during her career, mariko received many ring injuries which eventually resulted in a brain abscess. she had previously suffered several concussions, but continued to wrestle. on august 15, 1997 she teamed with command bolshoi against mayumi ozaki and rieko amano at the hiroshima sun plaza, hiroshima. at the matches conclusion, ozaki used one of her regular moves, the "ligerbomb", to pin mariko. the move was executed just as usual, but appeared to have triggered a pre-existing problem. since other wrestlers on the card had sold their finishes that night, the fans in the arena didn't immediately realize there was a problem. it seems that this spot may not have been the planned finish of the match. in any case, mariko was knocked out from the ligerbomb and didn't kick out. after the match, ozaki and the other wrestlers saw mariko, who still hadn't budged, snoring, which was a sign that her brain was bleeding. mariko died a few hours later on august 16, 1997.