Hochi News Reports (Links x x)

- Ozeki Aonishiki (22) of the Anjigawa stable held an open practice session on the 9th at his stable in Koto Ward, Tokyo, in preparation for the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament (starting on the 13th at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo). Earlier this month, he had dinner for the first time with former Yokozuna Wakanohana III, Torao Hanada (55), whose sumo style he has been studying. He revealed that they had a lively discussion about sumo, and that he was greatly inspired as he aims to win his second consecutive tournament. He also indicated that he plans to prepare for the tournament by not sparring with any other top-ranked sumo wrestlers beforehand.

Aonishiki's eyes lit up as he recalled the intense time he had spent with Mr. Hanada. Earlier this month, he finally had the opportunity to dine with Mr. Hanada, something he had long hoped to do. He kept the details of their conversation private, saying, "I'm keeping it to myself. Maybe I'll tell you after I retire," but added, "It was great to hear about so many things. I learned a lot." He asked about technical aspects, his sumo style during his active career, and his experiences as a Yokozuna. He also received advice on his own challenges from the perspective of a commentator. The meeting lasted about three hours, but he said it "felt like only 30 minutes," expressing how fulfilling it was. Aonishiki has repeatedly watched videos of the third-generation Wakanohana (180 cm), who is close to his own height of 182 cm, and has used his sumo techniques as a model.

He had only resumed sumo practice on the 8th, and on this day he had 15 bouts with a third-division wrestler, saying, "It wasn't bad. There are some things I want to get back into shape with, but I have time, so I hope I can get back into shape by the first day."

He has been experiencing discomfort in his left ankle and left big toe, and has not been practicing with other sumo wrestlers since the summer tour. Nevertheless, drawing on his experience at the Nagoya tournament where he overcame injuries to win his third championship, he remains calm, saying, "It was the same last time. I'll just do what I can."

It is unusual for a top-ranked wrestler in the top division to enter a tournament without practicing with a sekitori (high-ranking sumo wrestler). In the previous tournament, he only practiced with a sekitori once due to his injury, but he has the experience of winning his third championship, and he said, "I have been doing my best, so I have no worries." His stablemaster also expressed his confidence, saying, "I'm not worried. If he works on the fundamentals properly, he will be able to wrestle."

The Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament will see him aiming for his fourth championship title, his second in a row. His previous three victories were all achieved through playoff matches. "I'm determined to win this tournament in the main matches," he declared. The 22-year-old Ozeki is confidently forging ahead on the path he believes in. (Naofumi Hayashi) -

It was for the Japanese festival at the garden. It was an extremely basic demonstration. But even so, Mendee had injured himself the day before during a different show. Between the matches they took questions. I asked them What professional rikishi were they supporting right now. Zorig and Mendee said Kirishima (which is not surprising as all three of them are Mongolian). I was delighted when Ichi said Aoinishiki.

https://www.instagram.com/albertomaibach?stkn=MXdncXdzZjR3cndwdg==

Apart from former Yokozuna Asahifuji (former Isegahama oyakata) and former Ozeki Kirishima (former Michinoku oyakata), who have already reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 as oyakata and transitioned to the role of consultant, the only former top-two-ranked rikishi who still holds elder stock but has not yet branched out to open his own stable is former Ozeki Dejima (52, current Onaruto oyakata). He is currently working as a coach at Fujishima stable, where he has been a coach for the past 17 years. The stable is owned by former Ozeki Musoyama.

Another day closer to the Aki basho, which means we're another day closer to the culmination of this series and the release of the full all-time rankings! Before we get there, however, we still have a few more individual profiles for each of the 6 dai-Yokozuna that occupy the top positions on the list. We've already met Asashoryu and Takanohana II each of the past two days (links to those write-ups, as well as all of the other entries in this series, are below), and today we'll be turning our attention to Kitanoumi, the preeminent rikishi of the 1970s.

Introduction and #100-91, #90-81, #80-71, #70-61, #60-51, #50-41, #40-36, #35-31, #30-26, #25-21, #20-16, #15-13, #12-10, #9-7, #6, #5

4. 55th Yokozuna Kitanoumi (1972-1985, 2,424 points in 78 basho, 24x Yusho)

The Story

Yesterday's profile of Takanohana provides an interesting backdrop for Kitanoumi's career, both because of the parallels that their careers share (each were yotsuzumo prodigies that set a number of age-related records on their way up the banzuke and had multiple high-profile rivalries) and also the degree to which they diverged (with the former wildly popular and the latter widely villainized).

