Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi - 北勝海 信芳 (born June 22, 1963) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Hiroo, Hokkaido. He made his debut in March 1979 and last wrestled for Kokonoe stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 1983 and has eleven special prizes, one kinboshi and eight top division championships. He was the 61st yokozuna and he retired in May 1992.
Early Life[]
Hoshi was born in Hiroo, Hokkaido. An uncle was an acquaintance of former yokozuna Kitanofuji, who by then had retired from competition and was running Kokonoe stable, and at his invitation Hoshi moved to Tokyo. Upon leaving school, his first appearance in the ring was March 1979, aged just 15, using his real name as his shikona or ring name. Also starting at the same time was future yokozuna Futahaguro.
Career[]
Early Career[]
Hoshi posted a 5-2 record in his tournament and followed with a perfect 7-0 record in July 1979 which won him the jonidan yusho. He was promoted to sandanme in the following September 1979 tournament and makushita in May 1981. In January 1983, he won the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 4 which earned him a direct promotion to juryo in the following tournament.
Juryo Career[]
Hoshi made his sekitori debut in March 1983 at the age of 19. He rose up the ranks of juryo at a fast pace and in July 1983 he won the juryo yusho with a strong 10-5 record after defeating Masurao in the playoff. Furthermore, he was promoted to makuuchi in the following tournament after only three tournaments in juryo.
Makuuchi Career[]
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Hoshi (c. 1986)
Hokutoumi made his debut in the top makuuchi division in September 1983. He changed the spelling of his shikona's given name to 延芳 in November 1985.
In March 1986 at the sekiwake rank he won his first yusho or tournament championship with a record of thirteen wins and two losses. Despite this impressive result he was not immediately promoted to the second-highest ozeki rank as he had not done particularly well in the previous two tournaments, only managing 30 wins in the most recent three tournaments when 33 is generally required. It also did not help his cause that there were already five ozeki, leaving the Sumo Association with no incentive to loosen the promotion criteria. However, he carried on producing excellent results with an 11–4 in May, and then went 12–3 in July, securing his promotion for the September tournament. Futahaguro was promoted to yokozuna at the same time.
Ozeki Career[]
At this point, his coach decided a new ring name was appropriate. He wished to acknowledge his home district of Tokachi, but the kanji for it literally means "ten wins" and it was felt that this might be bad luck, limiting his wins in any tournament to ten. As a compromise he adopted the surname Hokutoumi, taking 勝 ("win") from the second kanji in Tokachi, but pronouncing it to like the first kanji in the district's name. He also changed the spelling of Nobuyoshi back to his legal way.
Yokozuna Career[]
After his second tournament title in March 1987 and a runner-up performance in May, he was promoted to yokozuna for the July tournament. In 1988 he suffered a severe back injury which kept him out of three tournaments. It also appeared he would miss the start of the January 1989 tournament, but it was delayed due to the death of the emperor, and he went on to win the tournament. He also won the May tournament. In July, he took part in an historic play-off with Chiyonofuji – the first time ever that two yokozuna from the same stable had met in the ring (the rules of sumo state that wrestlers from the same stable can only fight each other in a play-off).
Hokutoumi performs the Yokozuna dohyo-iri (c. 1988)
On the last day of the March 1990 tournament, he fought in a rare three-way play-off with ozeki Konishiki and sekiwake Kirishima. In a play-off, wrestlers fight each other in turn, the first to win two consecutive bouts winning the tournament. First, Hokutoumi fought Konishiki and lost. Konishiki was then drawn up against Kirishima. Konishiki only needed to win this bout for the tournament, but Kirishima won. Next was Kirishima against Hokutoumi, Kirishima needing just this bout for his first yusho. Hokutoumi won. Hokutoumi then beat Konishiki in the next bout, thus winning the tournament.
