Sasshūnada Yasutaka (born 7 June 1957 as Katsuyuki Yoshizaki) is a former

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

wrestler from

Ibusuki is a city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, founded on April 1, 1954. In March 1, 2012, the city had an estimated population of 43,931, with 19,119 households and a population density of 294.82 persons per km2. However the census of 2020 con ...

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He made his professional debut in January 1976, and reached the top division in September 1986. His highest rank was '' maegashira'' 1. He retired in September 1992. he is an

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...

in the Japan Sumo Association under the name Tatsutayama.

Career

He was born in the southern city of

, in the southernmost prefecture of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

. He is from the same area of Japan as his more famous stablemates,

Terao is a Japanese former sumo wrestler. He was born in Tokyo, but brought up in Kajiki, Aira District, Kagoshima, Japan. He fought out of Izutsu stable. The highest rank he reached was ''sekiwake.'' Despite his relatively light weight he had an ex ...

and Sakahoko. He had done

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

at high school but decided to switch to sumo. He joined Kimigahama stable (later Izutsu stable), founded by former '' sekiwake''

Tsurugamine Tsurugamine Akio (26 April 1929 – 29 May 2006), real name Akio Fukuzono, was a sumo wrestler from Aira, Kagoshima, Japan. His highest rank was ''sekiwake.'' He was twice runner-up in a tournament and won 14 special prizes, including a record ...

in January 1976. He initially fought under his own surname of Yoshizaki. He won the '' yūshō'' or tournament championship in his first appearance on the ''

banzuke A , officially called is a document listing the rankings of professional sumo wrestlers published before each official tournament (''honbasho''). The term can also refer to the rankings themselves. The document is normally released about two w ...

'' ranking sheets in the '' jonokuchi'' division with a perfect 7–0 record. However, his progress up the ranks was slow. In 1982 he was given the '' shikona'' of Sasshunada, meaning "sea of Sasshu." He finally broke into the elite '' sekitori'' ranks after the May 1984 tournament when he won the '' makushita'' division championship and was promoted to ''

jūryō Professional sumo as administered by the Japan Sumo Association is divided into six ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win–loss records in official tournaments. For ...

.'' (Terao made his ''juryo'' debut at the same time). He won the ''jūryō'' championship in September 1985 with a mere 10–5 record after beating Hidanohana in a playoff. He won promotion to the top '' makuuchi'' division after the July 1986 tournament at the age of 29, having spent ten years in sumo. Sasshūnada was one of five men from Izutsu stable in the top division simultaneously, the others being Terao, Sakahoko, Kirishima and Jingaku. However, he was unable to make much of an impression on the top ranked wrestlers and lacked the fighting spirit of some his stablemates. He never managed to defeat a '' yokozuna'' or win a special prize in his 19 tournaments ranked in the top division, and his highest rank reached was '' maegashira'' 1 in March 1988. In September 1989 his three-year stay in ''makuuchi'' ended when he scored only 5–10 at ''maegashira'' 14, and he was demoted to ''jūryō'' where he was to spend the remainder of his career.

Retirement from sumo

Sasshūnada's last tournament was in July 1992, and he chose to retire rather than compete in the ''makushita'' division in September. He had not missed a single bout in his career, fighting 1077 consecutive matches. He became an

of the Sumo Association, working as a coach at Izutsu stable. Unable to purchase elder stock at first, he borrowed a succession of different elder names before acquiring the Tatsutayama name in 1998. In 2005 he transferred from Izutsu stable to work at

Michinoku stable The is a Heya (sumo), stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Tokitsukaze stable, Tokitsukaze ''Glossary of sumo terms#ichimon, ichimon'' or group of stables. It was established in 1974 by former ''maegashira'' Hoshikabuto Yoshio, Hoshikabuto, who ...

, run by his former stablemate Kirishima. He reached the normal retirement age for an elder of 65 in June 2022, but was re-employed for a further five years as a consultant.

Fighting style

Keeping with the reputation of his stable, Sasshūnada was known for having a very powerful pushing attack. His preferred

techniques Technique or techniques may refer to: Music * The Techniques, a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group of the 1960s *Technique (band), a British female synth pop band in the 1990s * ''Technique'' (album), by New Order, 1989 * ''Techniques'' (album), by M ...

were ''oshidashi'' (push out) and ''hatakikomi'' (slap down), which together accounted for sixty percent of his career victories.

Personal life

Married with one son, as a wrestler Sasshūnada was fond of visiting '' pachinko'' parlours in his spare time.

Career record

References