Kaiki Nobuhide

Kaiki Nobuhide (born 12 June 1952 as Masaaki Nishino) is a former sumo wrestler from Tenmabayashi, Aomori, Japan. He made his professional debut in 1965, and was promoted to the top makuuchi division in 1975. He earned three gold stars for defeating yokozuna and one special prize. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he reached in July 1979. He retired in 1987 and has been head of the Tomozuna stable since 1989, training ozeki Kaio among others. He is also a Director of the Japan Sumo Association.

Career

Making his debut in September 1965 at the age of just 13, he stood at only 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) and weighed just 90 kg (200 lb). He initially fought under his own surname of Nishino, becoming Nishinishiki in 1973. In September 1973 he became a fully fledged sekitori, and he adopted the shikona of Kaiki in 1975. He eventually reached the top makuuchi division in November 1975, ten years after his debut but still aged only 23. He fought in the top makuuchi division for 66 tournaments in total and earned three gold stars for defeating yokozuna. He earned one sansho or special prize, which came in his debut tournament at the rank of komusubi in May 1979 when he shared the Fighting Spirit Award with Ozutsu. He was promoted to sekiwake for the following tournament in July 1979. Although he scored only three wins against twelve losses in what was to be his only tournament at sekiwake, two of those wins were against yokozuna Kitanoumi and ozeki Asahikuni. He made the sanyaku ranks twice more, in July 1980 and January 1981, but on both occasions had a make-koshi or losing record at komusubi. He fought in the maegashira ranks until November 1986 when he was demoted to the juryo division. He retired two tournaments later after the March 1987 basho.

Retirement from sumo

Upon his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Takashima Oyakata, working as a coach. He recruited Kaio in March 1988. He became head of the Tomozuna stable in May 1989 upon the mandatory retirement of the previous head, former juryo Ichinishiki. In 1993 Kaio reached the top division, and became an ozeki in 2000. In 2006 Tomozuna Oyakata became a Director on the board of the Sumo Association, initially in charge of the Education department and running the sumo school. He has continued to produce top level wrestlers, with Kaisei reaching the top division in 2011. In April 2012 Tomozuna stable absorbed Oshima stable when its stablemaster retired. Kyokutenho then immediately won the top division yusho in May 2012, giving Tomozuna stable another championship to go with the five won by Kaio.

In an interview in 2006 Tomozuna criticized his former wrestler Sentoryu, and yokozuna Akebono, who both moved into mixed martial arts, for continuing to use their traditional shikona outside of the sumo world.^[1]

Personal life

His son, Kuniaki, was born in 1979 and in 1995 entered sumo himself. He was known as Kaishoryū and retired in 2010, having never archived sekitori status. His highest rank was makushita 6.^[2]

Career record

References

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of past sumo wrestlers