Tanikaze Kajinosuke: Difference between revisions

Tanikaze Kajinosuke (谷風梶之助) (1750–1795) was a famous sumo wrestler in Japan in the Tokugawa era. He was born in Sendai with Yoshiro (与四郎) as his infant name.

He debuted in sumo in 1769 when he was 19, and he was still an active wrestler when he died at the age of 45 of influenza. With a height of 189 cm and a weight of 169 kg, he was extremely large in comparison with most Japanese men of his era. He has a record of twice winning 7 tournaments in a row with no lost bouts. Overall he wrestled in 70 tournaments in total and only lost 20 bouts.

In 1789 he became one of the first two sumo wrestlers to be allowed to perform a Yokozuna Dohyo-iri (a special ring entrance ceremony for the yokozuna alone, rather than entering as part of a parade of the top ranked wrestlers). Both he and Onogawa were granted a special so-called Yokozuna licence simultaneously in that year. Officially he is recorded as being the 4th Yokozuna in sumo history. However, as the first three (see list of Yokozuna) were awarded the title posthumously, if indeed they existed at all, he can be said to the one of the first two real holders of the title.

Tanikaze was an very popular rikishi. Unlike other wrestlers of his day, many nishikie (woodblock print based) portraits and images of him participating in bouts still remain.