Fujinokawa Takeo

Fujinokawa Takeo - 藤ノ川 武雄 (born September 26, 1946) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Otofuke, Hokkaido. He made his debut in May 1961 and last wrestled for Isenoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 1966 and has seven special prizes as well as four kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in November 1972.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He joined professional sumo upon graduating from Takushoku University Daiichi High School in 1961. He initially wrestled under his own surname, Morita. He was promoted to sandanme in January 1962 and makushita in March 1963. In November 1965 he won the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 7 and was promoted to juryo in the following January 1966 tournament at the young age of 19.

### **Juryo Career**

Upon promotion to juryo he changed his shikona to "Fujinokawa" (藤ノ川). In his first tournament as a sekitori, he finished with a solid 9-6 record, however, he followed with two losing records. Luckily he did not lose his sekitori status and bounced back with two consecutive 10-5 records which earned him a promotion to the top makuuchi division.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He made his makuuchi debut in November 1966 and was one of the first wrestlers born after World War II to achieve this. One of his stablemates at Isenoumi stable was yokozuna Kashiwado Tsuyoshi. In just his third top division tournament March 1967 he defeated a yokozuna, earning his first kinboshi, won two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Technique, and scored 12 wins against three losses. He was rewarded with promotion to the sanyaku ranks for the first time, at sekiwake. He was demoted after one tournament after scoring only 7–8 and only made the rank one more time in 1970, although he was ranked at komusubi on several other occasions. He was runner-up in two tournaments, in May 1968 (although he only scored 10–5) and July 1969 (after losing a play-off to Kiyokuni after both had finished on 12–3). He was popular with sumo fans and was nicknamed "Ima-Ushiwaka", a reference to the samurai warrior Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

On the sixth day of the July 1971 he suffered an injury to his left leg in a match with Yoshinohana, which led to him withdrawing from the tournament and being demoted to the juryo division. He felt he had to return to action in the next tournament to win back his rank despite not being fully healed, and withdrew again. It was partly in response to his slump in form due to his injury that the Sumo Association introduced the kosho seido or public injury system, whereby a wrestler injured in competition could sit out the next tournament without an effect on his rank. Fujinokawa did eventually manage to return to the top division in July 1972 but withdrew once again during the following tournament in September 1972 and never fought again.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He retired in November 1972 at the age of just 26, and after working as an assistant coach for some years under the elder name Tatekawa, he became Isenoumi Oyakata and head coach of the Isenoumi stable in December 1982 upon the death of the previous head, former maegashira Kashiwado Hidetake.

He produced the top division wrestlers Kitakachidoki, Tosanoumi and Oikari. In February 2002 he was elected to the board of directors of the Japan Sumo Association. He commented about the suspension of Asashoryu in August 2007. He apologized to Japan's vice sports minister Kenshiro Matsunami on behalf of the Sumo Association over the case of Jun'ichi Yamamoto in February 2008. He also worked as the head of the Sumo Association's general planning department, looking after the health of the wrestlers, and he has warned that their increasing size and reliance on training machines instead of traditional head-to-head kawaigari training has made them more susceptible to injury. He stood down from the board in February 2010. He was responsible for developing in 2011 questionnaires to assess the wrestlers' fighting spirit that are handed out to the public on tournament match days. On September 25, 2011, NHK's live sumo broadcast contained coverage of Isenoumi-oyakata's retirement press conference. He announced that he would be turning 65 the following day and thereby reach the mandatory retirement age of a sumo coach. He named his replacement as head coach as Katsunoura-oyakata, the former Kitakachidoki.

In March 2018 he was appointed as a hyogiin or outside voter in the Sumo Association, although he has no oyakata status.

## **Fighting Style**

Fujinokawa was proficient in both yotsu-sumo (grappling) and oshi-sumo (pushing and thrusting) techniques. His favored grip on his opponent's mawashi was migi-yotsu, a left hand outside, right hand inside position. His most often used winning kimarite was yorikiri (force out), followed by tsukidashi (thrust out) and oshidashi (push out).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 403-378-23/779 (69 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 209-240-16/447 (31 basho)
* **Juryo:** 81-62-7/143 (10 basho)
* **Makushita:** 71-48/119 (17 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 29-20/49 (7 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 8-6/14 (2 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makushita** Championship (November 1965)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Technique Prize (4), Fighting Spirit Prize (2), Outstanding Performance Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 4: (1) Taiho, (1) Kitanofuji, (1) Tamanoumi, (1) Sadanoyama

## **Shikona History**

* Morita Takeo (1961.05 - 1965.11)
* Fujinokawa Takeo (1966.01 - 1971.01)
* Fujinokawa Taketo (1971.03 - 1972.11)

## **Gallery**

Fujinokawa poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1967)Fujinokawa with one of his many sansho prizes (c. 1967)Fujinokawa's oichonmage gets loose after a match (c. 1967)Fujinokawa poses with his mawashiFujinokawa after promotion to Sekiwake (c. 1967)Fujinokawa loses the Yusho playoff to Kiyokuni (c. 1969)Fujinokawa defeats Yokozuna Kitanofuji (c. 1970)Fujinokawa prepares for his upcoming matchFujinokawa battles future Ozeki Daiju (c. 1971)Fujinokawa's retirement ceremony pamphlet (c. 1973)Fujinokawa after retirement as Isenoumi Oyakata (c. 2011)
## **Sources**

* Fujinokawa Takeo Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Fujinokawa Takeo Rikishi Information