Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu (千代の富士 貢), born Mitsugu Akimoto (秋元 貢), was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler and the 58th Yokozuna of the sport.

Following his retirement as a wrestler, he was the stable master of Kokonoe stable until the time of his death.

Chiyonofuji was considered one of the greatest Yokozuna of recent times, winning 31 yūshō or tournament championships, second at the time only to Taihō.

He was the lightest Yokozuna since Tochinoumi in the 1960s.

Upon his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association and became the Kokonoe-oyakata the following year.

He was born in Fukushima, a town in the Matsumae District of Hokkaido, northern Japan.

He was a son of a fisherman.

At school he excelled in athletics events, particularly running.

Chiyonofuji began his career in September 1970.

He reached the second highest jūryō division in November 1974, and was promoted to the top makuuchi division in September 1975.

However, he lasted only one tournament before being demoted again, and recurring shoulder dislocation injuries led to him falling back to the unsalaried ranks.

At the time of his debut he weighed just 71 kg. Chiyonoyama died in 1977, at which time Kitanofuji, the 52nd Yokozuna and also a Hokkaido native, took over the stable.

His shikona (ring name) surname of Chiyonofuji (千代の富士) was formed from those of the two previous Yokozuna from his stable, Chiyonoyama and Kitanofuji.

"thousand years" (千代) is a word used to mean forever.

Fuji (富士) is the same as that in Mount Fuji (富士山).

He was nicknamed "The Wolf" (ウルフ) due to his ferocity and masculine facial features.

He finally won promotion back to the top division in January 1978.

After receiving a fighting spirit prize in May, Chiyonofuji reached komusubi (the fourth-highest rank) for the first time.

During his early top division career he was often compared to another lightweight wrestler popular with sumo fans, Takanohana I.

Takanohana had first come across Chiyonofuji whilst on a regional tour and encouraged him to give sumo a try.

Later, he also advised Chiyonofuji to give up smoking, which helped him put on some extra weight.

In 1979, due to his shoulder trouble, Chiyonofuji briefly fell to the second division, but he soon came back.

Encouraged by his stablemaster, he began to rely not only on throwing techniques, which increased the risk of re-injuring his shoulders, but also on gaining ground quickly and forcing out his opponents.

Promoted at the age of twenty-six after winning his second championship, his performance improved with age, winning more tournaments in his thirties than any other wrestler and dominating the sport in the second half of the 1980s.

Showing much more consistency, he earned three kinboshi by defeating Yokozuna in the March and July 1980 tournaments, where he also got technique prizes.

He fought again as a komusubi in the May and September tournaments, in the latter of which he won 10 matches in the top division for the first time.

Chiyonofuji reached sekiwake (the third-highest rank), and stayed at this rank for only two tournament.

He was particularly remarkable for his longevity in sumo's top rank, which he held for a period of ten years from 1981 to 1991.

He won the Kyushu tournament, one of the six annual honbasho, a record eight consecutive years from 1981 until 1988, and also set the record for the longest postwar run of consecutive wins (53 bouts in 1988).

As a sekiwake, he scored 11–4 in November, and in January 1981 he scored 14–1, losing only one regular match to dominating Yokozuna Kitanoumi, and then defeated him in the subsequent playoff to win a top makuuchi division title for the first time.

This earned him promotion to ōzeki, the second-highest rank.

While making this speedy rise, he won the technique prize in the three previous tournaments, and won it again in that January 1981 tournament where he also earned the outstanding performance prize.

As an ōzeki he scored well in the following three tournaments up to July 1981, where he again defeated Kitanoumi and won his second title.

He finally retired in May 1991, just short of his thirty-sixth birthday.

During his 21-year professional career, Chiyonofuji set records for most career victories (1045) and most wins in the top makuuchi division (807), earning an entry in the Guinness World Records.

Both of these records were later broken by Kaiō.

That record stood for 22 years until Hakuhō broke it with his 54th straight win in September 2010.

In a sport where weight is often regarded as vital, Chiyonofuji was quite light at around 120 kg. He relied on superior technique and muscle to defeat opponents.

He was scouted at the age of 15 by Kokonoe stable's head Chiyonoyama, who had served as the 41st Yokozuna and was from the same Fukushima town.

Chiyonoyama promised him a trip to Tokyo in an airplane, which excited the young Akimoto as he had never flown before.