Ittetsu Hoshi

**Ittetsu Hoshi** (星一徹) is a recurring character from the Kyojin no Hoshi series. He is the father of the main character, Hyūma Hoshi and Akiko Hoshi. He was once a former player for the Yomiuri Kyojin.

## Ittetsu Hoshi

* Manga
* Manga Full

### Aliases

* The phantom of third base ( 幻の3塁手)
* Baseball Demon (野球の鬼)
* Oni
* Stupid Parent 「親バカ」
* Baseball Idiot 「野球バカ」

## Biographical information

### Occupation

* Former Giants player
* Day laborer
* Baseball Coach

### Status

Deceased - Shin Kyojin no Hoshi Ⅱ (anime only)

## Relationships

### Relatives

* Hyūma Hoshi - Son
* Akiko Hoshi - Daughter

* Mitsuru Hanagata - (Son-in-law)

## Baseball Info & Player Records

### Baseball Team(s)

* Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツ) - Former
* Chunichi Dragons (中日ドラゴンズ) - Coach

### Positions

* Third basemen (Giants)
* Coach (Chunichi Dragons)

## Misc.

### Voice actor

Seizō Katō (加藤精三)

**SPOILERS***WARNING! This article contains spoilers!*(*Yuke! Yuke! Hyūma!*)

## Profile

### Appearance

He wears a white button up shirt under a brown jacket. He has thick eyebrows and short black hair.

### Personality

Ittetsu has an extremely strict personality.

### Background

##### Giants era

He was registered in the Giants team from Showa 17 - Showa 23 (1942-1948) but was never in an actual game. He was a right-handed pitcher and a left-handed batter.

Throughout his time as a player for the Giants baseball team, Tetsuharu Kawakami described him as,"The greatest third baseman in history who could have easily surpassed Shigeo Nagashima."

In 1942, during the heights of the Pacific War, Ittetsu Hoshi got drafted and was immediately sent straight to the battlefield. He returned home alive but injured his dominant shoulder in the war. Although he had lost his excellent throwing ability due to his injury, he was reinvigorated by the encouragement of his wife, Harue.

After returning, he rejoined the Giants in the year 1948 and devised a new pitch called the "Devil's Fastball (悪魔の速球)" aka "Ma sokkyū (魔速球)" to compensate for his slow pitching. Once Kawakami witnesses Ittetsu's "Devil's Fastball" (which could be commanded to deliberately make it look like it would hit the runner or even hit them intentionally on occasion), he confronts him and called his pitch nothing more than a beanball. Kawakami then proclaims that using such a throw went against the tradition of glory and honor of the Giants team. After being called out, Ittetsu realizes his own mistake and decides to leave the professional baseball world.

##### After the birth of his son Hyūma Hoshi

After becoming a commoner who lost his entire baseball dream, he lived in a row house in Doya-gai and supported his family as a day laborer. Ittetsu, having not been able to get over his strong feelings for baseball, falls into a downward spiral of grief and endless frustration. He often spent his days drowning himself in alcohol and causing a a huge disturbance throughout the entire neighborhood. After his wife Harue passes away, such thoughts of his baseball dream manifested and became the driving force behind his intense baseball education for his son, Hyūma. In the anime, when Harue was alive, after retiring from the Giants, he was a so-called home dad who supported his family by working as a laborer, but he strongly opposed letting Hyūma play baseball.

Many of the intensive training methods imposed by Ittetsu during Hyūma's childhood were very harsh and cruel. Hyūma Hoshi once had to wear the Dai League Ball Training Cast everyday and during his growth period, it caused his growth to be stunted (he had an underdeveloped skeleton and muscles.) Another intensive training method involved a baseball drenched in gasoline and set a blaze, being hit by Ittetsu with a bat and sent directly towards the vulnerable Hyūma. With nothing to counter the blazing hot ball of fire, while doing a handstand, Hyūma managed to kick it back with the bottoms of his sandals, and this training continued as an effort to defeat Mitsuru Hanagata's Knockout Batting Technique.

As such harsh training days continued, Hyūma Hoshi began to develop a strong distain and hatred for baseball. However, through confrontations with Sadaharu Oh and Mitsuru Hanagata, he is then awakened to the wonders of baseball and willingly decides to join the Giants team. Ittetsu Hoshi then points to the stars and entrusts Hyūma with his dream of becoming a "Giant's star", which he himself could not fulfill. After that day, Ittetsu declared that he will abstain from drinking. However, the intense training still persisted afterwards.

##### From a parent and mentor of his child, to sworn enemies

While Hyūma was a student at Seiun High School, Ittetsu accepted the position of baseball coach at Seiun High School at the request of Daizō Ban, who had previously tried to look around for a candidate to coach the baseball team but was often rejected. Ittetsu then retired just before the Tokyo tournament, as if to see that the club's ability had improved to the Kōshien level.

