was a Japanese

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

wrestler from Awazaki,

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

(now Inashiki,

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

). He was the sport's 7th ''

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ('' rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the o ...

''.

Early life and career

Born , his birth date is ambiguous. Although the date of 1802 is commonly accepted, some say he was born between 1795 or 1798. If the former is correct, he was the youngest ''yokozuna'' until the promotion of Umegatani Tōtarō II in 1903. The details of his younger days are unclear.
He entered the

Sadogatake stable is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Nishonoseki group of stables. In its modern form, it dates from September 1955, when it was set up by former ''komusubi'' Kotonishiki Noboru. Former ''yokozuna'' Kotozakura took over the running of th ...

in 1821, under the ''

shikona A is a sumo wrestler's ring name. The tradition of ring names in sumo dates back to the Muromachi period and established itself during the Edo period, where they were used as a means to hide the identities of the . Given by the master to his di ...

'', or ring name, . There, he began to wrestle for the

Matsudaira clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of the ...

, under which legendary sumo wrestler Raiden wrestled. Other sources state that he only started wrestling for the Matsudaira clan after he left his stable for the Nishikiyama stables. Upon promotion to ''komusubi'' in 1824, he changed his ring name to , meaning "lightning bolt" in Japanese. He reached the highest rank of '' ōzeki'' on ability alone, after only 6 tournaments (some ''ōzeki'' of the period were merely given the rank because of their size or status). Ōnomatsu is said to have been his rival and their competition established the golden age of sumo in the late

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

.
In 1828, the offered him a ''yokozuna'' license and two years later he received one from the Yoshida family, and thus has been accepted as an official ''yokozuna''. In the top ''

makuuchi , or , is the top division of Professional sumo divisions, the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous ...

'' division, he won 130 bouts and lost only 13 bouts, achieving a winning percentage of 90.9.

Retirement from sumo

After his retirement, he moved to

Matsue is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Shimane Prefecture, Japan, located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. , the city had an estimated population of 196,748 in 91287 households and a population density of 340 persons per km². The total area of ...

but he returned to Tokyo in the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. He was known as a good calligrapher and a skilled writer, leaving behind him a lot of ''

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

''. He died on March 29, 1877. His last words were "Lightning () is passing away in the wind and the autumn sky". He was buried in the graveyard of the Myoen-ji temple in

Shibuya is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station. As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,60 ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. A bronze statue of Inazuma was erected in front of the Inashiki Municipal Museum of History and Folklore.

The sumo precepts

Inazuma is credited to have wrote the "Sumo Precepts" (''sumo kun'', 相撲訓), a combination of teachings related to sumo that warned ''

rikishi A , or, more colloquially, , is a sumo wrestler. Although used to define all wrestlers participating in sumo wrestling matches, the term is more commonly used to refer to professional wrestlers, employed by the Japan Sumo Association, who par ...

'' against coarse behavior and taught them how to cultivate their fighting spirit. These precepts include notions like the cardinal values of Sumo (wisdom, humanity and courage) and disciplinary advices (wrestlers are not to indulge in the vices of alcohol and gambling). The "Sumo Precepts" also give advices to wrestlers when in bouts (do not show mercy to your opponent, do not underestimate him, do not fear him, do not scheme against him and follow your breathing while observing the moves).

Top division record

*''The actual time the tournaments were held during the year in this period often varied.'' ''*Championships for the best record in a tournament were not recognized or awarded before the 1909 summer tournament and the above unofficial championships are historically conferred. For more information see

yūshō is the term for a championship in Japanese. This article focuses on championships in the sport of professional sumo. It is awarded in each of the six annual '' honbasho'' or official tournaments, to the wrestler who wins the most bouts. ''Yūs ...

.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inazuma, Raigoro 1802 births 1877 deaths Japanese sumo wrestlers Sumo people from Ibaraki Prefecture Yokozuna 19th-century wrestlers Ograzogma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wario https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuma_Satou https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squidward_Tentacles

Early life and career

Retirement from sumo

The sumo precepts

Top division record

See also

References