Kitanonada Noboru

Kitanonada Noboru - 北の洋 昇 (born February 1, 1923 - January 8, 2002) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Abashiri, Hokkaido. He made his debut in January 1940 and wrestled for Tatsunami stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 1950 and has ten special prizes as well as ten kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in March 1962.

## **Early Life**

He was born in 1923 as Noboru Ogata in Abashiri, Hokkaido, the second son of owners of a popular local restaurant. His older brother died in an accident at elementary school, and he became a much shyer personality after that tragedy. An acquaintance had connections to sekiwake Asahigawa, and Ogata was also an admirer of Futabayama. Both were members of the Tatsunami stable, and so in January 1939 Ogata applied to join. He was turned down due to a lack of weight, with the coach who conducted the examination suggesting he might be better off as a tokoyama (sumo hairdresser). However, Ogata was determined to become a sumo wrestler, and successfully passed the physical examination a year later.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Making his professional debut in January 1940 under the shikona "Kitanonada" (北の洋), and managing to avoid being called up for war service, he rose slowly up the ranks. He was promoted to sandanme in May 1942 and makushita in May 1943. After five years in makushita, he was promoted to juryo in October 1948.

### **Juryo Career**

In his first tournament as a sekitori, Kitanonada finished with a 3-8 record and was demoted back down to makushita. He returned to juryo in May 1949, and after four tournaments he was promoted to makuuchi in September 1950.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He made his debut in the sanyaku ranks at komusubi in September 1954. He was runner-up in the March 1957 tournament with a 12–3 record. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he reached in November 1957 at the age of 35. He earned ten special prizes for achievements in tournaments and ten kinboshi, or gold stars, for defeating yokozuna. His kinboshi were earned against six different yokozuna: Azumafuji, Yoshibayama (twice), Tochinishiki (twice), Chiyonoyama, Wakanohana and Asashio (three times). He defeated Tochinishiki on the opening day of the September 1958 tournament, a match which became notorious after the referee initially awarded the bout to Tochinishiki and then argued with the judges for ten minutes after they reversed his decision, leading to the referee's suspension for the rest of the tournament. His final win over a yokozuna was in May 1961 at the age of 38 years, three months, making him the oldest post-war wrestler ever to earn a kinboshi.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He retired in March 1962, after facing demotion to the juryo division. At 39 years and one month he was one of the oldest ever postwar sekitori. He had fought in 77 career tournaments, 52 in the top division, where his winning percentage was .487 (368 wins against 388 losses).

He became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Takekuma. He worked as a coach at his old stable and was also on the board of Directors of the Sumo Association from 1978 to 1982. When yokozuna Futahaguro had a heated row with his stablemaster, ex-sekiwake Annenyama, in December 1987, storming out of the stable and pushing his stablemaster's wife out of the way, it was Takekuma who tried unsuccessfully to persuade Futahaguro to return and apologize. Futahaguro was forced to retire in disgrace. Takekuma retired from the Sumo Association himself shortly afterwards at the end of January 1988, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 65. He passed on the Takekuma elder name to former sekiwake Kurohimeyama, who had become his son-in-law. Upon leaving the Sumo Association he became a TV commentator for NHK's sumo coverage. His last appearance was in 2000, and he suffered a stroke in March 2001.

### **Death**

He died in 2002 at the age of 78 in a hospital in Tochigi, from cerebral thrombosis.

## **Fighting Style**

Kitanonada was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling to pushing and thrusting techniques. He favored a hidari-yotsu (right hand outside, left hand inside) position when gripping his opponent's mawashi (belt). His most common kimarite was yorikiri, or force out.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 494-473-29/962 (77 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 368-388-24/751 (52 basho)
* **Juryo:** 58-43/101 (7 basho)
* **Makushita:** 40-27-5/67 (11 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 10-6/16 (2 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 11-5/16 (2 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 6-2/8 (1 basho)
* **Shinjo:** 1-2/3 (1 basho)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Technique Prize (5), Outstanding Performance Prize (4), Fighting Spirit Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 10: (3) Asashio, (2) Tochinishiki, (2) Yoshibayama, (1) Wakanohana I, (1) Azumafuji, (1) Chiyonoyama
* **Record:** Tied for **5th** most gold stars (10 gold stars)

## **Sources**

* Kitanonada Noboru Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Kitanonada Noboru Rikishi Information