Chiyonofuji Mitsugu facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chiyonofuji Mitsugu |
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| 千代の富士 貢 | |
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Chiyonofuji in 2010
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| Personal information | |
| Born | Mitsugu Akimoto June 1, 1955 Fukushima, Hokkaido, Japan |
| Died | July 31, 2016 (aged 61) Tokyo, Japan |
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) |
| Weight | 126 kg (278 lb; 19 st 12 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Kokonoe |
| Record | 1045-437-170 |
| Debut | September, 1970 |
| Highest rank | Yokozuna (July, 1981) |
| Retired | May, 1991 |
| Elder name | Kokonoe |
| Championships | 31 (Makuuchi) 1 (Makushita) |
| Special Prizes | Outstanding Performance (1) Fighting Spirit (1) Technique (5) |
| Gold Stars | 3 Mienoumi (2) Wakanohana II |
| * Up to date as of June 2020. | |
Chiyonofuji Mitsugu (Japanese: 千代の富士 貢, June 1, 1955 – July 31, 2016), born Mitsugu Akimoto (秋元 貢, Akimoto Mitsugu), was a famous Japanese professional sumo wrestler. He was the 58th yokozuna, which is the highest rank in sumo. After he stopped wrestling, he became the head of the Kokonoe stable, a sumo training school, until he passed away.
Chiyonofuji is known as one of the greatest yokozuna of all time. He won 31 yūshō, or tournament championships. At the time, only Taihō had won more. He was a yokozuna for ten years, from 1981 to 1991. This was a very long time to stay at the top rank. He became a yokozuna at age 26. He actually got better as he got older, winning more tournaments in his thirties than any other wrestler. He was the best in sumo during the late 1980s. He retired in May 1991, just before his 36th birthday.
During his 21-year career, Chiyonofuji set records for total career wins (1045) and wins in the top makuuchi division (807). These achievements even earned him a spot in the Guinness World Records. Later, another wrestler named Kaiō broke both of these records.
He won the Kyushu tournament, one of the six main annual sumo events, eight times in a row from 1981 to 1988. This was a record for that tournament. He also set a record for the longest winning streak after World War II, with 53 wins in a row in 1988. This record stood for 22 years until Hakuhō broke it in 2010.
Sumo wrestlers are often very heavy. But Chiyonofuji was quite light, weighing around 120 kg (265 lb). He won by using amazing technique and strong muscles. He was the lightest yokozuna since Tochinoumi in the 1960s. After he retired, he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association. The next year, he became the head of the Kokonoe stable.
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How Chiyonofuji Started in Sumo
He was born in Fukushima, Hokkaido, a town in northern Japan. His father was a fisherman. When he was in school, he was very good at sports, especially running. A former yokozuna named Chiyonoyama discovered him when he was 15. Chiyonoyama was from the same town and was the head of the Kokonoe stable. He promised young Akimoto a trip to Tokyo by airplane, which excited him because he had never flown before. When Chiyonofuji first started sumo, he weighed only 71 kg (157 lb). Chiyonoyama passed away in 1977. After that, Kitanofuji, another former yokozuna from Hokkaido, took over the stable.
Chiyonofuji's Ring Name and Nickname
His shikona, or ring name, was Chiyonofuji. This name was created from the names of two earlier yokozuna from his stable: Chiyonoyama and Kitanofuji. The word "Chiyo" (千代) means "thousand years" or "forever." "Fuji" (富士) is the same as in Mount Fuji. People nicknamed him "The Wolf" (ウルフ, Urufu) because he was so fierce and had strong facial features.
Chiyonofuji's Early Sumo Career
Chiyonofuji started his professional sumo career in September 1970. He reached the second-highest division, jūryō, in November 1974. Then, he moved up to the top makuuchi division in September 1975. However, he only stayed there for one tournament before being sent back down. He also had problems with his shoulder dislocating often. This caused him to fall to lower, unpaid ranks. He finally got back into the top division in January 1978.
After winning a fighting spirit prize in May, Chiyonofuji reached komusubi, the fourth-highest rank, for the first time. Early in his top division career, he was often compared to Takanohana I, another popular lightweight wrestler. Takanohana had met Chiyonofuji on a tour and encouraged him to try sumo. He also advised Chiyonofuji to stop smoking, which helped him gain weight.
In 1979, because of his shoulder issues, Chiyonofuji briefly dropped to the second division again. But he quickly came back. His stablemaster encouraged him to use different techniques. Instead of just throwing opponents, which could hurt his shoulders, he learned to move quickly and push opponents out of the ring. He became much more consistent. He won three kinboshi (special awards for beating a yokozuna) in March and July 1980. He also won technique prizes in those tournaments.
He fought as a komusubi again in May and September. In September, he won 10 matches in the top division for the first time. Chiyonofuji then reached sekiwake, the third-highest rank, and stayed there for only two tournaments. As a sekiwake, he won 11 matches in November. In January 1981, he had an amazing record of 14 wins and only 1 loss. He lost only one match to the dominant yokozuna Kitanoumi. Then, he beat Kitanoumi in a special playoff match to win his first top division title! This victory earned him a promotion to ōzeki, the second-highest rank. During this fast rise, he won the technique prize in three tournaments before this one, and again in January 1981. As an ōzeki, he performed very well in the next three tournaments. In July 1981, he beat Kitanoumi again and won his second title. After this win, he was promoted to yokozuna, becoming the 58th in sumo history.
Chiyonofuji as a Yokozuna
Chiyonofuji had to miss his first tournament as a yokozuna due to an injury. But he came back to win the championship in November, beating Asashio in a playoff. He later said this win was the start of all his success as a yokozuna. He went on to win the Kyushu tournament eight years in a row, from 1981 to 1988. This was a record for that specific tournament.
