Wakashimazu Mutsuo

Wakashimazu Mutsuo
若嶋津 六夫
Personal information
Born	Mutsuo Hidaka (1957-01-12) January 12, 1957 Kagoshima, Japan
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	122 kg (269 lb)
Career
Stable	Futagoyama
Record	515-330-21
Debut	March, 1975
Highest rank	Ōzeki (January, 1983)
Retired	July, 1987
Championships	2 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes	Fighting Spirit (2) Technique (3)
Gold Stars	2 (Kitanoumi)
* Up to date as of August 2012.

Wakashimazu Mutsuo (born 12 January 1957 as Mutsuo Hidaka) is a former sumo wrestler from Nakatane, Kagoshima, Japan. His highest rank was ōzeki. He won two top division yūshō or tournament championships. He retired in 1987 and is now the head coach of Nishonoseki stable.

Career

Wakashimazu wrestled for Futagoyama stable, joining in March 1975. Unlike most professional sumo wrestlers, he did not join from junior high school but instead joined after completing high school. He was a high school sumo champion but needed some persuasion from his stablemaster that he would be able to put on enough weight to succeed in professional sumo.^[1] He reached the salaried sekitori ranks in March 1980 upon promotion to the jūryō division and reached the top makuuchi division in January 1981. He scored 10 wins in his makuuchi debut. He moved quickly through the division, winning five special prizes, two for fighting spirit and three for technique. He reached sumo's second highest rank of ōzeki in January 1983. He broke his leg in the following tournament in March of that year, but made a remarkably quick recovery, posting 13-2 in the next tournament in May 1983.^[1]

Wakashimazu was popular with the crowds and his lean and swarthy appearance led to him being nicknamed the "Black Panther".^[1] His best year was in 1984, when he won more bouts than any other wrestler. He took two top division tournament championships in March and July, the second with a perfect 15-0 record, but he could manage only third place in the September 1984 tournament and missed out on promotion to the highest rank of yokozuna. From November 1985 his results started to decline, and in an attempt to change his luck he switched from his trademark kelly green mawashi to a light blue one, but soon switched back when results did not improve.^[1] He retired in July 1987 at the age of thirty, leaving the Futagoyama stable without anyone in the san'yaku ranks for the first time in over fifteen years.^[1]

Fighting style

Wakashimazu's favourite kimarite or techniques were hidari-yotsu, a right hand outside and left hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi, yori-kiri (force out), uwatenage (overarm throw) and tsuri-dashi (lift out).

Retirement from sumo

After his retirement Wakashimazu set up his own training stable, Matsugane, early in 1990. The retirement of Harunoyama in November 2006 left the stable with no wrestlers in the top two divisions. He finally produced another sekitori in March 2010 when Matsutani (now Shōhōzan) was promoted to jūryō. In 2014 he switched his toshiyori or elder name to a more prestigious one, Nishonoseki, and renamed his stable accordingly.

He is married to pop/enka singer Mizue Takada.

In September 2010 he was demoted in the Sumo Association's hierarchy after he accepted lodgings in Osaka for the Haru tournament the previous March from a company president connected to gangsters.^[2] In addition, two of his wrestlers, Matsutani and the sandanme ranked Wakarikido, were suspended for two tournaments for illegal betting on baseball.^[2] However, he is on the Board of Directors as of 2015.

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament top division champions
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• List of ōzeki

References

External links

• Matsugane stable profile