Takanosato Toshihide

Template:Short description Template:Template other , real name , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Namioka, Aomori. He was the sport's 59th yokozuna from 1983 to 1986 and won four top division tournament championships. After retirement he established Naruto stable which he ran from 1989 until his death.

Early career

Takanosato played football and judo before turning to sumo. He was from the same area of Japan as Wakanohana Kanji II and the two entered professional sumo together in July 1968, joining Futagoyama stable. Takanosato reached the top makuuchi division in May 1975 but had some indifferent results and fell back to the jūryō division on several occasions. A late developer, he did not reach the san'yaku ranks until 1979, by which time Wakanohana was already a yokozuna. In 1980 he was runner-up in two consecutive tournaments. Nicknamed because of his brawny physique, he was one of the few wrestlers in his day to use weight training, which is now commonplace in sumo. By 1981 he was a san'yaku regular, and in January 1982 he produced his third runner-up performance, this time at sekiwake, and earned promotion to ōzeki. Following his promotion he announced that he had been suffering from diabetes for many years, and had devised a special diet to keep the illness under control. He won his first top division championship in September 1982 with a perfect 15–0 record. He was runner-up in the March and May 1983 tournaments, and then took his second championship in July. Following this tournament, he was promoted to yokozuna.

Yokozuna

Takanosato was almost thirty one years old when he reached sumo's highest rank, and the 91 tournaments it took him to reach yokozuna from his professional debut is the second slowest in sumo history, behind only Mienoumi. Most yokozuna struggle to perform well in the tournament immediately following their promotion, but Takanosato won it with a perfect record—the first yokozuna to do so since Futabayama in the 1930s. Although his yokozuna career was relatively short, he had a great rivalry with fellow yokozuna Chiyonofuji. In the four tournaments from July 1983 to January 1984, the two wrestlers came into the final day with the same score. This is a unique occurrence in sumo. It was Takanosato who won three out of the four tournament-deciding bouts, and he was one of the few wrestlers to have a winning record against Chiyonofuji. He studied Chiyonofuji's fighting style through watching videotapes of his bouts over and over, and was often able to keep his rival from getting his favoured left hand grip on his mawashi. Takanosato defeated Chiyonofuji eight times in a row from July 1981 to September 1982 and overall emerged victorious from 18 of their 31 encounters.

Takanosato's fourth tournament championship in January 1984 proved to be his last, and thereafter his yokozuna career was disappointing. He missed most of 1985 due to injury, only managing to complete one tournament, but did take part in the three day exhibition tournament held in the United States at Madison Square Garden in June. He announced his retirement in January 1986 at the age of 33.

Retirement from sumo

Takanosato took the name Naruto upon joining the Sumo Association as an oyakata, or elder, and in 1989 opened his own Naruto stable in Matsudo, Chiba, which has produced several top division wrestlers. The first was Rikio in 1996 and he was followed by Wakanosato in 1998, Takanowaka in 1999, Takanotsuru in 2003, Kisenosato in 2004, and Takayasu and Takanoyama in 2011. It was a close-knit stable and Naruto Oyakata did not let his wrestlers go out and train at other stables (degeiko), believing that they did not need outside help. Naruto also worked as a judge of tournament bouts and for NHK as a sumo commentator.

Death

In October 2011 the Sumo Association launched an investigation into allegations made by the news magazine Shūkan Shinchō that Naruto had beaten a former junior member of his stable with a block of wood and had injected Takanoyama with insulin so that the barely 100 kg wrestler would increase his appetite and put on weight. Both Naruto and Takanoyama were summoned for questioning by chairman Hanaregoma. Just days later, on November 7, 2011, Naruto died of respiratory failure in Fukuoka at the age of 59. At the end of the Kyushu tournament held later the same month, Kisenosato was promoted to ōzeki, something Naruto had always dreamed of seeing.

Fighting style

Takanosato's most common winning kimarite or technique was overwhelmingly yorikiri or force out, which accounted for about 45 percent of his victories at sekitori level. He preferred a migi-yotsu grip (the same as Chiyonofuji), with his left hand outside and right hand inside his opponent's arms. He also regularly won by uwatenage (overarm throw) and tsuridashi (lift out), the latter a technique seldom seen today due to the increasing weight of wrestlers.

Career record

Takanosato Toshihide

Year	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1968	x	x	x	(Maezumo)	West JonokuchiTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	East JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 1–6
1969	East JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 2–5	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 6–1	West SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3
1970	West SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 2–5	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	East SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West JonidanTemplate:Ifnumber 6–1	West SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	West SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3
1971	West SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	East SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	East SandanmeTemplate:Ifnumber 6–1	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2
1972	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 2–5	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3
1973	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 6–1	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 3–4
1974	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 5–2	East MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	West MakushitaTemplate:Ifnumber 4–3	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5–P
1975	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 7–8	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 6–9	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 3–12	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7
1976	West JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	West JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 4–6–5	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5
1977	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	West KomusubiTemplate:Ifnumber 4–11	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 7–8	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 5–10	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4 F
1978	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 4–11	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 4–11	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 2–13
1979	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 5–10	East JūryōTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4 Champion	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	West SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 8–7	East SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 6–9
1980	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 4–11	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 7–8	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 6–9	East MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 12–3 F	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 13–2 OF★★	West SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4 O
1981	West SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	East SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	East SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 6–9	West MaegashiraTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West KomusubiTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	East SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4 F
1982	East SekiwakeTemplate:Ifnumber 12–3 F	West ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 9–6	West ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 15–0	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5
1983	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4	West ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 12–3	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 13–2	East ŌzekiTemplate:Ifnumber 14–1	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 15–0	East YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 13–2
1984	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 13–2	East YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4	East YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 11–4	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	East YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 0–3–12
1985	East YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 1–3–11	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 10–5	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 0–3–12	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber 1–4–10
1986	West YokozunaTemplate:Ifnumber Retired 0–2	x	x	x	x	x
Record given as wins–losses–absences    Top division champion Top division runner-up Retired Lower divisions Non-participation Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of sumo tournament top division champions
• List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of yokozuna

External links

• Japan Sumo Association profile

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