Some anglophone readers have asked below what this video is all about. For any such readers: The wrestler featured here is Myōbudani (明歩谷, born 1937), a native of Hokkaidō. (He wrestled almost his entire career under his birth name, rather than an adopted shikona.) He entered sumō in 1954, reached maegashira rank as early as 1959, and fought continuously in the first division from 1960 through his retirement at the end of 1969. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he reached on three separate occasions. He won eight special prizes, and four times was runner-up for the makuuchi yūshō (twice competing in a playoff for the championship). Myōbudani was relatively light even for a sumō wrestler of his era, but tall and powerful, at 6-2½, 249 lbs. The kimarite, or winning technique, that he was credited with using more than any other single one was tsuridashi (吊り出し), or “lift out” - a technique in which the wrestlers are facing each other, and one picks up the other by the mawashi and drops him outside the ring. This is an infrequently used kimarite, and it is extremely unusual for it to be any wrestler’s most commonly-used winning technique. So, this particular video show 20 bouts, from 1961-1967, that Myōbudani won by tsuridashi - and ends with seven from January 1967, when Myōbudani, wrestling at Maegashira no. 4, finished the tournament 11-4, including four wins in a row by tsuridashi on days 6, 7, 8, and 9, and then another three in a row on days 12, 13, and 14.
The rule has always been that the wrestlers are supposed to touch their hands to the dohyō at the tachiai. But there have often been long periods when that rule has not been rigorously •enforced•.
The wrestler featured here is Myōbudani (明歩谷, born 1937), a native of Hokkaidō. (He wrestled almost his entire career under his birth name, rather than an adopted shikona.) He entered sumō in 1954, reached maegashira rank as early as 1959, and fought continuously in the first division from 1960 through his retirement at the end of 1969. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he reached on three separate occasions. He won eight special prizes, and four times was runner-up for the makuuchi yūshō (twice competing in a playoff for the championship). Myōbudani was relatively light even for a sumō wrestler of his era, but tall and powerful, at 6-2½, 249 lbs. The kimarite, or winning technique, that he was credited with using more than any other single one was tsuridashi (吊り出し), or “lift out” - a technique in which the wrestlers are facing each other, and one picks up the other by the mawashi and drops him outside the ring. This is an infrequently used kimarite, and it is extremely unusual for it to be any wrestler’s most commonly-used winning technique. So, this particular video show 20 bouts, from 1961-1967, that Myōbudani won by tsuridashi - and ends with seven from January 1967, when Myōbudani, wrestling at Maegashira no. 4, finished the tournament 11-4, including four wins in a row by tsuridashi on days 6, 7, 8, and 9, and then another three in a row on days 12, 13, and 14.
