Mienoumi Tsuyoshi

三重ノ海 剛司 Mienoumi Tsuyoshi
Personal information
Born	Gorō Ishiyama February 4, 1948 (1948-02-04) (age 63) Matsusaka, Mie
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in)
Weight	135 kg (300 lb)
Career
Heya	Dewanoumi
Record	695-525-56 (1 draw)
Debut	July, 1963
Highest rank	Yokozuna (July, 1979)
Retired	November, 1980
Yūshō	3 (Makuuchi) 1 (Sandanme)
Sanshō	Outstanding Performance (5) Fighting Spirit (1) Technique (3)
Kinboshi	5 (Wajima (2), Kitanoumi, Kotozakura, Kitanofuji)
* Career information is correct as of August 2007.

Mienoumi Tsuyoshi (三重ノ海 剛司, Mienoumi Tsuyoshi^?) (born February 4, 1948 as Gorō Ishiyama (石山五郎, Ishiyama Gorō^?) is a former champion sumo wrestler, the 57th yokozuna of the sport. He is the founder of Musashigawa stable and a former chairman of the Japan Sumo Association. He was born in Matsusaka, Mie prefecture, Japan.

Career

His father was a construction worker who competed in amateur sumo tournaments.^[1] The young Mienoumi did judo at junior high school and was introduced to a coach at Dewanoumi stable, but was initially rejected due to his lack of height.^[1] He contacted the stable again a few years later, and this time was accepted by Dewanoumi Oyataka himself, the former Dewanohana.^[1] His first bout was in July 1963, aged just 15. At first fighting under his family name of Ishiyama, he switched to the shikona of Mienoumi in 1966. After being personally trained by the new Dewanoumi Oyakaya, former yokozuna Sadanoyama,^[1] he developed his technique and was promoted to jūryō division in March 1969, and makuuchi, the top division, in September 1969. In July of the following year, he reached the rank of komusubi, defeating two yokozuna (Taihō and Tamanoumi) and receiving his first prize (shukunshō). He was promoted to sekiwake in the next tournament in September 1970.

He suffered from a chronic liver problem throughout his career, and although he tried to keep it under control by changing his diet, it was a factor in his eventual retirement.^[1]

In September 1974 his 11th day match with Futagodake was declared a draw (hikiwake). This is the last draw in the top division to date.

He won his first makuuchi tournament or yusho in November 1975 and was promoted to ōzeki the following January. He lost a majority of bouts in the next two tournaments, resulting in an automatic demotion back to sekiwake, but a good result of 10 wins to 5 losses in the next tournament was sufficient to restore him to ōzeki.

In May 1979 he was a runner-up for the fourth time, to Wakanohana with a 13-2 record. He followed that up with a superb 14-1 record in the following tournament, defeating Wakanohana, Kitanoumi and Wajima, only losing the championship in a playoff to Wajima on the final day. In September 1979 he was finally promoted to yokozuna. The 97 tournaments it took him to do so is the slowest ever progress to sumo's top rank. His oyakata declared that he would be happy with just one more yusho before Mienoumi's retirement.^[1] In the event, Mienoumi won his second and third tournaments as yokozuna, the latter with a perfect score, but after this had several absences due to injury and illness, fighting a full fifteen bouts in only four tournaments as yokozuna, before retiring in November 1980. He has the lowest win-loss ratio of any post-war yokozuna.

After retirement

Upon retirement Mienoumi took the name of Musashigawa Oyakata and established Musashigawa stable in 1981. Until then Dewanoumi stable had discouraged any breaking away, and he was the first from Dewanoumi in 62 years to amicably set up a new stable.^[1] By 2000 Musashigawa stable had become one of the strongest stables in sumo with a yokozuna, Musashimaru, and three ōzeki, Dejima, Musōyama and Miyabiyama. Musashigawa performed an early kanreki dohyō-iri in 2007 (normally performed on a yokozuna's 60th birthday) to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Musashigawa stable. On September 8, 2008, he became the chairman of the Japan Sumo Association following the resignation of Kitanoumi. One of his first actions was to demand a controversial tightening up of the rules for the tachi-ai, or initial charge, which led to many false starts in the September 2008 tournament.^[2] Following a series of scandals involving wrestlers gambling and associating with organised crime members, he was suspended for the July 2010 tournament and announced his resignation the following month.^[3] He also cited health concerns, as he had been undergoing treatment for stomach cancer.^[3] In September 2010 he also stood down as head of Musashigawa stable, although he remains a coach there.

