Takanohana Kōji
Takanohana Kōji is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler and coach. He was the 65th man in history to reach sumo's highest rank of yokozuna, and he won 22 tournament championships between 1992 and 2001, the sixth highest total ever. The son of a popular ōzeki ranked wrestler from the 1970s, Takanohana's rise through the ranks alongside his elder brother Wakanohana and his rivalry with the foreign born yokozuna Akebono saw interest in sumo and attendance at tournaments soar during the early 1990s.
Takanohana was the youngest ever to reach the top division at just 17, and he set a number of other age-related records. He had a solid but aggressive style, looking to get a right hand grip on his opponents' mawashi and move them quickly out of the ring. He won over half his bouts by a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. In his later career he suffered increasingly from injuries, and he retired in January 2003 at the age of 30. He became the head coach of Takanohana stable in 2004 and was on the board of directors of the Japan Sumo Association from 2010 until January 2018, when he was removed and demoted in the Sumo Association's hierarchy. He resigned from the Sumo Association in September 2018.
Background
Takanohana comes from a family with a great sumo history, sometimes called the "Hanada Dynasty." His uncle Wakanohana Kanji I was a yokozuna from 1958 to 1962, and his father Takanohana Kenshi had held the second highest rank of ōzeki for a then record 50 tournaments from 1972 to 1981. Upon his retirement his father established the training stable Fujishima stable. The young Kōji Hanada had been practicing sumo since elementary school and won the equivalent of a yokozuna title in junior high school. Upon his graduation in 1988 he formally joined his father's stable. His elder brother Masaru had been planning to complete high school but dropped out so as not to lag behind his brother.Early career
Takanohana and his brother made their professional debuts together in March 1988, with future rival Akebono also beginning his career in the same month. The two brothers had to move from the family quarters in the stable and join the communal room with all the other new recruits. They were also instructed not to refer to their parents as "father" and "mother" any more but as "oyakata" and "okamisan". Kōji initially wrestled under the name Takahanada, and it was understood that he would only be allowed to adopt his father's shikona of Takanohana when he reached the rank of ōzeki.Their early career attracted much publicity, with each divisional promotion regarded by the media as part of an inevitable rise to the top ranks. Takahanada's progress was rapid and he set numerous age-related records, including the youngest ever makushita division tournament champion, youngest ever promoted to the second highest jūryō division, and the youngest ever promoted to the top makuuchi division.
In March 1991, in his fourth top division tournament, Takahanada was runner-up with twelve wins, and became the youngest ever sanshō or special prize winner, receiving awards for Fighting Spirit and Technique. In the following tournament in May 1991 he defeated veteran yokozuna Chiyonofuji in a match watched by 44 percent of the Japanese population on TV, becoming the youngest ever to defeat a yokozuna. Chiyonofuji retired two days afterwards. In January 1992, he became the youngest ever top division tournament champion. He was too young to drink the celebratory sake at the after tournament party, and had to make do with oolong tea instead. After his second championship in September 1992, followed by two good scores of 10–5 and 11–4 in the next two tournaments, he was promoted to ōzeki in January 1993, the same tournament in which Akebono was elevated to yokozuna.
During this period the two brothers created a so-called "Waka-Taka boom" and were credited with restoring sumo's popularity, particularly amongst younger audiences. Interest in sumo rose to its highest level since the era of Futabayama in the 1930s, with official tournaments selling out of tickets every day. Both Takahanada and his brother became sex symbols.
