19 Facts About Wakanohana Masaru

Wakanohana Masaru is the elder son of the former ozeki Takanohana Kenshi, who was his stablemaster, and the nephew of Wakanohana Kanji I, a famous yokozuna of the 1950s.

Wakanohana Masaru was a long serving ozeki who won five tournament championships, and eventually joined his brother at yokozuna rank in 1998, creating the first ever sibling grand champions.

Wakanohana Masaru entered sumo in March 1988, at the same time as his younger brother Takanohana, and joined his father's training stable, then known as Fujishima stable.

Wakanohana Masaru entered the top division for the first time in September 1990, alongside Akebono and Takatoriki.

Wakanohana Masaru first reached a san'yaku rank in November 1991 when he was promoted to komusubi.

Wakanohana Masaru was injured in the next tournament however, and the same thing happened after his third championship in January 1997.

Wakanohana Masaru was a tournament runner-up on five occasions at ozeki, four of those coming in 1996.

Wakanohana Masaru finally earned promotion to yokozuna in 1998 after winning two consecutive championships in March and May of that year.

Wakanohana Masaru had spent 29 tournaments at ozeki before reaching the yokozuna rank, the third longest wait ever.

However he was defeated by Chiyotaikai and, in the subsequent playoff between them for the championship, he lost a rematch after the first bout was deemed by the judges to be too close to call, despite many observers feeling Wakanohana Masaru had clearly won the match.

Wakanohana Masaru resolved to continue wrestling after consulting with his father, and was supported by the head of the Japan Sumo Association, the former Yutakayama Katsuo, who said he saw no reason for retirement as his poor record was directly caused by injury.

Wakanohana Masaru had been at sumo's top rank for only 11 tournaments, withdrawing from or missing six of them, and at 29 years of age, he was the sixth youngest yokozuna to retire.

Wakanohana Masaru was noted for his wide range of techniques, winning the prestigious Technique prize on six occasions.

Wakanohana Masaru had knowledge of a wide range of throwing moves, such as uwatenage, shitatenage, sukuinage and kubinage, as well as extremely rare techniques such as amiuchi, kawazugake and susoharai.

Wakanohana Masaru owned and operated a chain of chanko nabe restaurants in Japan called "Chanko Dining Waka".

Wakanohana Masaru wrote of his constant fear during his career that he could be badly injured in a bout, and revealed that he never slept well during tournaments.

Wakanohana Masaru has since remarried and has another child with his new wife.

Wakanohana Masaru stepped onto the dohyo at the Ryogoku Kokugikan for the first time since his retirement in 2000 when he attended the 2018 Hakuho Cup, an amateur sumo event for children.

However, Wakanohana Masaru forfeited claim to the estate not long after his father's funeral.