Top division record

Mienoumi Tsuyoshi^[4]

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
1969	x	x	x	x	East Maegashira #11 8–7	East Maegashira #5 8–7
1970	West Maegashira #3 4–11	West Maegashira #9 8–7	West Maegashira #6 11–4	West Komusubi 8–7 O	West Sekiwake 6–9	West Maegashira #1 5–10
1971	West Maegashira #3 6–9	West Maegashira #4 5–10	East Maegashira #11 10–5	West Maegashira #3 7–8	East Maegashira #4 10–5 F	West Komusubi 11–4 T
1972	East Sekiwake 8–7	West Sekiwake 8–7	West Sekiwake 9–6	East Sekiwake 5–2–8	East Maegashira #1 4–11	East Maegashira #7 8–7
1973	West Maegashira #3 11–4 O★	West Komusubi 10–5 T	West Sekiwake 8–7	West Sekiwake 4–11	West Maegashira #2 8–7 ★	West Maegashira #1 4–11
1974	East Maegashira #6 8–7	West Maegashira #3 8–7	East Maegashira #1 5–9–1	West Maegashira #5 5–10	West Maegashira #10 11–3–1draw	East Maegashira #2 5–10
1975	West Maegashira #6 10–5 O★★	East Maegashira #1 11–4 O★	West Sekiwake 9–6	East Sekiwake 8–7	East Sekiwake 11–4	East Sekiwake 13–2 OT
1976	East Ōzeki 8–7	West Ōzeki 2–6–7	East Ōzeki 2–8–5	West Sekiwake 10–5	East Ōzeki 9–6	East Ōzeki 8–7
1977	East Ōzeki 8–7	West Ōzeki 8–7	East Ōzeki 5–10	East Ōzeki 8–7	West Ōzeki 7–8	West Ōzeki 9–6
1978	East Ōzeki 10–5	West Ōzeki 8–7	East Ōzeki 11–4	East Ōzeki 9–6	East Ōzeki 10–5	East Ōzeki 10–5
1979	East Ōzeki 11–4	East Ōzeki 10–5	East Ōzeki 13–2	East Ōzeki 14–1–P	East Yokozuna 11–4	West Yokozuna 14–1
1980	East Yokozuna 15–0	East Yokozuna 1–4–10	West Yokozuna 10–5	West Yokozuna 4–6–5	Sat out due to injury 0–0–15	West Yokozuna Retired 0–3–0
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 past sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament winners
• List of yokozuna

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Kuroda, Joe (October 2008). "Rikishi of Old". Sumo Fan Magazine. http://www.sumofanmag.com/content/Issue_21/Rikishi_of_Old.pdf. Retrieved 12 February 2008. 
2. ^ Gould, Chris (October 2008). "Tachi-ai:touchy, aye?". Sumo Fan Magazine. http://www.sumofanmag.com/content/Issue_21/Tachi-ai.pdf. Retrieved 12 February 2009. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Sumo: JSA head Musashigawa quits over scandals, to be replaced by Hanaregoma". Mainichi Daily News. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/sports/news/20100813p2g00m0dm002000c.html. Retrieved 13 August 2010. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ "Mienoumi Tsuyoshi Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. http://sumodb.sumogames.com/Rikishi.aspx?shikona=mienoumi&heya=-1&shusshin=-1&b=-1&high=-1&hd=-1&entry=-1&intai=-1&sort=1. Retrieved 2007-07-18. 

External links

• Mienoumi biography at Japanese Sumo Association (English)
• (Japanese)
• Musashigawa stable Official homepage
• Article on Mienoumi

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Yokozuna is not a successive rank, and more than one wrestler can share the title

Persondata
Name	Mienoumi Tsuyoshi
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948-02-04
Place of birth	Matsusaka, Mie
Date of death
Place of death