Kurohimeyama Hideo

Kurohimeyama Hideo (12 November 1948 – 25 April 2019), born as Hideo Tanaka, was a sumo wrestler from Ōmi, Niigata, Japan.

Career Growing up he was not a fan of sumo, preferring professional wrestling. However he decided to try professional sumo after completing junior high primarily to relieve the burden on his family, as they were poor with his father relying on migrant work. He was surprised to discover after joining sumo that his professional wrestling hero Rikidozan had started out as a sumo wrestler. He was recruited by Tatsunami stable, whose stablemaster, ex-yokozuna Haguroyama, was also a Niigata Prefecture native. He made his professional debut in March 1964. He was given the shikona of Kurohimeyama after a mountain range in Itoigawa. The stable was large, with around 60 wrestlers, and he was expected to get up early to begin training, which was not a problem for him as he had had an early morning newspaper round as a child. Moving up the ranks he was a personal attendant or tsukebito to Annenyama and former ōzeki Wakahaguro. He made the jūryō division in March 1969 (alongside stablemate Asahikuni and also Mienoumi) and reached the top makuuchi division just two tournaments later in July 1969.

After he was re-promoted to the top division in November 1969 he fought there for 71 consecutive tournaments and 1065 matches, never missing a single bout. He made his sanyaku debut at komusubi in November 1970 and although he only scored six wins against nine losses, he defeated yokozuna Taihō in this tournament. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he finally obtained in July 1974. He moved to Tomozuna stable in an assistant coach role, and reached the Sumo Association's mandatory retirement age of 65 in November 2013.

He suffered a cerebral infarction in March 2018, and died at the age of 70 on 25 April 2019 from pneumonia.

Fighting style He was primarily a pusher-thruster, his most common winning kimarite or technique being oshi dashi or push out. Due to his strong tachi–ai or initial charge he was nicknamed after the D51 steam locomotive. At the July 2023 banzuke announcement, it was announced that his grandson Toranosuke, who wrestled in the makushita division under the ring name "Tanakayama", would inherit his grandfather's shikona.

Career record