18 Facts About Futabayama Sadaji

Futabayama Sadaji was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Oita Prefecture.

Futabayama Sadaji won twelve yusho or top division championships and had a winning streak of 69 consecutive bouts, an all-time record.

Futabayama Sadaji joined professional sumo in March 1927 at the age of 15, recruited by Tatsunami stable.

Futabayama Sadaji entered the top makuuchi division at the beginning of 1932.

Futabayama Sadaji was promoted from the middle of the second juryo division to maegashira 4, as many top division wrestlers had just gone on strike in the Shunjuen Incident, and the Japan Sumo Association needed to fill the gaps in the ranks.

Futabayama Sadaji is particularly remembered for achieving the longest run of consecutive victories in sumo bouts, with 69, a record that still stands today.

Futabayama Sadaji was finally defeated on January 3,1939 by maegashira Akinoumi.

Futabayama Sadaji lost more to illness than to a superior opponent, as he was suffering from amoebic dysentery at the time.

Futabayama Sadaji won a total of twelve tournament championships, during a period in which there were only two tournaments held each year.

Futabayama Sadaji's total remained a record until the number of tournaments was increased to six a year in the 1950s.

Futabayama Sadaji was one of the first top wrestlers to break away from the tradition of marrying his stablemaster's daughter, instead choosing a young heiress from a rich Kansai family.

Futabayama Sadaji was noted for being exceptionally good at the initial phase of a sumo match, the tachi-ai.

Futabayama Sadaji was an expert at the gonosen no tachiai or receiving his opponent's charge and immediately countering it.

Futabayama Sadaji is believed to have never made a false start.

The June 1945 tournament was held in a bomb-damaged Kokugikan with barely any spectators, and Futabayama Sadaji dropped out after the first day.

Futabayama Sadaji did not take part in the November 1945 tournament and announced his retirement during it, claiming that he objected to the newly enlarged dohyo that the Sumo Association had introduced with hopes to make the sport more pleasing to the occupying forces.

Futabayama Sadaji had become head of his own stable, Futabayama Sadaji Dojo, in 1941 whilst still an active wrestler, and upon his retirement he adopted the Tokitsukaze elder name and renamed his heya Tokitsukaze stable.

Futabayama Sadaji remained in charge of the stable until his death from hepatitis in 1968.