Kashiwado Tsuyoshi

was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Yamagata Prefecture. He was the sport's 47th yokozuna, fighting at the sport's highest rank from 1961 to 1969. After his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association and ran his own training stable from 1970 until his death.

Career

Born in what is now part of the city of Tsuruoka in the northern prefecture of Yamagata, he made his professional debut in September 1954, joining Isenoumi stable. He initially fought under his real name and rose rapidly up the rankings, winning the second division championship in March 1958 and almost again in May, losing the final bout in a seven-way playoff. After one more tournament he had reached the top makuuchi division in September 1958. In only his fourth top division tournament, coinciding with his adoption of the shikona surname Kashiwado, he was runner-up to yokozuna Tochinishiki with a 13–2 record and earned special prizes for Fighting Spirit and Technique. He made the sanyaku ranks in November 1959, earning promotion to ōzeki in September 1960 and becoming the first wrestler from his home prefecture to achieve this rank in 72 years, since Ōdate's promotion in 1888. Kashiwado took his first top division yūshō or championship in January 1961. After taking part in a three way playoff for the championship in September of that year that a ultimately lost, he was promoted to yokozuna nevertheless, joining the aging pair of Asashio III and Wakanohana who were soon to retire.

Kashiwado changed the spelling of his ring name to in May 1962, but changed it back in November 1964. He went on to win five top division championships in total, a long way behind the thirty-two captured by his rival Taihō, who was promoted to yokozuna simultaneously with him. He was however a tournament runner-up on no fewer than fifteen occasions. Kashiwado suffered from many injury problems during his career, which led to him being dubbed the "glass yokozuna". He failed to complete four tournaments in a row from January to July 1963. However he made a spectacular comeback in September 1963, winning his first championship as a yokozuna with a perfect 15–0 record. He was listed as a yokozuna on the banzuke for 47 tournaments, which puts him in equal seventh place on the all-time list. He was popular among sumo crowds, appealing to those who found Taihō too dominant. The eight years in which the two shared the yokozuna rank was known as the Hakuhō era, a combination of their names (Haku is another reading of Kashi) as well as a pun on the late 7th century period known as the Hakuhō period. Their head-to-head record was fairly even, standing at 18–16 in Taihō's favour by May 1967, before Taihō won their last five matches in a row as Kashiwado began to fade. He died of liver failure in 1996, at the age of 58. Taihō was at Kashiwado's bedside and was distraught over his death. The former Tagaryū took over the running of Kagamiyama stable, which still exists as of 2020, but with only two wrestlers.