Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

千代 の 富 士貢
Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

Personal data
real name	Akimoto Mitsugu
Born	June 1, 1955
place of birth	Fukushima , Hokkaidō
Died	July 31, 2016
size	1.83 m
Weight	127 kg
Career
Heya	Kokonoe
Career record	1045–437–159 807–253–144 (Makuuchi)
debut	September 1970
Highest rank	Yokozuna
Tournament victories	31 (Makuuchi) 1 (Makushita)
resignation	May 1991

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu ( Japanese 千代 の 富士 貢 ; born June 1, 1955 in Fukushima , Hokkaidō as Akimoto Mitsugu ( 秋 元 貢 ); † July 31, 2016 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese sumo wrestler and the 58th yokozuna in the history of this sport. Like Taihō and Kitanoumi , Chiyonofuji was also considered one of the great sumo wrestlers from Hokkaido.

The son of a fisherman began his career in 1970 and rose quickly (1974 Jūryō , 1975 Makuuchi ), although he had already sustained a protracted shoulder injury at the beginning, which bothered him for years, but did not prevent him from doing his Fights often decided by throwing techniques (uwatenage, see list of techniques in sumo ). In 1981, however, his persistence paid off when he was promoted first to Ōzeki and then finally to yokozuna within a few months . He then remained one of the defining athletes of sumo for ten years until he announced his retirement in 1991 at an unusually high age of 36 for active sumōtori. In 1988 he remained unbeaten 53 fights in a row and thus set up the longest series of 69 victories since Futabayamas 1936, which was only surpassed by Hakuhō in 2010 .

Chiyonofuji was called the "wolf" because of his lack of emotion and his piercing gaze with which he considered his opponents - a name that was later also given to the yokozuna Asashōryū . Like him, Chiyonofuji was an outstanding technician, although he was a lot lighter with a fighting weight of 127 kg and almost the same body length. Nevertheless, he won a total of 1045 fights, 807 of them in the Makuuchi division. Besides Kaio and Hakuhō, Chiyonofuji is the only rikishi who could win more than 1000 fights. As early as 1989, he was awarded the National Medal of Honor of Japan after booking 986 victories. With 31 tournament victories, he is behind Hakuhō and Taihō in third place of the most successful wrestlers as tournament winners.

Chiyonofuji turned down after the end of his active career from the offer of the Sumo Association to take on a non-share membership, and preferred to purchase a regular share. After that, he was successful as a coach: As Kokonoe Mitsugu how he as since 1992 Oyakata the stable Kokonoe called -beya, he made successful students like Chiyotaikai and Chiyotenzan approach.

Chiyonofuji died of pancreatic cancer .

Fighting style

Despite his below average weight for sumo wrestlers, Chiyonofuji had a lot of physical strength and rarely had problems even against much heavier opponents. He mostly won through techniques such as yorikiri and uwatenage, but was also masterly at the use of leg, lifting, and evasive techniques.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sumo icon Chiyonofuji dies at 61 . Kyodo article in the Japan Times , July 31, 2016 (English).

Web links

Commons : Chiyonofuji Mitsugu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Profile on Sumo Reference
• Info page of the Japanese Sumo Association ( Memento from November 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Chiyonofuji is the family name, Mitsugu the first name.