Maenoyama Tarō

Maenoyama Tarō (born 9 March 1945 as Kazuichi Kaneshima) is a former sumo wrestler from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. He began his career in 1961, reaching the top makuuchi division in 1966. His highest rank was ōzeki which he held from 1970 until 1972. He retired in 1974 and became head coach of the Takadagawa stable. He left the Sumo Association in 2010 upon turning 65.

Career

He was born in Moriguchi, of Korean descent. He entered Takasago stable and made his professional debut in March 1961. He reached sekitori status in November 1965 upon promotion to the jūryō division and reached the top makuuchi division in September 1966. He made his san'yaku debut in March 1968 at sekiwake. In May 1969 he defeated yokozuna Kashiwado on opening day and went on to win 11 bouts, receiving his first sanshō or special prize, for Fighting Spirit. He was promoted to sumo's second highest rank of ōzeki in July 1970 after two consecutive runner-up performances to yokozuna Kitanofuji, the second coming in a play-off. His ōzeki debut was inauspicious as he missed the entire tournament through injury. He was unable to win more than nine bouts in any of his ten tournaments at ōzeki rank, and was demoted from ōzeki in March 1972 after injury problems meant he had two consecutive losing scores. He continued to compete in the lower ranks until March 1974 when he announced his retirement from active competition at the age of 29.