In the off-season of 1968, he turned down Kawakami's direct request to become the coach of the second team. He was then invited by the Chunichi Dragons, who were bent on defeating the Giants, on the condition that they acquire Ozuma, a batter from the St. Louis Cardinals. His jersey number is "84," but he chose this number because he added it to Hyūma's jersey number "16" to make it "100," which includes the idea of "Father and son work together to achieve perfection."

At the same time as taking office, as a result of Ozuma's training with the "Dai League Ball Overthrow Plaster Cast," Ozuma succeeded in defeating Hyūma's Dai League Ball No. 1, but he was soon defeated by the newly developed Dai League Ball No. 2. In the off-season of that year, Ozuma's contract expired and he had to return to Japan, so Ittetsu acquired Chūta Ban from the Yomiuri Giants in a trade. With Ban drafted to the other team, Hyūma's performance begins to crumble as his mental state of mind struggles to bear with Ban's parting. Ittetsu put Ban through such intense training that he was called an oni, and he immersed himself in transforming Ban into an assassin for Hyūma.

In the end, Ittetsu praised Hyūma for sacrificing his life as a pitcher to win the final battle against Ban and himself. In the anime, there is a touching scene between father and son where Ittetsu carried Hyūma on his back and left the stadium (in the original story, this never happened, but he still declared the end of his match with Hyūma with a smile).

## Quotes

> 「飛雄馬よ見るがいい。あの星座がプロ野球最高の名門巨人軍だ。飛雄馬！おまえはなにがなんでもあの星座まで駆け登るのだ！巨人軍という星座のど真ん中でひときわでっかい明星となって光れ！輝け！」("*Hyūma Hoshi, take a look. That constellation is the most prestigious Giant's in professional baseball. Hyūma Hoshi! You will run up to that constellation no matter what! In the middle of the constellation known as the Giant's team, become a bright star and shine! Shine!*")
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> 「わしは見た！野球と柔道の違いこそあれ素晴らしい運動神経と反射神経を！そして馬力にあふれしかも柔らかい巨体を！それからというもの、その柔道少年のゴリラがカゼを引いたような愛嬌のある顔がわしの頭から離れなくなった････」("*I have seen it! Despite the differences between baseball and judo, he has great motor skills and reflexes! And a huge body full of horsepower and softness! From then on, I couldn't get the thought of that judo boy's charming gorilla-cold face out of my mind...*")
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> 「不死鳥の伝説を知っとるか。不死鳥は火の中に落ち灰になるが、また灰の中からよみがえり雄々しく羽ばたく。飛雄馬よ不死鳥となれ！火に落ち灰になろうとも、そのつどより力強くよみがえり羽ばたけ！巨人の星目指して」("*Do you know the legend of the phoenix? The phoenix falls into the fire and becomes ashes, but it rises again from the ashes and flaps its wings bravely. Hyūma Hoshi, become a phoenix! Even if it falls into the fire and becomes ashes, it will always revive more powerfully and flap its wings! Aiming for a giant star!*")
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> 「ふふふふ…確かにそういう心境であれを鍛えた時代もあった遠い昔にはな…今は違う！はっきりいって今のわしはそんなゆとりはないっ。ヤツはもうライオンの子ではない！りっぱに成長した若獅子よ！もはや掛け値なし食うか食われるか男対男の戦いじゃよ」("*Fufufufu… Certainly, there was a time in the distant past when I trained myself with that kind of mentality…but now it’s different! Frankly speaking, I don't have that kind of leeway right now. He's no longer a lion cub! A young lion who has grown up to be fine! It's no longer worth it, it's a fight between man vs man, eat or be eaten.*"
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> 「やってみなければわからんのは、野球は球場だけでなく････二十四時間の生活も勝負のうちだからだ。そのことをいずれ飛雄馬たちが思い知らされるかも知れん････」("*If you don't try, you won't know, because baseball isn't just about the ballpark... 24-hour life is also a game. Maybe someday the Hyūma Hoshi will be reminded of that...*")
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> 「チャラチャラとけばけばしいタレント娘なんぞは百害あって一利なし！」("*A flirtatious, flamboyant, talented girl can do a hundred harms and not a single good!*")
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> 「母さん！鬼となったわしの心を世間がなんと言おうとこのわしの中日における背番号84だけは知っとる！母さんよ足し算じゃ。飛雄馬のヤツの背番号16にこのわしの背番号84を足せばいくつになる？100じゃ。すなわち完全じゃ！！」("*Kāsan! No matter what the world says about my heart that became a demon, I only know my jersey number 84 in Chunichi! Kāsan, add them up. Hyūma Hoshi's jersey number 16 and my jersey number 84. What's the sum? 100. In other words, it's perfect!!*")
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> 「オズマよ感傷は無用！なるほどわしとおまえには親子にも勝る二人三脚の一時期があったが。そんな思い出はじいさんになってからせい！振り向くなっ！見る前に飛べっ！ただ前進と闘いあるのみそれが青春じゃよ！」("*Ozuma, don't be sentimental! I see that you and I are more than father and son, we had a period of time when we were more like a three-legged race. I have such memories since I became an old man! Don't turn around! Jump before you look! Only forward progress and struggle, that's what youth is all about!*")
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> 「飛雄馬よ！！決められたコースが通行止めだったなんぞは言い訳にならん。なぜ遠回りを選ばん！！つらい苦しい遠回りを選んでこそおのずと成長がある！これからの人生においても野球人生においても行く手に傷害のある時は常に遠回りを選べ！」("*Hyūma!! It's not an excuse that the designated course was closed to traffic. Why did you choose the detour!! If you choose a longer and more painful route, you will naturally grow! In your future life and baseball life, always choose the long painful route when there is a roadblock in your path!”*)
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> 「トレーナーすまんが目薬をくれいっ。慣れぬせいかやたらカクテル光線がまぶしゅうてな！ふふふ…ちょっと目薬を差し過ぎたようじゃわい。なるほど大リーグボール復活のう」("*I'm sorry, Trainer, give me some eye drops. Maybe it's because I'm not used to it, but the light rays are blinding me! Fufufu... I think I put a little too much eyedrops in. I see, the Dai League Ball is back.*")
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> 「ふふふっ…男が泣いてその涙恥ずかしさに、つい帽子のひさしを下げ慌てて指で涙をぬぐうとそれとそっくりになる。わ…わしはムリを重ねとったのかも知れぬ。飛雄馬に対して…ヤツの姿を見とったらふいに泣けた！」("*Fufufu...The man cries and is so embarrassed by his tears that he pulls down his hat and hurriedly wipes his tears with his fingers, just like that. Maybe I've been too much of a pushover. As for Hyūma...I just cried when I saw him!*")
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> 「伴の打った後の走力までは考えず、彼の馬力を奪ったのはわしの致命的うかつ・・・負けよ!! 塁審の判定ごとき問題ではないっ　わしの負け・・・今おまえはパーフェクトにわしに勝ち、この父を乗り越えた・・・わしら親子の勝負は終わった!!」("*I was fatally negligent in taking away his horsepower without considering his ability to run after hitting... I lost! It doesn't matter what the base umpire's decision was, I lost. Now you've beaten me perfectly and overcame your father... The battle between us, parent and child, is over!!*")
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## Trivia

