Onoumi Takashi

Onoumi Takashi - 大ノ海 敬士 (born February 5, 1953) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Fujishima, Yamagata. He made his debut in March 1975 and wrestled for Hanakago stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 1977. His highest rank was maegashira 4 and he retired in July 1977.

## **Early Life**

He played baseball up to junior high school, but at Sakata Minami High School he switched to sumo and won the high school section of the National Sports Festival. He was an amateur sumo champion while at Nihon University, winning the All Japan Sumo Championships and the amateur yokozuna title.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

After graduating from university, Onoumi joined Hanakago stable. Due to his amateur accomplishments, he was given makushita tsukedashi status which allowed him to make his debut at the bottom of the makushita division. He produced two consecutive 6-1 records from his first tournaments and in July 1975, he finished with a perfect 7-0 record to claim the makushita yusho. He was promoted to juryo in the following September 1975 tournament after only three professional tournaments.

### **Juryo Career**

In his first tournament as a sekitori, Ishikawa struggled and finished with a 6-9 record and was demoted back down to makushita. He returned to juryo in May 1976 and changed his shikona to "Onoumi" (大ノ海). He produced four consecutive winning records and was promoted to makuuchi in January 1977.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Onoumi produced a solid 9-6 record in his makuuchi debut and was promoted to the rank of maegashira 4 in the following March 1977 tournament. He struggled in this tournament and finished with a 4-11 record and followed with a 5-10 record which sent him back down to juryo. He wrestled one tournament in juryo before announcing his retirement due to diabetes after only two years in professional sumo.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

### **Professional Wrestling Career**

After retiring from sumo, Ishikawa decided to become a professional wrestler and joined All Japan Pro Wrestling. Giant Baba sent him to Pat O'Connor for training. After training, he was sent to the Funks' territory in Amarillo, Texas, where he debuted on November 8, 1977, under the name Takashi Onome. In January 1978, he was sent to Kansas City for Central States Wrestling.

Returning to Japan in November 1978, Ishikawa wrestled a tour with International Wrestling Enterprise, before returning to AJPW in December 1978. In October 1979, he was sent abroad to Puerto Rico for World Wrestling Council. Under the name Mitsu Ishikawa, he won his first championship, the WWC North American Tag Team Championship with Haru Sonoda. In March 1980, he would briefly return to Amarillo and won the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship with Hugo Savinovich, before Savinovich left the area and was replaced by Sonoda, making Ishikawa a two-time champion.

In May 1980, Ishikawa would return to AJPW full-time. He would win five AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championships, twice with Akio Sato, once with Ashura Hara, and twice with Mighty Inoue, before retiring in December 1988. His last match with AJPW was held on December 16, teaming with Mighty Inoue in a victory over Motoshi Okuma and Haruka Eigen. After a hiatus, Ishikawa returned to pro wrestling in September 1990 for Super World Sports, where he was part of Genichiro Tenryu's Revolution stable and was the booker for the promotion. He would also wrestle with stars in the World Wrestling Federation. Unfortunately in June 1992, SWS collapsed.

After SWS's collapse, Ishikawa joined Tenryu in forming WAR. Soon after, the promotion was engaged in an inter-promotional war with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. At NJPW's Fantastic Story at Tokyo Dome on January 4, 1993, he lost to Tatsumi Fujinami. He would remain with WAR until September 1994. His last match with the promotion was on September 1, defeating Yamato.

In December 1994, he formed Tokyo Pro Wrestling. While wrestling and running TPW, he would also make overtures to Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, Social Progress Wrestling Federation, Independent Wrestling Union, WAR, NJPW, and IWA Japan. In April 1996, he would win the TPW Tag Team Championship with Yoji Anjo. In June 1997, he would win the BJW Tag Team Championship with Kengo Kimura. Although he retired from active competition on January 19, 1998, he did wrestle a few matches for BJW in January 1999.

### **Post-Wrestling Career**

He retired from wrestling officially on January 19, 1998. Since then, he founded a company which operates building security and cleaning. One of his clients is Nihon University, which is his alma mater.

## **Fighting Style**

Onoumi 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. He was also fond of employing uwatenage, or overarm throw.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 98-79/177 (15 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 18-27/45 (3 basho)
* **Juryo:** 48-42/90 (6 basho)
* **Makushita:** 32-10/42 (6 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makushita** Championship (July 1975)

## **Shikona History**

* Ishikawa Takashi (1975.03 - 1976.03)
* Onoumi Takashi (1976.05 - 1977.07)

## **Gallery**

Onoumi's successful college sumo career (c. 1974)Onoumi commits to Hanakago stable (c. 1975)Onoumi practices his tsuppari during training (c. 1975)Onoumi in juryo (c. 1975)Onoumi poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1977)Onoumi prepares for his upcoming matchOnoumi's newfound profession of professional wrestling (c. 1978)Onoumi tags with former Yokozuna Wajima
## **Sources**

* Onoumi Takashi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Onoumi Takashi Rikishi Information