Year: Day to Day Men: February 9

The Tufted Red Bench

The ninth of February in 1912 marks the birth date of Futabayama Sadaji, a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from the Oita Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. He entered sumo in 1927 and became, from 1937 until he retired in 1945, the sport’s thirty-fifth yokozuna, a person of sumo’s highest rank. Futabayama won twelve yūshō, top division championships, and won sixty-nine consecutive bouts, an all-time record.

Born Akiyoshi Sadaji, Futabayama worked as a young boy on fishing boats. At the age of fifteen, he was recruitedin March of 1927 by the Tatsunami stable, one of the most prestigious in sumo. Futabayama entered the top makuuchi division at the beginning of 1932. The makuuchi is the top division of six divisions in sumo and is fixed at forty-two wrestlers ordered into five ranks according to their performance in previous tournaments. After many top division wrestlers went on strike, Futabayama was promoted from the middle of the second-ranked division, jūryō, to maegashira 4, a listing that placed him into the lowest rank of the top makuuchi division. He finished as runner-up in his second top-division tournament, proving himself worthy of his promotion.

Futabayama Sadaji is known for achieving the longest run of consecutive victories in sumo, sixty-nine victories over a period of three years, a record still standing as of 2020. This was a major achievement as a match may only last a few seconds and a wrestler’s concentration must constantly be at its highest level. During those three years, Futabayama was awarded increasingly higher rankings and finally achieved the ranking of yokozuna. On the third of January in 1939, he was finally defeated by maegashira Akinoumi Setsuo, a professional sumo wrestler from Hiroshima.

Futabayama won a total of twelve championships at a time when there were two tournaments held each year. He held the record until the number of tournaments per year were increased to six in the 1950s. Futabayama left the June 1945 tournament held in the bomb-damaged city of Kokugikan after the first day. He did not participate in the November 1945 tournament but, while attending it, announced his retirement. Futabayama had made the decision to retire a year earlier after suffering a loss to Azumafuji Kin’ichi, a sumo wrestler from Taitō, Tokyo. After his retirement, Futabayama’s victories were considered more remarkable as he revealed that he was blind in one eye.

In 1941, Futabayama Sadaji became the head of his own stable, the Futabayama Dojo, while he was still an active wrestler. Upon his retirement, he adopted the Tokitsukaze elder name and renamed his heya, Tokitsukaze stable. It became by the 1950s one of sumo’s largest stables and the source of many strong wrestlers. Futabayama was chairman of the Japan Sumo Association from 1957 and remained in charge of his stable until his death from hepatitis in December of 1968 at the age of fifty-six. 

Notes: At 1.79 meters (5 feet 10 inches) and 128 kilograms (282 pounds), Futabayama was known for his exceptional tactics in the tachi-ai, the initial phase of the sumo match. He was an expert at the gonosen no tachi-ai, the immediate countering of an opponent’s charge. Futabayama had excellent balance and was feared for his uwatenage, or overarm throw.

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Futabayama Sadaji Performing the Yokosuna Dohyō, the Ring-Entering Ceremony”, Date Unknown, Vintage Print