Oikari Montaro

Oikari Montaro - 大碇 紋太郎 (born February 22, 1869 - date of death unknown) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Chita District, Owari. He made his debut in May 1885 and wrestled for Isenoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 1893. His highest rank was ozeki and he retired in January 1898.

## **Early Life**

He was born Montaro Takeuchi in Chita District, Owari Province (currently Handa, Aichi). On March 20, 1871, he was adopted by Chozaburo Hibi and subsequently changed his name to Montaro Hibi. In 1884, he was recruited into Isenoumi stable.

## **Career**

### **Tokyo Sumo Career**

He made his professional debut in May 1885 and was given the shikona "Oikari" (大碇). He was promoted to juryo in May 1889 and makuuchi in January 1893. He reached the komusubi rank in May 1894 and finished with a strong 7-0-1-1draw-1hold record. He was subsequently promoted to sekiwake in January 1895 where he finished with yet another dominant 7-2-1 record.

He was then promoted to ozeki in June 1895 after only two tournaments in san'yaku. During his ozeki career, the Sumo Association felt that he was not dignified enough for the rank of ozeki as he was a bit of a joker and he hardly did any training after promotion to ozeki. Oikari also had a growing antagonism for the Sumo Association as they made him the lowest ranking ozeki in January 1896, despite him finishing with the best record among the other ozeki. He was demoted from his ozeki rank in May 1896 after only two tournaments as ozeki. After the May 1896 tournament, Oikari finally had it and escaped for Kyoto sumo. He briefly returned to Tokyo Sumo in January 1898, but left again after a poor showing. His official retirement is listed as January 1898.

### **Kyoto Sumo Career**

Since Kyoto sumo was not as competitive as Tokyo sumo, Oikari was allowed to keep his ozeki rank. In April 1899, Oikari was awarded the yokozuna license by the House of Gojo, however, he is not formally recognized as a yokozuna from the Japan Sumo Association. He was the last yokozuna of Kyoto sumo.

In February 1910, he was invited by two men from England to come to the London Expo and perform a sumo wrestling exhibition. He led 30 different rikishi and gyoji from Kyoto sumo to participate and the tour was a great success. After the event, they toured other parts of Europe and some parts of North America. The tour finally ended up in South America where the wrestlers were greeted wildly by the Japanese immigrants there. Eventually most of the wrestlers returned back to Japan, but Oikari stayed in Argentina to help out Japanese immigrants with their businesses.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After the tour, Oikari remained in South America and never returned to Kyoto Sumo. The last contact from Oikari was in 1913 in Venezuela and it is unknown what happened to him after and it is speculated that he never returned to Japan. Without their yokozuna, Kyoto Sumo struggled and disbanded shortly after.

In November 2008, non-fiction author, Masaru Nishi, who came from Oikari's hometown, published Oikari's biography titled "The Life of Sorrowful Yokozuna Oikari Montaro" (悲しき横綱の生涯　大碇紋太郎伝). According to the book, Marxist economist Hajime Kawakami, who was sentenced to prison in 1933 for joining the then-outlawed Japanese Communist Party, saw an old man who resembled Oikari. According to Kawakami, he met Oikari in 1933 at Tokyo's Kosuge Prison and would often listen to his stories and record them in his diary. After that, Oikari supposedly died in prison in 1936. However, according to Nishi, there is a possibility that Kawakami met someone else as Oikari and the man that Kawakami met had an age difference of ten years. Furthermore, if the old man was Oikari, then the details of him returning to Japan and entering prison are unknown.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 69-48-16-5draws-5holds/127 (15 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 42-25-16-3draws-4holds/74 (9 basho)
* **Juryo:** 27-23-2draws-1hold/53 (6 basho)

## **Gallery**

19th Century woodblock print of ozeki Oikari
## **Sources**

* Oikari Montaro Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Oikari Montaro Rikishi Information