year, it was the first full year of The Chairshot, as well as, my attempt to dive deeper than usual. So Wrestle-1 had a show on Valentine’s Day, which made it oddly appropriate for me to see Hana teaming with Anou Saori against Mika Shirahime & Natsumi Maki. She was in her pink and white cheerleader face gimmick, and while she wasn’t the most crisp, she had a presence about her. Given that my Joshi experience was during the 90s height of Aja Kong, Akira Hokuto, Bull Nakano, Megumi Kudo and Manami Toyota…new Joshi finally hooked me with someone.

It was also at this point, she was rising to prominence in Oedo Tai (Stardom faction) and even earned an invite to the Women of Honor inaugural tournament. Though we all know how laughable that division was, it was still an odd sense of vindication that others were noticing someone that caught my attention, for reasons beyond the aesthetics. Hell, I remember finding out that the G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden was going to have her in the dark match. So I made sure to be in my seat shortly after they started letting people in, just to see Hana (Mathew can attest to this since I had a very certain set of priorities).

Then we move forward to the past year, where she became a leader in women’s wrestling. Beyond her success in the ring and officially become a member of the Stardom roster (even winning the 5 Star Grand Prix), she tried her best to increase visibility elsewhere. She was on talk shows, always promoting her love for wrestling. One of the big reasons she was even on Terrace House, was because she wanted to spread her reach, to hopefully entice more people to become fans of wrestling. With Bushiroad naming her as a key talent they wanted to promote, with Tokyo Cyber Squad becoming a popular fun stable…she had everything ahead of her.

I have a lot of thoughts on the why, the who and how…but just…BE BETTER. Seeing all the outpouring of love, helps to prove how deep her impact was, at such a young age.

I’ll end this with something I haven’t done in about a decade. I used to dabble with music, and write lyrics…which is effectively poetry. This seemed like a good reason to think of something. I’m no Tony Acero (follow all his stuff at 411mania.com, he’s the man) but here’s something.

“Flower in a Starless Sky”

As the dark sets in, the stars never show

A pitch black night, leaving us alone

Loss of direction, whirlwinds of doubt

Tears and emotion, lead only to shout

This dangerous flower

Knew nothing but power

Danger deeper than the looks

Lovely with a life that shook

Our foundation once it was done

An unexpected setting sun

As the dark sets in, the stars never show

A pitch black night, leaving us alone

When the dawn breaks, it will feel like a lifetime

Looming distress, needing a lifeline

As the dark sets in, the stars never show

Nothing shines now, but there’s always tomorrow