Tochigiyama Moriya

Tochigiyama Moriya

Tochigiyama Moriya ( Japanese 栃 木 山 守 也 , actually: Yokota (later Nakata ) Moriya ( 横 田 (中 田) 守 也 ); * February 5, 1892 in the Shimotsuga district of Tochigi Prefecture ; † October 3, 1959 ) was a Japanese sumo wrestler and the 27th . yokozuna .

Tochigiyama was the son of a shopkeeper, had an extremely strong stature as a teenager, was very athletic and an excellent swimmer. He originally aspired to a career as an officer in the Imperial Navy , but after graduating from high school he attended a military academy to join the Imperial Army. Since he was probably too fat to ride, as he later said himself, but already excelled as a judo fighter as a student , he decided to try his luck as a sumo fighter. The yokozuna Hitachiyama sent him to the former wrestler Hanaregoma, who found him good and recommended him, so that Tochigiyama went to Tokyo for training . As the wrestler of the Dewanoumi Beya, which was already the largest wrestling stable at that time and which Hitachiyama ran from 1914, Tochigiyama became one of the most important sumo fighters of the early 20th century.

In 1911, Tochigiyama began his steep rise through the ranks, reaching the juryo division in 1914 and the makuuchi division in 1915 . In the seven tournaments he needed for this, he was only defeated twice. In May 1916 he defeated the yokozuna Tachiyama , the strongest fighter at the time, for the first time, ending his winning streak of 56 wins. He was able to repeat his successes against the top wrestlers of the division in the next season when he not only triumphed again over Tachiyama, but also won two fights against another yokozuna of that time, Ōtori . Through these successes Tochigiyama had established himself and was named Ōzeki in January 1917 . Exactly one year later, he was promoted to the yokozuna of the Tokyo Association and that with a height of only 1.72 m and a weight of just 105 kg. In 1925 he ended his career, in the entire course of which he had suffered only 23 defeats and nine tournament victories in the top division could celebrate. He then continued his career in the Sumo Association as Kasugano Oyakata.