Chiyonofuji Mitsugu - Yokozuna

Yokozuna

Chiyonofuji had to pull out of his first tournament as a Yokozuna with an injury, but he returned to win the championship in November, defeating Asashio in a playoff. He later said that this victory was the foundation upon which he built his subsequent success as a yokozuna. He was to win the Kyushu tournament eight years in a row from 1981 to 1988, a record dominance of any of the six honbasho.

As his rival Kitanoumi went into a long slump, Chiyonofuji dominated sumo in 1982, winning four of the six tournaments. However, over the next two years, another Yokozuna Takanosato, emerged to challenge him, and he also suffered a number of injury problems. He was restricted to just one championship in the nine tournaments held from May 1983 to September 1984. But Kitanoumi retired in January 1985, with the aging Takanosato following a year later, and Chiyonofuji resumed his dominance. In 1986 he won five out of the six tournaments held, the first time this had been done since Kitanoumi in 1978. Despite being older and lighter than nearly all his opponents, his strength, skill, and phenomenal will to win made him almost unbeatable.

In 1988 he went on a winning streak of 53 bouts, second in sumo history only to Futabayama's 69. The sequence began on the 7th day of the May 1988 tournament and continued through the July and September 1988 tournaments, ending only on the final day of the November 1988 tournament when he was defeated by Ōnokuni. Had he won that bout, he would have been the first wrestler ever to win three consecutive tournaments with 15-0 records. Nonetheless, his winning run was the best ever in the postwar period, surpassing the 45 bouts won by Taihō in 1968 and 1969. In July 1989 he took his 28th championship in a playoff from his stablemate Hokutoumi, marking the first time ever that two yokozuna from the same stable had met in competition. Shortly before the tournament began he had lost his youngest daughter Ai to sudden infant death syndrome. In September 1989 Chiyonofuji surpassed Ōshio's record of 964 career wins and in March 1990 secured his 1000th win. His final goal was Taihō's record of 32 tournament titles, but his 31st championship in November of that year proved to be his last.

In the opening tournament of 1991, Chiyonofuji surpassed Kitanoumi's record of 804 top division wins but injured himself on the second day and had to withdraw. He returned in May, but he lost on the opening day of the tournament to the 18-year-old rising star and future Yokozuna Takanohana Koji (then known as Takahanada). It was estimated that half of the Japanese population watched the match on TV. Coincidentally, Takahanada's father, Takanohana Kenshi, had retired in 1981 shortly after losing to Chiyonofuji. Chiyonofuji beat Itai on the next day, but this was to be his final win. After losing another match with Takatōriki on the third day, Chiyonofuji announced his own retirement, a few weeks short of his 36th birthday.