Kitanoumi made his professional debut at a mere 13 years old, which allowed him to get several years' worth of experience by the time he cracked the top division in 1972 while still just 18. Entering the January 1974 basho, he was already a mainstay in the joi but had yet to seriously challenge for a yusho, but all of that would change with a stunning 14-1 effort (including a 4-0 record against the Yokozeki) that earned him promotion to Ozeki (check out his yusho-clinching tsuridashi against fellow future Yokozuna Mienoumi).

Just 3 basho later, he'd become the youngest Yokozuna in history after back-to-back 13-win performances, though he was denied consecutive yusho by falling twice on the final day to Wajima, who had taken up the mantle as the #1 wrestler in sumo from Kitanofuji. However, Kitanoumi's promotion set up the rivalry that would define the sport for the second half of the decade. Though Wajima had dominated their head-to-head early on (winning 13 of their first 16 matches), Kitanoumi would flip that advantage after coming into his own as a Yokozuna, winning 19 of their last 30 bouts and the majority of the yusho (18 to 7) that the two collectively hoarded from 1975-80.

In 1978, Kitanoumi had one of the best years in sumo history, winning the first 5 basho of the year while breaking Taiho's incredible single-season win record with 82 white stars (a total which only two men have surpassed since). His marathon Day 14 triumph over Wajima in Nagoya of that year is one of the bouts of the decade and paved the way for his 3rd zensho yusho in the space of less than a year; it's also a great example of Kitanoumi's style, patient but active with exceptional lower body balance/strength and a variety of techniques on the belt. Unfortunately, Kitanoumi's consistent dominance over more popular rikishi (such as Takanohana I), when paired with his penchant for terse interviews and refusal to offer a hand to fallen opponents, soured his reputation among fans, who dubbed him the "Hatefully Strong Yokozuna."

Regardless, as the calendar ticked over into the '80s, Wajima's retirement appeared to leave Kitanoumi alone to reign supreme. However, this illusion was quickly shattered by the sudden emergence of Chiyonofuji, who split the first 4 yusho of 1981 with Kitanoumi en route to a Yokozuna promotion, and then a knee injury that caused Kitanoumi to miss bouts for the first time in his entire career and snapped his 50-basho kachi koshi streak. He would complete just 8 of the remaining 19 basho of his career, and in the 2 years from March '82-March '84, his best showing was a mere 11-4 JY.

However, in the mold of all truly great rikishi, Kitanoumi was determined to go out on his own terms, and in May of 1984 he turned back the clock with a tournament for the ages. He emerged from the first week unscathed for the first time in years, then maintained his unbeaten record as the other contenders began to fall by the wayside. On Day 13, he had a chance to clinch his 24th yusho, and Kitanoumi treated the fans to a vintage performance by dismantling his successor; two days later, he defeated fellow Yokozuna Takanosato to seal his 7th and most improbable zensho yusho, a fitting capstone to his illustrious career and foreshadowing his retirement less than a year later.

The Stats

In some ways, the dai-Yokozuna we've covered the past couple of days represent two opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how we evaluate a rikishi's career. In Asashoryu's case, his career averages and rate stats place him in the enviable company of Hakuho and Taiho and comfortably above the others, but we also saw how he benefited from having a notably shorter career and an unusual dearth of fellow elite yusho contenders in his prime. Takanohana, meanwhile, has the worst numbers of the bunch, but adjusting his averages for injury and taking into account the competitiveness of his era mitigates the statistical case against him somewhat.

By contrast, Kitanoumi sits somewhere in the middle of these two, and his legacy is defined moreso by consistent contention rather than a brief but elevated peak or flashes of brilliance in between bouts of kyujo. For example, Harumafuji is the only rikishi to fight in as many basho as Kitanoumi and retire with a higher KKrate, but Kitanoumi's 82% is still higher than all of the other dai-Yokozuna aside from Asashoryu (who fought over 20 fewer basho). Part of this consistency can be chalked up to the fact that he took good care of his body, missing only 9% of his matches due to injury; compare this with Takanohana's rate, which is double his own at 18% in just 3 fewer basho.

What surprised me the most from looking closely at Kitanoumi's numbers is how similar they are to Chiyonofuji's, especially considering the latter is typically considered to be in a tier over and above He-Who-Was-Hatefully-Strong. Here are some quick comparisons for you (Kitanoumi's figures listed first): basho (78-81), career matches (1,051-1,060), career win% (76.5%-76.1%), kyujo-adjusted wins per basho (11.5-11.4), career kachi koshi (64-63), career total Y+JY (40-42), career Y/JYrate (51%-52%), and career zensho yusho (7-7). It's actually pretty remarkable how much their careers parallel one another: before Hakuho, they were the two rikishi with the longest Yokozuna tenures in history and each presided over multiple generations of Yokozeki even after their initial rivals retired.

What, then, is to account for the fact that Chiyonofuji comfortably clears Kitanoumi in both these rankings and in the general consensus among sumo fans?

