Isao Harimoto, one of the most celebrated figures in Japanese baseball, has died in Tokyo at the age of 86.
Harimoto ended his 23-season career with 3,085 hits, the highest total in Japanese baseball history. He remains the only player in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) history to record 3,000 hits.
He also hit 504 home runs and stole 319 bases, making him the only NPB player with at least 500 home runs and 300 stolen bases. Only three players in Major League Baseball history have achieved the same feat: Barry Bonds, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.
Known as the Hit Machine, Harimoto was selected for 18 all-star games and helped the Toei Flyers win their first Japan Series title in 1962. He was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
Harimoto was born in Hiroshima in 1940 to Korean parents. As a young child, he suffered severe burns to his right hand in an accident.
The injury restricted movement in his thumb and forefinger, while his other three fingers remained curled. He later learned to throw and bat left-handed and used a specially made glove on his right hand to catch the ball.
At the age of five, Harimoto was in Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city during the final days of World War Two.
He survived the bombing. In 2011, Harimoto recalled that his mother used her body to protect him and his sister from the blast. Another sister did not survive.
Harimoto joined the Toei Flyers in 1959 and spent 16 years with the club before later playing for the Yomiuri Giants and Lotte Orions.
He won seven batting titles, including four consecutive titles from 1967 to 1970, a feat later matched by Ichiro Suzuki.
Harimoto retired in 1981 after playing 2,752 games.
The Golden Players Club, one of Japan’s two baseball halls of fame, paid tribute to him following his death.
“All members of the Meikyukai express our deep respect and gratitude for Mr Isao Harimoto’s many years of great achievements, and we sincerely pray for [following] his passing,” the club revealed.
