Inazuma Raigoro - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Inazuma Raigorō was a sumo

Sumo

is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

wrestler from Inashiki, Ibaraki Prefecture

Ibaraki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan, located in the Kantō region on the main island of Honshu. The capital is Mito.-History:Ibaraki Prefecture was previously known as Hitachi Province...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. He was the sport's 7th Yokozuna. Inazuma means lightning

Lightning

Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

in Japanese.

Career

His birth date is ambiguous. According to a strong theory, he was born in 1802. Another claimed that he was born in 1795. If the former is correct, he was the youngest yokozuna until the promotion of Umegatani Tōtarō II

Umegatani Totaro II

Umegatani Tōtarō II was a sumo wrestler from Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. He was the sport's 20th Yokozuna. Umegatani had a great rivalry with yokozuna Hitachiyama Taniemon...

in 1903. If the latter is correct, he died at the age of 82.

He was worked under Matsudaira clan in Izumo, where legendary sumo wrestler Raiden worked. Inazuma entered Edo sumo in February 1821 and was promoted to the top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

division in October 1824. He reached the highest rank of ozeki on ability alone, after only 6 tournaments (some ozeki of the period were merely given the rank because of their size or status). Ōnomatsu Midorinosuke

Onomatsu Midorinosuke

Ōnomatsu Midorinosuke was a sumo wrestler from Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. He was the sport's 6th Yokozuna. He trained ozeki Tsurugizan Taniemon.-Early career:...

was his rival. They differed in that Inazuma hated false starts at the tachi-ai
Tachi-ai
The tachi-ai is the initial charge between two sumo wrestlers at the beginning of a bout.There are several common techniques that wrestlers use at the tachi-ai, with the aim of getting a decisive advantage in the bout:...

, or the initial phases of sumo bouts.

As a Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

based wrestler, Inazuma was awarded a yokozuna licence by the Gojo family in July 1828. This licence was disputed, but, in September 1830, he was also awarded a yokozuna licence by the house of Yoshida-tsukasa, and thus has been accepted as an official yokozuna.

In the top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

division, he won 130 bouts and lost only 13 bouts, achieving a winning percentage of 90.9. After his retirement, he moved to Matsue but he returned to Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

in the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

Top division record

*1-2 tournaments were held yearly in this period, though the actual time they were held was often erratic

*Championships from this period were unofficial

*Yokozuna were not listed as such on the ranking sheets until 1890

*There was no fusensho system until March 1927

*All top division wrestlers were usually absent on the 10th day until 1909

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 120%"
|-
!
!First
!Second
|-
|1824
!x
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Maegashira #5 (7-0-2-1hold)
|-
|1825
|West Komusubi (5-2-3)
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Komusubi (8-1-1)
|-
|1826
|West Sekiwake (6-1-2-1draw)
|West Sekiwake (7-0-1-1draw-1hold)
|-
|1827
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Sekiwake (5-0-2)
|bgcolor=gray|unenrolled
|-
|1828
|bgcolor=gray|unenrolled
|West Ōzeki (4-1-5)
|-
|1829
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (6-0-1)
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (8-0-1-1draw)
|-
|1830
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (8-0-2)
|West Ōzeki (6-1-2-1hold)
|-
|1831
|West Ōzeki (3-1-6)
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (8-0)
|-
|1832
|no tournament held
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (8-0-1-1draw)
|-
|1833
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (9-0-1draw)
|bgcolor=gray|unenrolled
|-
|1834
|bgcolor=gray|unenrolled
|bgcolor=gray|unenrolled
|-
|1835
|West Ōzeki (5-0-3-2draws)
|West Ōzeki (6-2-2)
|-
|1836
|bgcolor=gray|Sat out
|West Ōzeki (3-0-7)
|-
|1837
|bgcolor=#66FF00|West Ōzeki (5-0-4-1draw)
|West Ōzeki (5-1-1-2draws-1noresult)
|-
|1838
|West Ōzeki (3-0-3)
|bgcolor=gray|Sat out
|-
|1839
|West Ōzeki (1-3-5-1draw)
|West Ōzeki (4-0-3-3draws)
|-

The wrestler's East/West designation, rank, and win/loss record are listed for each tournament.
A third figure in win-loss records represents matches sat-out during the tournament
an X signifies the wrestler had yet to reach the top division at that point in his career

{|
| Green Box=Tournament Championship
|}

Career

Top division record

See also