Daisaku Hanakaze

is a retired Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo. He made his debut in March, 1986 and wrestled for Tatsunami stable. Despite never rising higher than the fourth division (sandanme), he has set several records for longevity in the sport. He competed in a total of 214 tournaments, and was the last wrestler who began his career in the Shōwa era to retire. Consequently, he is the only wrestler to fight in the Shōwa, Heisei and Reiwa eras. He is also one of very few in sumo's long history who wrestled into his sixth decade.

Career Daisaku Yamaguchi joined sumo out of junior high school in March 1986, in the era of the yokozuna Futahaguro and Hokutoumi, and one year before his future stablemaster, the 7th Tatsunami elder, former komusubi, Asahiyutaka.

In the beginning of his career, he had three losing tournaments in a row, missing his fourth tournament, and dropped off the banzuke by the end of 1986. He returned to active sumo in March 1987, exactly one year after his initial debut. In this tournament he became the first wrestler to win a match in the newly rebuilt Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. He would compete in every tournament for the next 31 years, although he would occasionally miss matches within tournaments due to injury. It would be July 1987 before he would receive his first kachi-koshi (majority of wins) in a tournament. He got his first 6–1 record in November 1988, a feat he achieved nine times in his career. He never had an undefeated 7-0 tournament. Conversely, in tournaments he was active in, he had a winless 0–7 tournament three times in his career. Two of those occasions were the first and last tournaments of the Heisei era (January 1989 and March 2019). His highest rank achieved is sandanme 18 in November 2003, which was incidentally one of his winless tournaments. He was promoted to the sandanme division a record 19 times.

Though Hanakaze never reached the top, salaried ranks, he has a number of notable longevity records. Upon the retirement of Tochitenkō in May 2011 he became the oldest active wrestler in sumo, and also simultaneously tied with Hokutōryū for longest active career as they both joined sumo in March 1986. In 2016, both Hanakaze and Hokutōryū simultaneously became the longest serving sumo wrestlers ever, passing the largely uninterrupted, nearly 30-year career set by the legendary Miyagino Nishikinosuke (active 1766–1796, a contemporary of Tanikaze, historically accepted as the sport's first documented yokozuna). After Hokutōryū retired following the March 2017 tournament, Hanakaze solely holds the record for longest career ever in the centuries long history of sumo; a career spanning 33 years as of March 2019. He was also the last remaining active wrestler who began his career in the Shōwa era, which ended in January 1989. Having never reached the sekitori level, he was not eligible for any retirement benefits despite his many years in sumo. Former yokozuna Kitanofuji has reportedly said, "If you can’t climb any higher than the third division, you’re better off quitting and returning home to the countryside." The combined age of the two wrestlers was 92. He had originally planned to retire in 2020 when he turned 50, but this was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. He is involved in the opening of a chankonabe restaurant in Hyogo Prefecture.

Fighting style Hanakaze’s most common winning kimarite were uwatenage (overarm throw) hatakikomi (slap down) and yorikiri (force out).

Career record