Inazuma Raigoro

Inazuma Raigoro - 稲妻 雷五郎 (born 1802 - March 29, 1877) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Awazaki, Hitachi. He made his debut in February 1821 and wrestled for Sadogatake stable. He reached the makuuchi division in October 1824 and has ten top division championships. He was the 7th yokozuna and he retired in November 1839.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Saisuke Nemoto was born in the village of Awasaki in Hitachi Province. His birth date is ambiguous. According to a strong theory, he was born in 1802. Another claimed that he was born in 1795. If the former is correct, he was the youngest yokozuna until the promotion of Umegatani Totaro II in 1903. If the latter is correct, he died at the age of 82.

He worked under the Matsudaira clan in Izumo, where legendary sumo wrestler Raiden worked. Nemoto entered Edo sumo in February 1821 and started his career at the juryo division. Initially wrestling under the shikona "Makinoshima Raigoro" (槇ノ島 雷五郎), he was later given the shikona "Inazuma Raigoro" (稲妻 雷五郎) in February 1823. After the shikona change, he posted a strong 6-0-1hold record and was promoted to makuuchi in October 1824.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He won the equivalent of his first tournament championship in his top division debut in October 1824, emerging undefeated with seven wins (though this was before the championship system established in 1909). He was later promoted to komusubi in January 1825 and sekiwake in January 1826.

### **Ozeki Career**

He reached the highest rank of ozeki on ability alone, after only 6 tournaments (some ozeki of the period were merely given the rank because of their size or status). Onomatsu was his rival. They differed in that Inazuma hated false starts at the tachi-ai, or the initial phase of sumo bouts. After winning three consecutive championships, he was awarded a Yokozuna license in September 1830.

### **Yokozuna Career**

As an Osaka based wrestler, Inazuma was awarded a yokozuna licence by the Gojo family in July 1828. This licence was disputed, but, in September 1830, he was also awarded a yokozuna licence by the house of Yoshida Tsukasa in Edo, and thus has been accepted as an official yokozuna. He won the equivalent of ten top division championships. In the top makuuchi division, he won 130 bouts and lost only 13 bouts, achieving a winning percentage of 90.9.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After his retirement, he moved to Matsue and became the president of Unshu Sumo (Izumo Province-based Sumo). However, the organization saw a rapid decline in numbers and he returned to Tokyo in the Meiji period. He died on March 29, 1877 at the age of either 75 or 82 due to the ambiguity of his birth date.

## Record

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 147-17-73-14draws-4holds-1no result/183 (28 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 130-13-73-14draws-3holds-1no result/161 (25 basho)
* **Juryo:** 17-4-1hold/22 (3 basho)

### **Championships**

* 10 Unofficial **Makuuchi** Championships
	+ 1st (October 1824)
	+ 2nd (October 1825)
	+ 3rd (March 1827)
	+ 4th (February 1829)
	+ 5th (October 1829)
	+ 6th (March 1830)
	+ 7th (November 1831)
	+ 8th (November 1832)
	+ 9th (February 1833)
	+ 10th (January 1837)

## **Shikona History**

* Makinoshima Raigoro (1823.02 - 1823.10)
* Inazuma Raigoro (1824.01 - 1839.11)

## **Gallery**

19th century woodblock print of Yokozuna Inazuma
## **Sources**

* Inazuma Raigoro Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Inazuma Raigoro Rikishi Information