Takao Katsuragi

That era of Japanese baseball had something almost mythological about it: packed stadiums, hand-me-down gloves, kids plastering players' names across their notebooks because these guys were the nearest thing to heroes the neighborhood had. Katsuragi was the clutch No. 5 hitter in the Orions' famous "Missile Lineup," a two-time RBI champion in 1958 and 1959, and a batter who had the great Kazuhisa Inao's number, even if his fielding led the league in errors three years running. He made it to 76, passing in 2013, which means he lived long enough to see Japanese baseball go global and all the records go digital — and I hope someone, somewhere, told him he mattered. That generation deserves better than a footnote.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Takao Katsuragi (December 21, 1936 – July 27, 2013) was a Japanese professional baseball player born in Oita City, Oita Prefecture. He was active during the postwar era of Japanese baseball, a period when the sport held enormous cultural prominence across the country. He passed away on July 27, 2013, at the age of 76.

Name (English)

Takao Katsuragi

Name (Japanese)

葛城隆雄

Reading

かつらぎ たかお

Born

December 21, 1936 – July 27, 2013

Origin

Oita City, Oita Prefecture, Japan

Height

173 cm

Occupation

Baseball player

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Rat

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%91%9B%E5%9F%8E%E9%9A%86%E9%9B%84
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11620924

Tags

• From Oita Prefecture
• Baseball player

Last updated

September 26, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.