Promotion to ''yokozuna''
Now known as Takanohana, he was also the youngest ever to be promoted to ōzeki at 20 years 5 months. With the foreign born Akebono as sumo's only yokozuna, there was a great weight of expectation on Takanohana to make the next step up. However, his lack of consistency, and Akebono's dominance, delayed his promotion to yokozuna. He won his third championship in May 1993, but lost a playoff to Akebono in the following tournament in July, and even produced a make-koshi or losing record of 7–8 in November. In 1994, a year in which Akebono suffered several injury problems, Takanohana won the January and May tournaments, but was then outshone by Musashimaru, who won in July with a perfect 15–0 record. After taking the September 1994 championship, Takanohana now had six top division titles, but none had been won consecutively. No previous wrestler had ever accumulated so many titles before reaching sumo's highest rank. The Sumo Association nominated him for yokozuna after the September tournament, but the Yokozuna Deliberation Council failed to endorse it by the required two-thirds majority, the first time this had happened in twenty five years. They insisted that two consecutive championships were required, having demanded the same of Akebono before his promotion. After changing the spelling of his shikona in November 1994, Takanohana at last managed to win two consecutive tournaments, with his second consecutive unbeaten 15–0 score, and his promotion was confirmed. He had been at the ōzeki rank for 11 tournaments, or nearly two years. However, at 22 years and 3 months, he was still the third youngest yokozuna ever at the time.''Yokozuna'' career
1995–1997
Takanohana's total of seven tournament championships by the start of 1995 was the same as the total won by Akebono, who had reached the yokozuna rank two years before him. However, Takanohana now pulled ahead of his rival. He was at his peak as a yokozuna between 1995 and 1997, during which time he won 11 of the 17 tournaments he entered, finishing runner-up in the other six. He produced two more perfect scores of 15–0, in September 1995 and September 1996. Overall he won 80 out of 90 bouts he fought in 1995, 70 out of 75 in 1996, and 78 out 90 in 1997, far ahead of any other wrestler. In three of the tournaments Takanohana did not win during this period, he was defeated by stablemates in playoffs: once to Wakanohana and twice to ōzeki Takanonami. Sumo rules prevent wrestlers from the same heya meeting in regular tournament bouts which meant Takanohana avoided not only his brother and Takanonami but also sekiwake Akinoshima and Takatōriki. The merger of his father's Fujishima stable with his uncle's Futagoyama stable in 1993 had added even more top division wrestlers to this list, giving him an advantage over Akebono, who had to face them all. By September 1996 Takanohana had won 15 tournament championships, and was still only 24 years old. However, after sitting out the first tournament of his career in November 1996 due to a back injury suffered on a regional tour, he put on more weight and began to be more susceptible to injury and illness.1998–2000
Takanohana was affected by a liver disorder in the first half of 1998, which caused him to withdraw from the January 1998 tournament and miss the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Nagano. He pulled out of the March 1998 tournament as well and was still below his best in May. Shunning the traditional treatment methods available from his stable, he turned instead to a physical therapist called Tashiro Tomita, who had a considerable influence over him. He became increasingly isolated from his father and brother, with his father claiming Takanohana had been "brainwashed" by Tomita. Despite his brother's promotion to yokozuna that year, creating the first ever sibling grand champions, the two were barely on speaking terms. Takanohana recovered to win the July and September 1998 tournaments, and was runner-up that November. In 1999, however, he was even more badly affected by injuries, including a dislocated shoulder, and managed only one score in double digits all year.After making peace with his family, Takanohana regained some of his consistency in 2000, although he was temporarily sidelined by an elbow injury suffered in the July tournament. His brother had retired in March, and several other members of his stable were now past their best. With Akebono dominant once more, his best results that year were two runner-up performances.
2001–2003
Takanohana won his first tournament in over two years in January 2001, winning his first fourteen bouts and then defeating fellow yokozuna Musashimaru in a playoff on the final day. He won his final championship in May 2001, again in a playoff against Musashimaru, but it came at a great cost. He had suffered serious knee ligament damage in a loss to Musōyama on the 14th day but he insisted on fighting until the end of the tournament. As a result, he then missed an unprecedented seven consecutive tournaments, undergoing surgery in Paris in July 2001 and having a lengthy recuperation after that.Takanohana finally returned to the ring in September 2002, after the Sumo Association declared he must compete or retire. He finished behind Musashimaru on 12–3, the 16th time he had been a tournament runner-up. Considering how long he had been away, it was seen as an impressive comeback. However, he sat out the next tournament with a recurrence of the knee injury. He made another comeback in January 2003, making a late decision to compete. A shoulder injury caused him to miss two days, and after suffering successive losses to Dejima and Aminishiki he announced his retirement. He said he had no regrets and was thankful to have achieved so much in sumo. His father spoke of his relief at the decision, after seeing his son battle through so many injuries. Takanohana's record of 22 tournament championships was the fourth best in sumo history, behind only Taihō, Chiyonofuji and Kitanoumi at the time. Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister, was among those paying tribute. His retirement left no Japanese born wrestlers at the yokozuna rank and was widely regarded as being the end of an era.
Takanohana's danpatsu-shiki, or official retirement ceremony, was held at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan on June 1, 2003. Unusually, Takanohana allowed only 50 guests on stage to take a snip of his hair, instead of the normal 300 to 400. The ceremony, and the party held afterwards at the Imperial Hotel, were both broadcast live on Fuji TV.