Career
Born in Shibata, he attended the Tokyo University of Agriculture, and in amateur sumo earned the Collegiate Yokozuna title. He made his professional debut at the age of 23 in May 1961, joining Tokitsukaze stable, run by the former yokozuna great Futabayama. Due to his amateur achievements he was given makushita tsukedashi status and began in the third makushita division, fighting under his real name of Uchida. He reached the second jūryō division in three tournaments and after winning the jūryō division yūshō or championship with a perfect 15-0 score in November 1961 he was promoted to the top makuuchi division.
He adopted the shikona of Yutakayama upon his entry to the top division in January 1962 and was a runner-up to yokozuna Taihō in his debut tournament with a score of 12-3, also receiving the Fighting Spirit prize. He made komusubi rank in May 1962 but fell just short with seven wins. However, after a fine 12-3 score in September he was elevated straight to sekiwake and two more runner-up performances (to Taiho once again) saw him promoted to the second highest rank of ōzeki. The 37 wins he had in the three tournaments prior to his promotion is tied with Hokuten'yū and Wakanohana III as the best record in sumo history.
Yutakayama remained at ōzeki for the rest of his career, and was ranked there for 34 tournaments, eighth on the all-time list. He was runner-up on five more occasions, but never managed to win a top division championship. He was perhaps unlucky to be fighting in the same era as the dominant Taihō, whom he was able to beat only four times in 32 meetings. There were a number of other strong yokozuna around as well, such as Sadanoyama and Kashiwado, with whom he also had a poor head-to-head record. After finishing as runner-up to Wakanami in March 1968 and Tamanoshima in May, he then had two make-koshi (losing scores) in a row, managing only a poor 4-11 record in September. He announced his retirement at the end of that tournament at the age of 31.
Read more about this topic: Yutakayama Katsuo
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