Takanohana Kōji (貴乃花 光司) is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler and coach.
1930
Interest in sumo rose to its highest level since the era of Futabayama in the 1930s, with official tournaments (honbasho) selling out of tickets every day.
Both Takahanada and his brother became sex symbols.
Now known as Takanohana (貴ノ花), he was also the youngest ever to be promoted to ōzeki at 20 years 5 months.
With the foreign born Akebono as sumo's only yokozuna, there was a great weight of expectation on Takanohana to make the next step up.
However, his lack of consistency, and Akebono's dominance, delayed his promotion to yokozuna.
1958
His uncle Wakanohana Kanji I was a yokozuna from 1958 to 1962, and his father Takanohana Kenshi had held the second highest rank of ōzeki for a then record 50 tournaments from 1972 to 1981.
Upon his retirement his father established the training stable (heya) Fujishima stable.
The Young Kōji Hanada had been practicing sumo since elementary school and won the equivalent of a yokozuna title in junior high school.
1970
The son of a popular ōzeki ranked wrestler from the 1970s, Takanohana's rise through the ranks alongside his elder brother Wakanohana and his rivalry with the foreign born yokozuna Akebono saw interest in sumo and attendance at tournaments soar during the early 1990s.
Takanohana was the youngest ever to reach the top division at just 17, and he set a number of other age-related records.
He had a solid but aggressive style, looking to get a right hand grip on his opponents' mawashi and move them quickly out of the ring.
He won over half his bouts by a straightforward yorikiri, or force out.
1988
Upon his graduation in 1988 he formally joined his father's stable.
His elder brother Masaru had been planning to complete high school but dropped out so as not to lag behind his brother.
Takanohana and his brother made their professional debuts together in March 1988, with future rival Akebono also beginning his career in the same month.
The two brothers had to move from the family quarters in the stable and join the communal room with all the other new recruits.
They were also instructed not to refer to their parents as "father" and "mother" any more but as "oyakata" and "okamisan" (coach and coach's wife).
Kōji initially wrestled under the name Takahanada (貴花田), and it was understood that he would only be allowed to adopt his father's shikona of Takanohana (meaning noble flower) when he reached the rank of ōzeki.
Their early career attracted much publicity, with each divisional promotion regarded by the media as part of an inevitable rise to the top ranks.
Takahanada's progress was rapid and he set numerous age-related records, including the youngest ever makushita division tournament champion (16 years 9 months), youngest ever promoted to the second highest jūryō division (17 years 3 months), and the youngest ever promoted to the top makuuchi division (17 years 8 months).
1991
In March 1991, in his fourth top division tournament, Takahanada was runner-up with twelve wins, and became the youngest ever sanshō or special prize winner, receiving awards for Fighting Spirit and Technique.
In the following tournament in May 1991 he defeated veteran yokozuna Chiyonofuji in a match watched by 44 percent of the Japanese population on TV, becoming the youngest ever to defeat a yokozuna. Chiyonofuji retired two days afterwards.
1992
He was the 65th man in history to reach sumo's highest rank of yokozuna, and he won 22 tournament championships between 1992 and 2001, the sixth highest total ever.
In January 1992, he became the youngest ever top division tournament champion (19 years 5 months).
He was too young to drink the celebratory sake at the after tournament party, and had to make do with oolong tea instead.
After his second championship in September 1992, followed by two good scores of 10–5 and 11–4 in the next two tournaments, he was promoted to ōzeki in January 1993, the same tournament in which Akebono was elevated to yokozuna.
During this period the two brothers created a so-called "Waka-Taka Boom" and were credited with restoring sumo's popularity, particularly amongst younger audiences.
1993
He won his third championship in May 1993, but lost a playoff to Akebono in the following tournament in July, and even produced a make-koshi or losing record of 7–8 in November.
1994
In 1994, a year in which Akebono suffered several injury problems, Takanohana won the January and May tournaments, but was then outshone by Musashimaru, who won in July with a perfect 15–0 record.
After taking the September 1994 championship, Takanohana now had six top division titles, but none had been won consecutively.
No previous wrestler had ever accumulated so many titles before reaching sumo's highest rank.
The Sumo Association nominated him for yokozuna after the September tournament, but the Yokozuna Deliberation Council failed to endorse it by the required two-thirds majority, the first time this had happened in twenty five years.
They insisted that two consecutive championships were required, having demanded the same of Akebono before his promotion.
After changing the spelling of his shikona in November 1994, Takanohana at last managed to win two consecutive tournaments, with his second consecutive unbeaten 15–0 score, and his promotion was confirmed.
He had been at the ōzeki rank for 11 tournaments, or nearly two years.
2003
In his later career he suffered increasingly from injuries, and he retired in January 2003 at the age of 30.
2004
He became the head coach of Takanohana stable in 2004 and was on the board of directors of the Japan Sumo Association from 2010 until January 2018, when he was removed and demoted in the Sumo Association's hierarchy.
2018
He resigned from the Sumo Association in September 2018.
Takanohana comes from a family with a great sumo history, sometimes called the "Hanada Dynasty."
