Nishinoumi Kajirō I

西ノ海 嘉治郎 Nishinoumi Kajirō
Personal information
Born	Kajirō Kozono February 19, 1855(1855-02-19) Kagoshima, Japan
Died	November 30, 1908(1908-11-30) (aged 53)
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight	128 kg (280 lb)
Career
Heya	Takasago
Record	127-37-97-25draws-4holds
Debut	January 1882 (Tokyo sumo)
Highest rank	Yokozuna (March, 1890)
Retired	January 1896
Yūshō	2 (Makuuchi, unofficial)
* Career information is correct as of September 2007.

Nishinoumi Kajirō I (西ノ海 嘉治郎, February 19, 1855 – November 30, 1908) was a sumo wrestler from Sendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. He was the sport's 16th Yokozuna, and the first to be officially listed as such on the banzuke ranking sheets, an act which strengthened the prestige of yokozuna as the highest level of achievement in professional sumo.

Early career

He began his career in Kyoto sumo, joining Tokinokoe stable in 1873.^[1] He was promoted to the top makuuchi division in 1879, and made sekiwake in September 1879, a tournament which was held under the joint auspices of the Kyoto and Osaka sumo organisations.^[1] He was persuaded by Uragoro Takasago, formerly of Osaka sumo, to join Tokyo sumo in his newly founded Takasago stable.^[1] He made his debut in a special makuuchi division rank in January 1882. He had a rapid rise, making ozeki just seven tournaments later in January 1885. His rivals included stablemates Odate, Ichinoya and Konishiki. Nishinoumi fell to sekiwake in January 1886, despite recording a kachi-koshi winning score, as at the time a sekiwake on the east side of the banzuke with a better record could overtake an ozeki on the same side.^[1] After winning a yusho equivalent with an unbeaten 9-0 score in May 1889 he returned to ozeki, and after another good 7-2 score in the next tournament he was awarded a yokozuna licence in March 1890.

Yokozuna

However, Nishinoumi's promotion caused a problem. Although he had been made a yokozuna, his rank was listed as haridashi ozeki, below his rival ozeki Konishiki Yasokichi I on the banzuke (the sumo wrestlers' hierarchy) for the May 1890 tournament. This was because of Konishiki's 8-0 unbeaten score in the previous tournament.^[1] Nishinoumi's name was literally shunted out to the side on the banzuke, and he complained about that.^[1] To placate him, yokozuna was written on the banzuke for the first time in sumo history. It was a compromise but the name yokozuna became an official rank for the first time after the dispute. In the top makuuchi division, he won 127 bouts and lost 37 bouts, recording a winning percentage of 77.4.

Retirement from sumo

Nishinoumi became an elder known as Izutsu after his retirement in January 1896, and became head coach of Izutsu stable. He produced several top wrestlers from Kagoshima Prefecture, amongst them the 25th yokozuna Nishinoumi Kajirō II (the great-grandfather of current Izutsu head Sakahoko) who succeeded him upon his death from heart failure in 1908.^[1]

Top division record

*Championships from this period were unofficial
*There was no fusensho system until March 1927
*All top division wrestlers were usually absent on the 10th day until 1909

*tournament actually held one month later than listed.

• The wrestler's East/West designation, rank, and win/loss record are listed for each tournament.^[2]
• A third figure in win-loss records represents matches sat-out during the tournament
• an X signifies the wrestler had yet to reach the top division at that point in his career or a tournament after he retired

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of yokozuna

References

External links

• Article on Nishinoumi I