Kitabayama Hidetoshi

Kitabayama Hidetoshi - 北葉山 英俊 (born May 17, 1935 - July 20, 2010) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Muroran, Hokkaido. He made his debut in May 1954 and last wrestled for Tokitsukaze stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 1958 and has three special prizes and one top division championship. His highest rank was ozeki and he retired in May 1966.

## **Early Life**

Born in Hakodate, Hokkaido, he later moved to Muroran which he used as his official birthplace when joining professional sumo. He admired Yokozuna Futabayama and in junior high school, he served as the captain of the sumo club and participated in many tournaments. After graduating, he worked as a blacksmith for Fuji Iron & Steel for around three years, before he was recruited into professional sumo in 1954.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He entered sumo in May 1954, joining Tokitsukaze stable. He was given the shikona "Kitabayama" (北葉山), where the "Kita" (北) is in reference to his home prefecture of Hokkaido and the "bayama" (葉山) is derived from his stablemaster Futabayama. He was recruited by the legendary former yokozuna Futabayama. In May 1955, he won the sandanme yusho with a perfect 8-0 record and was promoted to makushita for the following July 1955 tournament. In January 1958 he won the makushita yusho with a perfect 8-0 record at the rank of makushita 10 and was promoted to juryo for the following March 1958 tournament.

### **Juryo Career**

In his first tournament as a sekitori, Kitabayama produced a solid 10-5 record. He followed with a strong 11-4 record, but missed out on the juryo yusho after losing to future Yokozuna Kashiwado in the playoff. After winning the juryo championship in September 1958 with a 14–1 record he entered the top makuuchi division in November 1958.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He was a runner-up in only his second top division tournament and quickly made the san'yaku ranks, reaching sekiwake in November 1959. He was to remain at sekiwake rank for nine of the next ten tournaments. After finishing runner-up to maegashira Sadanoyama in the May 1961 tournament with an 11–4 record he was promoted to ozeki. He had won 28 bouts over the previous three tournaments, not normally enough for ozeki promotion, but there were only two ozeki at the time, and two aging yokozuna (Asashio and Wakanohana) and so the standard was lowered slightly.

### **Ozeki Career**

In an era dominated by Taiho he was only able to win one tournament championship, in July 1963, when he defeated Sadanoyama in a playoff. He was also runner-up for a third time in the May 1964 tournament. He held his ozeki rank for a total of 30 tournaments over a period of five years. This was the first time a sumo wrestler has competed as ozeki for thirty or more tournaments.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Kitabayama retired from active competition in May 1966, following two losing scores in his last two tournaments (a third would have seen him demoted from the ozeki rank). He remained in the sumo world as an elder under the toshiyori name Edagawa and worked as a coach at Tokitsukaze stable. He was also on the board of Directors of the Japan Sumo Association and worked as a judge of tournament bouts. He left the Sumo Association in 2000 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of sixty-five.

### **Death**

He died on July 20, 2010, from cancer of the liver at the age of 75.

## **Fighting Style**

Kitabayama's favored techniques were hidari-yotsu (a right hand outside, left hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi), yorikiri (force out) and utchari (ring edge throw). Other kimarite he regularly used were uwatenage (overarm throw) and tsuridashi (lift out).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 525-327-21/850 (66 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 396-273-21/667 (46 basho)
* **Juryo:** 45-15/60 (4 basho)
* **Makushita:** 55-33/88 (11 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 18-6/24 (3 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 8-0/8 (1 basho)
* **Shinjo:** 3-0/3 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makuuchi** Championship (July 1963)
* 1 **Juryo** Championship (September 1958)
* 1 **Makushita** Championship (January 1958)
* 1 **Sandanme** Championship (May 1955)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (2), Outstanding Performance Prize (1)

## **Shikona History**

* Yamada Hidetoshi (1954.05 - 1954.05)
* Kitabayama Hidetoshi (1954.09 - 1966.05)

## **Gallery**

Kitabayama Hidetoshi - (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Kitabayama's tegataKitabayama's early career in the unsalaried ranks (c. 1959)Kitabayama with future Yokozuna Kashiwado (c. 1959)Kitabayama (left) with one of his many sansho prizes (c. 1960)Kitabayama gets promoted to Ozeki (c. 1961)Kitabayama celebrates promotion to Ozeki (c. 1961)Kitabayama snaps Yokozuna Taiho's 25 match win streak (c. 1962)Kitabayama defeats Sadanoyama to win his first Yusho (c. 1963)Kitabayama receives the emperor's cup from his stablemaster (c. 1963)Kitabayama wins his first and only Yusho (c. 1963)Kitabayama's first and only Yusho parade (c. 1963)Kitabayama celebrates his first and only Yusho (c. 1963)Kitabayama announces his retirement (c. 1966)Kitabayama's retirement ceremony (c. 1963)Kitabayama after retirement as Edagawa Oyakata (c. 1983)
## **Sources**

* Kitabayama Hidetoshi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Kitabayama Hidetoshi Rikishi Information