Terukuni Manzō

He was the sport's 38th yokozuna. He was promoted to yokozuna without any top division tournament titles to his name, although he later attained two.

Terukuni Manzō
照國 万藏
Terukuni, circa 1943
Personal information
Born	Suga Manzō (1919-01-10)January 10, 1919 Akita, Japan
Died	March 20, 1977(1977-03-20) (aged 58)
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Weight	161 kg (355 lb)
Career
Stable	Isegahama
Record	313-110-74
Debut	January 1935
Highest rank	Yokozuna (May 1942)
Retired	January, 1953
Elder name	Isegahama
Championships	2 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita)
Gold Stars	1 (Minanogawa)
* Up to date as of June 2020.

Born Suga Manzō (菅 萬藏), he later changed his name to Ono Manzō (大野 萬蔵). In the summer of 1930, he was scouted by Isegahama, former sekiwake Kiyosegawa Keinosuke, his distant relative. However, he was largely forgotten due to the disruption caused by the Shunjuen Incident of 1932, in which a large number of wrestlers went on strike. After the dispute was settled, he joined Isegahama stable in 1934, making his debut in January 1935 with the Terukuni Manzō shikona or ring name.

He was promoted to the top makuuchi division in May 1939, and reached the ōzeki rank in May 1941. After two tournaments at ōzeki, he finished in a three-way tie for the championship in May 1942 with Futabayama and Akinoumi, on 13–2. The championship was awarded to Futabayama (whom Terukuni had defeated in their individual match) simply because he was of a higher rank, as was the rule at the time. Nevertheless, after the tournament both Terukuni and Akinoumi were promoted to yokozuna. At 23 years of age, Terukuni was the youngest wrestler to reach the yokozuna rank until the promotion of Taihō in 1961. He did well in his yokozuna debut, scoring 14–1, although he finished one win behind Futabayama, who won his last match by default.

Terukuni was a heavy wrestler for his time, weighing over 160 kg (350 lb). During World War II, his weight declined due to food shortages. He changed the spelling of his shikona given name to 萬藏 in May 1945, but changed it back in October 1949.

Having been a runner-up on five previous occasions, Terukuni finally won his first championship in September 1950, about eight years after his promotion. He won his second championship in the very next tournament with a perfect 15–0 record.

Three days into the January 1953 tournament, he announced his retirement. After the tournament, Kagamisato was promoted to yokozuna, and a photograph was taken of Terukuni and Kagamisato alongside the other grand champions Chiyonoyama, Azumafuji and Haguroyama. As Terukuni had not yet had his official retirement ceremony, some regard January 1953 as being the only occasion on which there were five yokozuna at the same time.

After his retirement, Terukuni became the head coach of Isegahama stable and produced ōzeki Kiyokuni Katsuo. He had already made arrangements to pass control of the stable over to Kiyokuni at the time of his death in 1977 at the age of 58.

 

• Through most of the 1940s only two tournaments were held a year, and in 1946 only one was held. The New Year tournament began and the Spring tournament moved to Osaka in 1953.

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament top division champions
• List of yokozuna