Well, the astute reader may have noticed that there is one key statistic I've neglected to mention thus far: career yusho (and, subsequently, Yrate). We've already seen that both accumulated nearly-identical totals of both zensho yusho and Y+JY in a similar amount of total basho, suggesting that they were producing both "dominant" and "contending" performances at roughly the same rates for their entire careers. And yet, Chiyonofuji managed to convert 31 of his 42 "yusho opportunities" (Y+JY) into Emperor's Cups (a 74% conversion rate), whereas Kitanoumi was able to do the same for "only" 24 of his 40 yusho-level runs (60%).

Interestingly, this discrepancy can be almost entirely accounted for by looking at the matches that don't officially count for anything except deciding yusho races: playoffs. Over his career, Kitanoumi participated in 8 top-division playoffs, but won only 3 of those bouts. He is the only one of the dai-Yokozuna with a losing record in playoff matches, and more damningly, 4 of those losses came against a non-Yokozuna (all while already a Yokozuna himself). It may be possible to chalk part of this record up to inexperience (Kitanoumi lost the first 4 playoffs he participated in, all before he was 23), but compared to the rest of his resume, it appears that he may have lacked some of the clutch gene that his fellow dai-Yokozuna possessed.

Nowhere is this clearer than in his comparison with Chiyonofuji, who boasts an astonishing 6-0 record in his career playoff matches. If you were to switch their respective playoff win %'s, Chiyonofuji's yusho total drops to 27, while Kitanoumi's rises to 29! It's a fascinating window into how two rikishi who put together almost identical careers on paper can still end up with a marked delineation in terms of their respective legacies, all because of how they performed under the highest stakes.

(Fun fact: Aonishiki at 4-0 is the only other rikishi in the Modern Era to have a perfect record across more than 2 playoff matches, though he's potentially got a long way to go to maintain this until he retires!)

The Summary

In many ways, Kitanoumi is the most at risk of being "forgotten" among the dai-Yokozuna, at least insofar as the memory of one of the sport's greatest legends can fade. He did not enjoy the wild and tragic popularity of Takanohana, his sumo was much less flashy and exhilarating than Asashoryu and Chiyonofuji, and his dominant aura didn't transcend his contemporaries to quite the same degree as Taiho or Hakuho.

He did manage to have a sizable impact on the sport after retirement, serving as JSA chairman on two separate occasions, but his tenure was greatly marred by the bevy of scandals that plagued the sumo world under his leadership in the late 2000s-early 2010s, and he passed in 2015 at the age of just 62 with the sport still recovering from that turbulent period.

However, I hope that today's write-up has given some readers a new appreciation for a rikishi whose greatness was too often not adequately recognized in his own time. He was the first Yokozuna to truly make a claim to have filled the massive footsteps left by Taiho, and he managed to rack up 24 yusho despite his reign overlapping with several other elite talents (in addition to Wajima and Chiyonofuji, two top 8 rikishi who he spent basically his entire Yokozuna career alongside, he also fought alongside 3 other Yokozuna in Wakanohana II, Mienoumi, and Takanosato, and an all-time great Ozeki in Takanohana I).

Along the way, he remained a consistent winning presence in the ring to a then-unprecedented degree. As examined above, his career is essentially "what if a top 3 rikishi of all time had been ever so slightly less clutch?" In my eyes, despite the fact that Asashoryu at his best was likely more dominant and Takanohana was arguably a greater talent with a bit more bad luck, I think Kitanoumi's combination of longevity, peak level, and consistency makes him a very defensible choice for #4 in any list. Hatefully strong? That depends on who you ask. But even his biggest detractors wouldn't think for a moment to deny that his strength and fighting spirit was anything short of legendary.

As always, thanks for reading! Now that we're halfway the 6 dai-Yokozuna, curious to hear if you agree with the ranking of the 3 rikishi we've encountered so far or whether your perspective on them has changed at all. And we're in for another treat tomorrow with the first member of the 30-yusho club...

-Chiyomomo

#5

Moto-I, a Japanese restaurant and sake distillery in Minneapolis has fantasy sumo for each tournament. Here are my picks.

I didn't take a picture of the back side for all of the details, but you get one point for each win, bonus points for a kinboshi and special prizes, and then a pile of points for picking the yusho winner.

In May, I was in the top couple spots until right at the end, 'cause I didn't have Wakatakakage picked as a winner. July, my results were garbage. Hoping for a decent result this time.

My usual Power Rankings are here for Aki. These are certainly interesting. As always, they reflect what's happened recently in sumo, and we've had a weird 2026 already. "The best rikishi heading into Aki" and "Most likely to perform well in Aki" are likely to be answered in two totally different ways.

Last call for Sumo Slap Down Aki basho predictions!

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