The Crash of Japan Airlines 123 and the Death of a Sumo Family

On August 12, 1985 tragedy struck a great deal of families across Japan.  Kyu Sakamoto, the famed singer, the president of the Japanese Baseball Team Hanshin Tigers, Hajimu Nakano, and the entire family of former Ozeki Kiyokuni died along with 500 other fellow passengers in Japan's largest aviation disaster in history.  Kiyokuni's 39-year old wife Sanae, his 12-year old son Yoshihiko, and 10-year old daughter Kiyoe were on their way to Osaka from Tokyo to visit Sanae's parents who were living in Osaka.  The cause of the crash....a ruptured pressure bulkhead in the rear of the plane that wasn't properly fixed when the tail struck the ground during landing 7 years earlier.  I visited the memorial at the crash site when I was living in Japan and was amazed at the story of devastation and survival. 

After the crash, Kiyokuni (having changed his name to Isegahama Oyakata when he took over the Isegahama stable after retirement) never was able to recover and drove his stable into the ground.  When he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in 2006 he had just two wrestlers under his roof.  The stable dissolved in 2007 after being around for almost 150 years.  Here is a great article from the now defunct Sumo Fan Magazine...I used to write for this magazine back in the day and sadly the magazine went belly up in 2012.

The above card represents one of only a few cards that features Kiyokuni....this one belonging in the famous 1973 Calbee Sumo Set. When this 1973 set was published, Kiyokuni was on the backend of his career having won one tournament.