* Ittetsu (一徹) means "stubborn"
* Ittetsu was constantly praised by Tetsuharu Kawakami. He was called a prodigy and a genius. If it weren't for his injury, he could've become the greatest third baseman in history! (*or so Tetsuharu Kawakami himself proclaimed...*)
* He never had a chance to play in an official match during his time as a Giants player.
* Although it may seem like he's a hopeless and unemployed drunkard, he actually did have a job as a day laborer (mainly working in construction.) His son, Hyūma Hoshi, once shouted out to the school board of the prestigeous Seiun high school,「日本一の日雇い人夫です - (My father) is the number 1 day laborer in Japan!」.
* Perhaps because he trains himself through physical labor, he still has a strong body even after retiring from the front line, and the agile play he occasionally shows is a glimpse of his talent during his former days as a Giants player.
* In 2014, the Sapporo beer company featured him on packaging for a 6-pack of canned beer to celebrate Father's Day.
* In 2010, Ittetsu Hoshi was once appointed as a promotional ambassador of the i-Town Page 『iタウンページ』
* He is very well known for his cruel training methods and physical abuse of his son that are deemed as child-abuse by today's standards.
* Ittetsu Hoshi invented the Dai League Ball Training Cast.
* In the Weekly Shonen Magazine, there was a small segment called, "星一徹のモーレツ人生相談 - Ittetsu Hoshi's Burning Life Consultation" where Ittetsu gave straight-forward advice on readers' problems.
* His iconic table flip / Chabudai Gaeshi (ちゃぶ台返し) in Volume 1 has been referenced in various anime and manga series. There is even an arcade machine called,"Cho Chabudai Gaeshi! Kyojin no Hoshi do konjō-hen" where you slam a table.

#### Appears in:

* Kyojin no Hoshi (Manga)
* Kyojin no Hoshi
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Chizome no Kesshousen
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Ike Ike Hyuuma
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Dai League Ball
* Kyojin no Hoshi: Shukumei no Taiketsu
* Kyojin no Hoshi (1982)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi (Manga)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi (Movie)
* Shin Kyojin no Hoshi Ⅱ

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20050226182140/http://www.whv.jp/title/kyojin/chara/002.html
2. ↑ https://www.ryutsuu.biz/backnumber/commodity/mn2401.html
3. ↑ https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000001.000002525.html&title=prtimes.jp

## External Links

* https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/星一徹
* JPN Warner Bros. Kyojin no Hoshi DVD release 2002 (Archive)