Thanks Karl Brandt for the card images!
Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Futahaguro - The Un-Greatest Yokozuna!
All the hype over the arguably greatest Yokozuna of all time, Yokozuna Hakuho, will undoubtedly overshadow the death announcement of probably the un-greatest Yokozuna of all time, Yokozuna Futahaguro. All the major news outlets have reported over the weekend that the 60th Yokozuna Futahaguro passed away back in February from kidney failure at the age of 55 as indicated by his wife. Why it took 6 weeks to make the announcement, we'll probably never know, but it is fitting with such a controversial figure that further controversy lives on. Why the past controversy? In a nutshell, he had a falling out with his stablemaster (allegedly also hitting the stablemaster's wife ) and was ultimately expelled from sumo. Futahaguro was painted early on as sumo's next golden boy and was hurriedly promoted to Yokozuna after no top-division tournament championships (the rule of thumb is two back-to-back championships are needed for promotion to Yokozuna).....the Nihon Sumo Kyokai figured he'd get a few eventually. Not only did he not have any top-division championships BEFORE he was promoted, he didn't manage to even get a championship AFTER he was promoted either. The controversy and subsequent expulsion quickly came around and the sumo world was rewarded with their un-greatest Yokozuna of all time...a Yokozuna who never won a championship. Futahaguro's career was in the "dead period" of sumo card production with only a handful of the official playing cards capturing his image as is with the two images below from 1985 and 1988 respectively. All in all, though, RIP Futahaguro.
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Hitting a woman? Not cool. That being said, I hope he learned from that experience and my thoughts are with his fans and family.
ReplyDeleteHe had a lot of problems it seemed and fame magnified them.
DeleteHe certainly doesn't sound like that great of a person, but the history is still pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting considering there were Ozeki that were leaps and bounds better than Futahaguro and never made Yokozuna.
DeleteSad to see him go. His name has been coming up in debates I've been having over the past few months. Everyone is sold on the idea that Kisenosato is the worst Yokozuna ever and every time I bring Futahaguro into the conversation it immediately ends that debate.
ReplyDelete55 is pretty young, one of the biggest reservations I have about being a sumo fan (in addition to the rampant sexism and abuse) is what it does to the life expectancies of wrestlers, its really appalling.
Ha, it would be a quick conversation I imagine. Yeah, sumo wrestlers die very young...much younger than their non-sumo counterparts.
DeleteDidn't he also try to poke out John Tentas eyes during a Pro Wrestling match because he could not abide losing to a lower ranked former rikishi?
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t heard that, but wouldn’t be surprised.
DeleteHate he died but wow. Didn’t sound like a model Rikishi by any means.
ReplyDeleteTough I imagine having that much fame and pressure when you are so young.
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