On the fourteenth day of the March 1991 tournament, he injured his left knee during a bout with Onokuni, but managed to go on to win the tournament with 13 wins. After this, Hokutoumi had many absences due to his knee. At this time there were four yokozuna, but Chiyonofuji retired in May 1991, Onokuni in July and Asahifuji in January of the next year (1992), leaving Hokutoumi the sole yokozuna. Left with this responsibility he struggled on, but he withdrew from the March 1992 tournament after losing his first two matches to Mitoizumi and Kushimaumi, and announced his retirement shortly before the May 1992 tournament at the age of 28 years and 10 months. Citing shoulder, elbow and knee injuries, he said he had "lost my fighting spirit to continue training." In the space of just one year, all four yokozuna had retired. Hokutoumi had fought 29 basho as yokozuna. Following his retirement, there were no yokozuna on the banzuke for the first time in 60 years, and sumo went without one for the next eight months, until the promotion of Akebono in January 1993.
Retirement from Sumo[]
Hakkaku Oyakata (c. 2018)
Following his retirement Hokutoumi became a member of the Japan Sumo Association with the toshiyori name Hakkaku-oyakata. He opened up his own training stable, Hakkaku stable, which has had four top division wrestlers, Hokutoriki, Kaiho, Okinoumi, and Hokutofuji.
He occasionally appears on NHK sumo broadcasts as a commentator and analyst.
In 2010, he was appointed as an executive member (Yakuin Taigu) of the Japan Sumo Association. However, he was forced to step down from his executive member position in 2011 after his juryo wrestler, Hoshihikari, was found guilty of fixing the result of his bouts.
He was elected to the Sumo Association's board of directors in 2012 and served as the head of the public relations department.
On December 18, 2015, he was appointed chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, after former chairman Kitanoumi died in office on November 20, 2015. He had been serving as an executive director of the board under Kitanoumi since 2012. His appointment lasted until the end of March 2016. He then won a contested ballot on March 28, 2016, defeating Takanohana, and was confirmed for a further two-year term. He was re-elected on March 26, 2018, for another two-year term.Also he was re-elected unanimously at the board of directors on March 23, 2020.
Fighting Style[]
Hokutoumi defeats Kirishima by oshidashi (push out)
Hokutoumi was primarily an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques that got his opponents out of the ring as quickly as possible. He had a powerful tachi-ai, or initial charge, and his specialty was nodowa, a single-handed push to the throat. To do this he would lock up his opponent's right arm with his left (a technique known as ottsuke) and thrust with his right. His most common winning kimarite by far were oshidashi and yorikiri, which together accounted for around 60 percent of his wins at sekitori level. When fighting on the mawashi he preferred a migi-yotsu (left hand outside, right hand inside) grip. He said in an interview with Channel 4 television that the technique he most enjoyed was tsuri-dashi or lift out, although he was only credited with this kimarite once in official tournament competition (against Terao in November 1989).
Record[]
Division Results[]
- Total: 591-286-109/874 (80 basho)
- Makuuchi: 465-206-109/668 (53 basho)
- Juryo: 26-19/45 (3 basho)
- Makushita: 49-28/77 (11 basho)
- Sandanme: 31-25/56 (8 basho)
- Jonidan: 15-6/21 (3 basho)
- Jonokuchi: 5-2/7 (1 basho)
Championships[]
- 8 Makuuchi Championships
- 1st (March 1986)
- 2nd (March 1987)
- 3rd (September 1987)
- 4th (January 1989)
- 5th (May 1989)
- 6th (March 1990)
- 7th (September 1990)
- 8th (March 1991)
- 1 Juryo Championship (July 1983)
- 1 Makushita Championship (January 1983)
- 1 Jonidan Championship (July 1979)
Achievements[]
- Special Prizes: Technique Prize (5), Fighting Spirit Prize (3), Outstanding Performance Prize (1)
- Kinboshi: (1) Kitanoumi
- Record: 9th most championship playoffs (5 playoffs)
- Record: Tied for 12th most special prizes (11 special prizes)
Shikona History[]
- Hoshi Nobuyoshi (1979.03 - 1980.01)
- Fujiwaka Nobuyoshi (1980.03 - 1980.03)
- Hoshi Nobuyoshi (1980.05 - 1986.07)
- Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi (1986.09 - 1992.05)
Gallery[]
