Takanosato a great yokozuna ?

[Tony 16]

Do you consider Takanosato " yokozuna of patience ", cause he was promoted very late ( 30 years old ), as a great yokozuna ?

For me, yes, he was. He won " only " 4 yusho, but two zen yusho. He was yokozuna with Wakanohana II, Kitanoumi and Chiyonofuji. However, he had good results against them.

Above all, his yotsu-zumo was spectacular and superb! It was a glorious period for ozumo with all these wonderful rikishi! For me Takanosato is the third best yokozuna of last twenty years ( bottom Chiyonofuji and Takanohana II ).

[Amanogawa 79]

Do you consider Takanosato " yokozuna of patience ", cause he was promoted very late ( 30 years old ), as a great yokozuna ?

Course I do!!!!

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

Do you consider Takanosato " yokozuna of patience ", cause he was promoted very late ( 30 years old ), as a great yokozuna ?

Unless I'm mistaken he was the one hindered by diabetes and who wrote a book about how to control it during one's active career?

You must have also heard that when Futagoyama Oyakata (at the time former Wakanohana I) went to Aomori to take a promising prospect with him to Tokyo, he also heard about another teenager who might become a sekitori as well. The boys were the coming yokozunas, Wakanohana II and Takanosato respectively. Three former and coming yokozuna took the train from Aomori to Tokyo on that night in late Sixties. (Laughing...)

[Tony 16]

Oh, thanks! I don't know these things!

[Tony 16]

Look this photo

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lmartres/Kesho.jpg

Is Takanosato on the left, isn't he?

And, do you know the other ?

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

And, do you know the other ?

Since his kensho seems to be saying Terunoyama, this must be Iwanami Shigehiro of Tatsunami-beya. He wore the shikona of Terunoyama between March 1978 and May 1980 which fits the time span of those excellent Laurent Martr

[Doitsuyama 1,259]

If this is a picture from the Makuuchi dohyo-iri, then it is probably from January 1979 as Takanosato was M12w and Terunoyama was Maku-jiri at M13w.

But in theory it could also be a picture from the Juryo dohyo-iri of March 1979 as both went 5-10 in January and were J2e and J3e respectively in March. Takanosato won the Juryo yusho with 11-4 in March while Terunoyama went 8-7 and took the Juryo yusho in May with 12-3. Ah, all those facts...

[Amanogawa 79]

Futagoyama Oyakata (at the time former Wakanohana I) went to Aomori to take a promising prospect with him to Tokyo, he also heard about another teenager who might become a sekitori as well. The boys were the coming yokozunas, Wakanohana II and Takanosato respectively. Three former and coming yokozuna took the train from Aomori to Tokyo on that night in late Sixties.

Takanosato was a good athlete playing baseball, judo, sumo,

or shot-putting and was in the first grade at high school when Futagoyama came to his hometown to scout him. He declined Futagoyama's offer once for he had just entered the high school and plus he got his achilles tendom injured and having treatments. Then Oyakata "allured" him by persuading,  "I'll have you see a great doctor in Tokyo. Have you been to Tokyo? No? Then you can see around in Tokyo! You can stay my "house where o-sumo san are staying"

while you have the medical treatment. After it's recovered, I'll give you Tokyo tours and then you can go home!" (Sigh...)

Japanese night trains back then were triple-decker style. Futagoyama Oyakata ( Wakanohana I then ) and Wakanosato II (present Magaki Oyakata ) had tickets for upper beds and Takanosato ( present Naruto Oyakata ) had one for the bottom one. But then Futagoyama claimed he should sleep on the bottom, so they swapped the tickets. Later, asked the reason why, Futagoyama answered in wry grin,  "I was afraid he might be escaping if I had let him sleep on the bottom bed".

These two young boys, leaving their hometowns, families and friends behind them to dive into the unknown world, always helped each other and were the strength for each other all throughout their careers.  Most of their early stages, Wakanohana ( note: was "Wakamisugi" '73-78 before inheriting this great name "Wakanohana" in '78 ) was taking a lead. He started getting attentions as making sanyaku while Takanosato was way steadily but slowly stepping up somewhere in Juryo.

At one time Wakanohana was interviewed and asked to give a name of rikishi he reagarded as his "rival". Media was expecting the name of Kitanoumi who then was dominating on the top.  But Wakanohana answered, "My rival is Takanosato."  -actually he kept mentioning his old mate's name occasionally, adding, "He's now ranked far lower than where he really deserves only because of injureis and desease", which, later

Takanosato looked back and was wholeheartedly thankful for, as saying,

[Amanogawa 79]

( sorry! My post had been too long?  (Note...) )

-Oyakata, wholeheartedly thankful, as saying,

"Who could ask for better encouragement?  Friendlier

caring?"

he was the one hindered by diabetes and who wrote a book about how to control it during one's active career?

