Kurama Tatsuya

Kurama Tatsuya - 蔵間 龍也 (born December 16, 1952 - January 26, 1995) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Yasu, Shiga. He made his debut in September 1968 and last wrestled for Tokitsukaze stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 1976 and has three special prizes as well as two kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in September 1989.

## **Early Life**

Kurama attended Yasu Shiritsu Yasu Junior High School and Hachiman Technical High School where he did swimming, rugby, and judo. He was especially proficient in judo, reaching the rank of second dan. He later dropped out of high school and joined professional sumo.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He made his debut for the Tokitsukaze stable in September 1968. He was called the "last disiciple of Futabayama," as the great yokozuna who had founded the stable died at the end of the year. His stable master for most of the rest of his career was the former ozeki Yutakayama. He fought under his real name for his entire career, never adopting a traditional shikona. He was restricted by back problems early in his career, and it took him 40 tournaments from his professional debut to reach the sekitori ranks, but once he got there he was regarded as extremely promising. Emperor Showa, a fan of sumo, asked in Kurama's juryo debut of the tournament director Kasugano (ex-yokozuna Tochinishiki) how far he could go, to which Kasugano responded, "ozeki".

### **Juryo Career**

In his first tournament as a sekitori in May 1975, Kurama produced a solid 9-6 record. He spent around a year in juryo where he produced consistent, but unspectacular results. In May 1976, Kurama finished the tournament with a strong 11-4 record at the rank of juryo 6, but missed out on the yusho after losing to Tochiisami in the playoff. Nevertheless, he was promoted to makuuchi in the following July 1976 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He made the top makuuchi division in July 1976, and was ranked there for 62 tournaments in total. He won his first sansho or special prize for Fighting Spirit in January 1978, and in the following tournament in March 1978 made his sanyaku debut at komusubi. In this tournament he defeated ozeki Takanohana and Mienoumi and won his first Technique prize. In May he reached what was to be highest rank of sekiwake, which he held for just one tournament. He won his second Technique prize in May 1981 and reached the komusubi rank on several more occasions, but was never to return to the sekiwake rank. He earned two kinboshi for defeating yokozuna as a maegashira (Wajima in September 1978 and Wakanohana in May 1981). However, those were his only two wins against yokozuna in 44 attempts, and he was unable to defeat Kitanoumi in 17 bouts. His final appearance in the top division was in May 1988. For much of his top division career he had been the only Shiga Prefecture native, but his demotion coincided with the beginning of Shiga-born Misugisato's top division career.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He retired in September 1989, and was the oldest man in any of the professional sumo divisions at the time. His retirement followed a diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia. He became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Shikoroyama, but left his role in 1990 due to ill health. He became a tarento, wrote a number of sumo books and was a sumo commentator. At this time there was a boom in sumo's popularity generated by the rise of the Takahanada and Wakahanada brothers. During this period his illness was kept secret from the public and known only to close relatives. A bone marrow transplant was a possibility, with his brother a match, but also risky with only a 50 percent success rate and immediate death if a failure, and so he decided to continue with chemotherapy instead.

### **Death**

He died of leukemia in January 1995 at the age of 42. His wife wrote a best-selling book about their struggles with his illness, which was also turned into a TV drama. She continues to operate a chankonabe restaurant called Chanko Kurama in Chiba Prefecture. Kurama’s older brother runs a different restaurant with the same name in Ritto, Shiga.

## **Personal Life**

Kurama was a highly popular wrestler, and was regarded as one of the most handsome rikishi of his time (alongside Wakanohana II). His failure to make ozeki (for which Kasugano eventually apologized to the Emperor for making an incorrect prediction) was put down to Kurama's flashy personal life, which included driving Lincoln Continentals, spending a million yen a night going out, building a mansion named after himself in Ichikawa, and marrying the actress Yayoi Watanabe. He was also involved in an accident in 1985 when he crashed into two cars waiting at a traffic light, which contributed to the Sumo Association introducing a ban on wrestlers driving.

## **Fighting Style**

He was a yotsu-sumo wrestler, who preferred fighting on mawashi or belt with a hidari-yotsu or right hand outside grip. His favorite techniques or kimarite were yorikiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 765-788-25/1552 (127 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 424-491-15/915 (62 basho)
* **Juryo:** 188-177-10/364 (25 basho)
* **Makushita:** 93-75/168 (24 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 42-35/77 (11 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 13-8/21 (3 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Technique Prize (2), Fighting Spirit Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 2: (1) Wajima, (1) Wakanohana II

## **Gallery**

Kurama poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1976)Kurama (left) with his first of many sansho prizes (c. 1978)Kurama after promotion to Komusubi (c. 1978)Konuma defeats Yokozuna Wakanohana (c. 1981)Konuma loses to Fujizakura (c. 1982)Konuma prepares for his upcoming bout (c. 1985)Konuma's 50th anniversary exhibition (c. 2018)Kurama's tegata
## **Sources**

* Kurama Tatsuya Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Kurama Tatsuya Rikishi Information