Asashio Taro III.

朝 潮 太郎
Asashio Tarō

Personal data
real name	Yonekawa Fumitoshi
Born	November 13, 1929
place of birth	Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture
Died	October 23, 1988
size	1.88 m
Weight	135 kg
Career
Heya	Takasago
Career record	431-248-101 (Makuuchi)
debut	October 1948
Highest rank	Yokozuna (May 1959)
Tournament victories	5 (Makuuchi) 1 (Juryo)
resignation	January 1962

Asashio Tarō (III.) ( Japanese 朝 潮 太郎 ; born November 13, 1929 in Kobe , Hyōgo Prefecture as Yonekawa Fumitoshi ( 米川 文 敏 ); † October 23, 1988 ) was a Japanese sumo wrestler and the 46th yokozuna .

Asashio made his real name debut in October 1948. In September 1950, after seven tournaments - only three were held a year - he made it into the Makuuchi division by winning (14-1) in the Juryo . In May 1952 he still took the battle name Asashio as Maegashira ; he was the third sumo wrestler by that name. In September of that year he won two victories against reigning yokozuna , received the Shukun-sho award twice in a row and became a sekiwake for the first time . After only average results in the following period, however, he temporarily fell back into the lower ranks.

In January and March 1955 Asashio won three and two more Kinboshi and his third Shukun-sho with victories over yokozuna . In March 1956, the wrestler, who had meanwhile been promoted to sekiwake again, won his first makuuchi tournament victory in Osaka (12-3). He was also able to book the spring tournaments of the following two years. Finally, after convincing performances (yusho 14-1 in November 1958, second places in the two following tournaments) , the Ōzeki Asashio was appointed yokozuna at the age of almost 30.

His career at this rank was marked by injuries, so he had to pause three tournaments in his year of appointment. After only one more first place in March 1961 (13-2) and further injury-related elimination from tournaments Asashio ended his active career in January 1962.

After the death of the head of the Takasago-beya, the former yokozuna Maedayama , in August 1971, he took on the task of managing the stable. The fourth Asashio and the later Ōzeki Konishiki are well-known Takasago-beya wrestlers from this time, but also the scandal-ridden Maegashira Nankairyu . In October 1988, Takasago Oyakata died of a stroke.

Web links

• Info page of the NSK
• Detailed results for Asashio

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Asashio is the family name, Tarō the first name.