That's right. He once had had a bad reputation like snob or stuck-out for not drinking sake with his koenkai supporters at parites when his diabetes was still a "secret". But once he revealed that,  these people were moved by his courage of declaring to battle the crucial desease,  fully supported him ever more.

I had a chance to meet him a few years ago. I was soooo nervous because I knew he was not easy-going, or was "touch-me-not" type of man when he was active. But "my hero" turned

to be a very gentle, polite, and smaller-than-I-thought man with quite dignity. Unlike today, it was rare back then that rikishi does weight training to build up bodies, and Takanosato was the pioneer to the field. So he did look so different from any other rikishi that he got a nickname "Popeye".  (Thumbs up...)  To me,  like his disciple Wakanosato,  he is rather a "rikishi in shining muscles" though....   (Aww...)   (Laughing...)

I meant to write this before but was running out of time then!   (Looks around...)

Amanogawa

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

(...) when his diabetes was still a "secret". (...)

Those who have followed ozumo for relatively short time might be surprised to learn about the greatest injury secret of all times, viz. legendary Futabayama being blind on one eye since birth (?). Amazingly enough he managed to keep it secret throughout his active career. :-0

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

(...) when his diabetes was still a "secret". (...)

Those who have followed ozumo for relatively short time might be surprised to learn about the greatest injury secret of all times, viz. legendary Futabayama being blind on one eye since birth (?). Amazingly enough he managed to keep it secret throughout his active career. :-0

Hehe. I think what Kotoseiya meant was: "For those who have followed Ozumo for some time, and also has some interest in it's history, but is yet to read everything written in English about the sport..."

For those who actually HAVEN'T followed Ozumo for long, I might add that Futabayama is often considered the best rikishi ever, and was active in the top-division during the 30s and first part of the 40s. His main claim to fame is his all-time record of 69 straight wins from day 7 of the January basho 1936 to the 3rd day of the January basho 1939 before he lost to a later-to-be not much thought of yokozuna Akinoumi. During this streak Futabayama went from

Maegashira-3 to Yokozuna and won 5 of his total 12 yusho (which is quite a feat in a time where there were much fewer basho than today; he competed in a total of 31 in the top division). He was Yokozuna from 1937.05 to 1945.11 and ended with a remarkable record as yokozuna with 180 wins, 24 losses and 22 absents (Mkn record: 276-68-1d-33y). After his active career he was the rijicho as Tokitsukaze (behind several administrative changes in the age-old traditions of sumo) until he died at the age of 56 in December of 1968. There are some other interesting stories about him on Rowan Klein's Juryo.com site if I remember correctly :-)

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

His main claim to fame is his all-time record of 69 straight wins from day 7 of the January basho 1936 to the 3rd day of the January basho 1939 before he lost to a later-to-be not much thought of yokozuna Akinoumi.

Let's not forget that loss is widely thought to have been a mistake by the gyoji and shimpans. Newspapers are said to have published photos on their cover pages showing how Akinoumi actually should have lost the bout.

Unless my memory fails Chiyonofuji's winning streak ending loss in the 80's is thought to have been a misjudgment as well. (Huh?)

[Yubiquitoyama 4]

His main claim to fame is his all-time record of 69 straight wins from day 7 of the January basho 1936 to the 3rd day of the January basho 1939 before he lost to a later-to-be not much thought of yokozuna Akinoumi.

Let's not forget that loss is widely thought to have been a mistake by the gyoji and shimpans. Newspapers are said to have published photos on their cover pages showing how Akinoumi actually should have lost the bout.

Unless my memory fails Chiyonofuji's winning streak ending loss in the 80's is thought to have been a misjudgment as well. (Huh?)

Are you sure about that? Except for Taiho's winning streak that ended against Toda I can't recall any of those being disuputed in the newspapers. But than again I might have forgot or never read it in the first place. I looked again on the movie provided by the NSK website and going by that it's quite impossible to say who won, but the pictures aren't exactly top notch :-)

http://www.sumo.or.jp/museum/retsuden/shob.../aki-futaba.mov

Edit: Looking at Chiyonofuji's loss against Onokuni again, I think it's rather hard to argue who won it, unless the movie lies a lot:http://www.sumo.or.jp/museum/retsuden/shob...e/request10.mov

[Kotoseiya Yuichi 3]

Are you sure about that?

I'm not sure about anything any more. I do support Sadogatake & Arsenal, though.

Seems like I've

[Amanogawa 79]

I am going to visit a neurologist sooner or later

Mind if I'd join you, Kotoseiya? I found a big one in what I wrote yesterday:

Wakanosato II (present Magaki Oyakata )

Of course it's Wakanohana instead of Wakanosato. Gosh, seems like I think of Wakanosato alittle bit too much all the time. (Hehe...)

Amanogawa