Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi

Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi (北勝海 信芳) is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Hokkaidō.

He was the sport's 61st Yokozuna and won eight top division championships.

Upon leaving school, his first appearance in the ring was March 1979, aged just 15, using his real name as his shikona or ring name.

Also starting at the same time was future Yokozuna Futahaguro.

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.

He changed the spelling of his shikona's given name to 延芳 in November 1985.

In March 1986 at the sekiwake rank he won his first yūshō or tournament championship with a record of thirteen wins and two losses.

Despite this impressive result he was not immediately promoted to the second-highest ōzeki rank as he had not done particularly well in the previous two tournaments, only managing 30 wins in the most recent three tournaments when 33 is generally required.

It also did not help his cause that there were already five ōzeki, leaving the Sumo Association with no incentive to loosen the promotion criteria.

However, he carried on producing excellent results with an 11–4 in May, and then went 12–3 in July, securing his promotion for the September tournament.

Futahaguro was promoted to Yokozuna at the same time.

At this point, his coach decided a new ring name was appropriate.

He wished to acknowledge his home district of Tokachi, but the kanji for it literally means "ten wins" and it was felt that this might be bad luck, limiting his wins in any tournament to ten.

As a compromise he adopted the surname Hokutoumi, taking 勝 ("win") from the second kanji in Tokachi, but pronouncing it to like the first kanji in the district's name.

He also changed the spelling of Nobuyoshi back to his legal way.

After his second tournament title in March 1987 and a runner-up performance in May, he was promoted to Yokozuna for the July tournament.

During his Yokozuna dohyō-iri at the Meiji Shrine in 1987, Hokutoumi unusually used a set of personal keshō-mawashi because his master Kokonoe (former Yokozuna Kitanofuji) had had three keshō-mawashi made in his name for him while he was still ōzeki.

In 1988 he suffered a severe back injury which kept him out of three tournaments.

He wrestled for Kokonoe stable, as did Chiyonofuji, and the two were the first Yokozuna stablemates to take part in a play-off for the championship, in 1989.

It also appeared he would miss the start of the January 1989 tournament, but it was delayed due to the death of the emperor, and he went on to win the tournament.

He also won the May tournament.

In July, he took part in an historic play-off with Chiyonofuji – the first time ever that two Yokozuna from the same stable had met in the ring (the rules of sumo state that wrestlers from the same stable can only fight each other in a play-off).

On the last day of the March 1990 tournament, he fought in a rare three-way play-off with ōzeki Konishiki and sekiwake Kirishima.

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.

In October 1991 he was awarded the Japan Festival Trophy after winning an exhibition tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

After a number of injury problems he retired in 1992, and is now the head coach of Hakkaku stable.

In November 2015 he was appointed chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, following the death of Kitanoumi, initially to serve until the end of March 2016.

He was then elected as head for a full term by his fellow board members in a vote held in March 2016, and was re-elected in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Hoshi was born in Hiroo, Hokkaidō.

An uncle was an acquaintance of former Yokozuna Kitanofuji, who by then had retired from competition and was running Kokonoe stable, and at his invitation Hoshi moved to Tokyo.