Music star Masuiyama, a former ozeki who died Sunday at 76, blazed unique trail
NFL legend Tom Brady was back in Japan this week and made a timely visit to a sumo stable with rich origins.
In a Tuesday Instagram post, the seven-time Super Bowl winner shared photos of himself enjoying various attractions and activities in Tokyo and Kyoto with his children.
Included in the series of snaps was a shot of Brady watching morning practice at Onoe sumo stable in Tokyo's Ota Ward.
The former quarterback is no stranger to Japan's national sport, and has even gotten into the ring with top wrestlers in the past, but his choice of stable this week, almost certainly unbeknownst to him, was particularly fitting.
Onoe-beya was founded two decades ago when its stablemaster branched off from Mihogaseki stable and took several wrestlers, including future ōzeki Baruto, with him.
Onoe wasn't the only offshoot from Mihogaseki, with Kitanoumi (now Yamahibiki), Hatachiyama and Kise stables all having arisen from the same source.
Mihogaseki stable closed down in 2013. Its stablemaster, former ōzeki Masuiyama, died on Sunday of liver failure at age 76.
Though Masuiyama may have been out of the sumo world for over a decade at the time of his death, his influence lived on through the wrestlers he recruited and trained, and the stables that emerged under his watch.
That influence was seen again this week as English teenager Nicolas Tarasenko officially joined Minato stable — with the aforementioned Baruto having helped facilitate his acceptance into professional sumo.
But it wasn't just in sumo where Masuiyama had an impact.
A talented singer, he released numerous records while still an active rikishi.
Performing primarily in the enka genre, Masuiyama was both popular with fans and feted by the industry, winning various awards and seeing several of his singles sell over a million copies each.
In fact, so prominent was his second career that criticism from those who said he wasn't exclusively focused on sumo prompted the Japan Sumo Association to eventually put a stop to wrestlers engaging in outside commercial activities.
While that action may have stymied his side job, it didn't stop it permanently and, once he reached the JSA's mandatory retirement age of 65, Masuiyama jumped right back into the music business. While he had been an ōzeki in sumo, he was aiming to become a yokozuna in music, he said.
Of course rikishi having non-sumo interests isn't all that unusual, but normally their hobbies or pastimes are a wholly private manner and are afterthoughts until retirement.
Masuiyama (front left) observes a ring purification ceremony in Tokyo in 2011. |
John Gunning
Masuiyama was unique in that he was both an active rikishi and a legitimate star in the world of entertainment.
He is one of the only former ōzeki in which an image search for his name will be dominated with content not related to sumo.
Whether in kanji characters or the Roman alphabet, Google 'Masuiyama' and you'll be presented with an array of album covers, rather than photos of him in action in the ring.
And while he retired as a wrestler before a majority of current international sumo fans were probably even born, his former stable will be familiar to many of them.
The building that housed Mihogaseki stable was temporarily the location of Taganoura-beya, and where Kisenosato, Takayasu and that stable's wrestlers trained. Adding to its fame, it was later turned into a sumo-themed restaurant called Chanko Masuiyama.
Between 2016 and 2021, it was also the main filming location for Grand Sumo Preview, NHK World's top English-language show on the sport.
As one of the presenters of that program, I regularly got a firsthand look at many of the items of Mihogaseki stable memorabilia that filled what had previously been the training room.
The board displaying the ring names of the top ranked wrestlers in the stable's history was a reminder that, while he may have been famous as a musician, Masuiyama was also a very accomplished wrestler and part of a strong sumo family.
His father was an ōzeki with the same shikona (ring name) and when Masuiyama reached that rank in 1980, it marked the first father-son pairing to reach sumo's second highest rank since the Taisho Era (1912-1926).
That promotion at the age of 31 also made him the oldest man ever to make ōzeki — a record that stood until 2007.
Masuiyama entered sumo alongside Kitanoumi and trained every day with a stablemate who would go on to become the most dominant yokozuna of his generation and later chairman of the Japan Sumo Association.
The two men were part of the JSA's board during the rise of Asashoryu and Hakuho and a visible presence as sumo underwent significant changes and drew increasing interest from overseas.
Being overshadowed in the ring by his famous stablemate, and arriving late to the rank of ōzeki, Masuiyama was arguably underappreciated as a wrestler during his active career and overlooked by the generations of fans that came along after he retired.
The Tokyo native was an accomplished rikishi in his own right however, and while he may not have come anywhere close to the level of success achieved by Kitanoumi, he certainly helped raise the profile of the sport among a completely different demographic.
Masuiyama's dual career as a top wrestler and singing star is utterly unique in the history of sumo, and his impact lives on in both fields.
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