His rival Kitanoumi started to struggle, and Chiyonofuji became the dominant force in sumo in 1982. He won four of the six tournaments that year. However, another yokozuna, Takanosato, became a strong challenger over the next two years. Chiyonofuji also had several injuries. He won only one championship out of nine tournaments from May 1983 to September 1984. But Kitanoumi retired in January 1985, and Takanosato followed a year later. Chiyonofuji then took over again. In 1986, he won five out of the six tournaments. This was the first time someone had done this since Kitanoumi in 1978. Even though he was older and lighter than most of his opponents, he was the best in sumo throughout the 1980s.
In 1988, he had an incredible winning streak of 53 matches. This is the third longest in sumo history. Only yokozuna Hakuhō (63 wins) and Futabayama (69 wins) have had longer streaks. His streak started in May 1988 and continued through the July and September tournaments. It finally ended on the last day of the November 1988 tournament when Ōnokuni defeated him. If he had won that match, he would have been the first wrestler to win three tournaments in a row with perfect 15-0 records. Still, his 53-win streak was the best in the postwar period, beating Taihō's 45 wins.
In July 1989, he won his 28th championship in a playoff against his stablemate Hokutoumi. This was the first time two yokozuna from the same stable had ever competed against each other for a title. In September 1989, Chiyonofuji broke Ōshio's record of 964 career wins. He also became the first sumo wrestler to receive the People's Honour Award from the Japanese Prime Minister. In March 1990, he achieved his 1000th career win. He won his 31st championship in November 1990, but this was his last. He hoped to win a 32nd title to tie Taihō's record, but it didn't happen.
In the first tournament of 1991, Chiyonofuji broke Kitanoumi's record of 804 top division wins. But he got injured on the second day and had to withdraw. He returned in May, but he lost on the first day to an 18-year-old rising star, Takanohana Kōji (who later became a yokozuna). It's said that half of Japan watched this match on TV. Interestingly, Takanohana's father, Takanohana Kenshi, had retired in 1981 shortly after losing to Chiyonofuji. Chiyonofuji won his next match against Itai, but this was his final victory. After losing another match on the third day, Chiyonofuji announced his retirement. He was just a few weeks shy of his 36th birthday.
Life After Retirement
In September 1989, while Chiyonofuji was still wrestling, the Japan Sumo Association offered him a special status. This would have allowed him to use his ring name as his elder name forever. But he turned it down because he wanted to inherit a different elder name. After he retired in May 1991, Chiyonofuji took the elder name Jinmaku. Then, in 1992, he bought the Kokonoe stable from Kitanofuji. They traded their elder names, so Chiyonofuji became Kokonoe-oyakata. The stable was bought for about 50 million yen.
Under his leadership, the stable trained several top wrestlers. These included former ōzeki Chiyotaikai, former komusubi Chiyotenzan, and former maegashira Chiyohakuhō. When he passed away in 2016, Kokonoe stable was one of the most successful sumo stables. It had many top-ranked wrestlers, including four in the top division and two in jūryō. He also worked as a ringside judge for some years.
In February 2008, he joined the board of directors of the Japan Sumo Association. He was in charge of organizing regional tours. But he had to resign in April 2011 after one of his wrestlers admitted to being involved in match-fixing. He returned in January 2012 as the Operations director, which is the second most important job in the Association. But he lost that position two years later. He decided not to run for a board position in 2016.
On May 31, 2015, he celebrated his 60th birthday by performing the kanreki dohyō-iri at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. This is a special ceremony for former yokozuna who turn 60. He was the tenth former yokozuna to do this. Two active yokozuna, Hakuhō and Harumafuji, helped him during the ceremony.
Chiyonofuji's Family Life
Chiyonofuji announced his engagement after winning his fifth tournament championship in May 1982. He had a son and three daughters. His second daughter, Kozue Akimoto, born in 1987, became a fashion model.
Chiyonofuji's Passing
Chiyonofuji had surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2015. He seemed weak when he spoke to reporters in September that year. He had been in the hospital since July 2016. He passed away in Tokyo on July 31, 2016, at the age of 61. The chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, former yokozuna Hokutoumi, was very sad. Chiyonofuji's former stablemaster, ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji, said he was "blessed with a wonderful disciple." Another former yokozuna, Takanohana, who caused Chiyonofuji's retirement in 1991, remembered being afraid of Chiyonofuji's "metal body" during training. On August 2, the Sumo Association announced that a farewell ceremony for Chiyonofuji would be held on October 1.
Chiyonofuji's Fighting Style
Throughout his career, Chiyonofuji's signature technique was uwatenage, or the overarm throw. He liked to grip his opponent's belt with his left hand outside and his right hand inside. His left-hand grip was so strong that some people called it his "death grip." Uwatenage was his second most common winning technique after yorikiri, which means forcing an opponent out of the ring. He was also known for tsuridashi, or lifting an opponent out.
He knew many other techniques too, using 41 different kimarite (winning moves) in his career. In January 1987, he won with a very rare move called amiuchi, or the fisherman's net casting throw. He joked to reporters that it was fitting because he was the son of a fisherman. Chiyonofuji's strong body, athletic skills, and dramatic throws made him the most successful and popular wrestler of his time.
Honours and Awards
- People's Honour Award (1989)
- Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (2016, given after his death)
- Junior Fourth Rank (2016, given after his death)
See also
- Glossary of sumo terms
- Kanreki dohyo-iri
- List of past sumo wrestlers
- List of sumo record holders
- List of sumo tournament top division champions
- List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
- List of yokozuna
