Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi

北勝海 信芳 Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi
Personal information
Born	Nobuyoshi Hoshi June 22, 1963 (1963-06-22) (age 48) Hokkaidō, Japan
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	151 kg (330 lb)
Career
Heya	Kokonoe
Record	591-286-109
Debut	March, 1979
Highest rank	Yokozuna (May, 1987)
Retired	May, 1992
Yūshō	8 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita) 1 (Jonidan)
Sanshō	Outstanding Performance (3) Fighting Spirit (3) Technique (5)
Kinboshi	1
* Career information is correct as of August 2007.

Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi (北勝海 信芳, born June 22, 1963 as Nobuyoshi Hoshi (保志 信芳)) is a former sumo wrestler from Hokkaidō, Japan. He is the sport's 61st Yokozuna. He is now the head coach of Hakkaku stable.

Early life

Hoshi was born in Hiroo town, Hiroo District, Tokachi, Hokkaidō, Japan. An uncle was an acquaintance of former yokozuna Kitanofuji, who by then had retired from wrestling 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 own name as his shikona, or fighting name. Also starting at the same time was future yokozuna Futahaguro.

Makuuchi

It took him four years to reach the second highest jūryō division in March 1983, aged 19, the same time as fellow Tokachi district rival Ōnokuni entered the top division. By this time his stablemate Chiyonofuji had been promoted to yokozuna. Hokutoumi made his debut in the top makuuchi division in September 1983. In March 1986 at sekiwake rank he won his first yūshō or tournament title with a record of thirteen wins and two losses. He was not immediately promoted to the second highest ōzeki rank as there were already five ōzeki at that time. However, he carried on producing excellent results (11-4 in May and 12-3 in July) and secured his promotion that September, when Futahaguro's promotion to yokozuna left a vacancy at ōzeki level.

At this point he was still fighting under his real name, and his coach decided a new name was appropriate. He wished to acknowledge his home district of Tokachi, but the kanji for Tokachi (十勝) literally mean 'ten wins' and it was felt that this might be bad luck, limiting his wins in any tournament to ten. As a compromise, he took the name Hokutoumi (北勝海), taking the kanji 勝 ('win') from the second kanji of Tokachi but pronouncing it as the first kanji.

Yokozuna

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. He also looked like missing the start of the January 1989 tournament, but it was delayed due to the death of the emperor, and he came back to win the tournament. He also won the May tournament. In July, he took part in an historic playoff with Chiyonofuji - the first time ever that two yokozuna from the same stable had met in the ring (sumo rules mean that wrestlers from the same stable do not usually fight each other).

On the last day of the March 1990 tournament, he fought in a rare three-way play-off with ōzeki Konishiki and sekiwake Kirishima (who was promoted to ōzeki after the tournament). 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 yūshō. 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 Ōnokuni, 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, Ōnokuni in July and Asahifuji in January of the next year (1992), leaving Hokutoumi the sole yokozuna in March 1992. Left with this responsibility he struggled on, but his injury forced him to remove his name from the May banzuke and retire at the age of 28 years and 10 months. In the space of just one year, all four yokozuna had retired. Hokutoumi had fought 29 bashos as yokozuna (appearing on 30 banzukes). Following his retirement, sumo went without a reigning yokozuna for 8 months (an exceedingly rare occurrence), until the promotion of Akebono.

Retirement from the ring

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 three top division wrestlers, Hokutōriki, Kaihō and Okinoumi.

He occasionally appears on NHK sumo broadcasts as a commentator and analyst.

He proposed to a graduate of Konan Women's University in October 1989, and was married in March 1990.

Fighting style

Hokutoumi was primarily a oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques that got his opponents out of the ring as quickly as possible. His speciality was nodowa, a push to the throat. His most common winning kimarite by far were oshi-dashi and yori-kiri, which together accounted for around 60 percent of his wins at sekitori level.^[1] 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).^[1]

Top division record

Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi^[2]

year in sumo	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1983	x	x	x	x	West Maegashira #13 8–7	East Maegashira #7 9–6 F
1984	East Komusubi 9–6 F	West Sekiwake 6–9	East Maegashira #1 6–9	West Maegashira #3 9–6	East Komusubi 7–8	East Maegashira #1 9–6 T★
1985	West Sekiwake 10–5 O	East Sekiwake 8–7	East Sekiwake 7–8	West Komusubi 10–5 T	East Komusubi 8–7	West Sekiwake 9–6 T
1986	East Sekiwake 8–7 T	West Sekiwake 13–2 TO	East Sekiwake 11–4 F	East Sekiwake 12–3 O	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 8–7
1987	East Ōzeki 11–4	West Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 13–2	East Yokozuna 11–4	West Yokozuna 14–1	East Yokozuna 13–2
1988	West Yokozuna 11–4	West Yokozuna 13–2–P	East Yokozuna 11–4	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15
1989	East Yokozuna 14–1–P	East Yokozuna 11–4	East Yokozuna 13–2–P	East Yokozuna 12–3–P	East Yokozuna 11–4	West Yokozuna 11–4
1990	West Yokozuna 11–4	West Yokozuna 13–2–PPP	East Yokozuna 10–5	West Yokozuna 10–5	East Yokozuna 14–1	East Yokozuna 9–6
1991	West Yokozuna 12–3	East Yokozuna 13–2	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	West Yokozuna 9–6	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	West Yokozuna 4–4–7
1992	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	East Yokozuna 0–3–12	East Yokozuna Retired 0–0–0	x	x	x
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi(s) P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of sumo tournament winners
• List of sumo tournament second division winners
• List of yokozuna
• List of past sumo wrestlers

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Hokutoumi bouts by kimarite". Sumo Reference. http://sumodb.sumogames.com/Rikishi_kim.aspx?r=1339. 
2. ^ "Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. http://sumodb.sumogames.com/Rikishi.aspx?shikona=hokutoumi&heya=-1&shusshin=-1&b=-1&high=-1&hd=-1&entry=-1&intai=-1&sort=1. Retrieved 2007-08-04. 

External links

• Japanese Sumo Association Biography (English)(Japanese)
• Hokutoumi's basho results from January 1989
• complete biography and basho results (Japanese)

previous: Futahaguro Kōji	61st Yokozuna July 1987 - March 1992	next: Ōnokuni Yasushi
Yokozuna is not a successive rank, and more than one wrestler can share the title

Persondata
Name	Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 22, 1963
Place of birth	Hokkaidō, Japan
Date of death
Place of death