Early Life and High School Career
Fujikawa was born in Kōchi, Kōchi, in 1980, a member of the so-called Matsuzaka Generation. His name "Kyuji" literally means "baseball kid" in Japanese, and is often used as part of the phrase "Kōkō-kyuji" (高校球児) to refer to a high school baseball player. It was reportedly given to him by his father because he had thrown a no-hitter in a sandlot baseball game the day before Fujikawa was born. He began playing baseball for the Little League team "Kodakasa White Wolf", first as a shortstop, then later as a pitcher.
Fujikawa went on to Kochi Commercial High School, where he both pitched and played right field in the 79th National High School Baseball Championship in his second year (the equivalent of eleventh grade in the United States). His older brother, Junichi, was the team's starting catcher. While his team lost in the second round to Heian High School, Fujikawa clocked 144 km/h (89 mph) in the regional Kochi Tournament and had been regarded as one of the better high school prospects in the prefecture.
Fujikawa was picked in the first round of the 1998 NPB amateur draft by the Hanshin Tigers, one of only four high school pitchers to be selected in the first round (along with Daisuke Matsuzaka, Nagisa Arakaki and Katsutoshi Ishidoh, though Arakaki did not end up signing that year).
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