Mienoumi Tsuyoshi

At 76 years old, Mienoumi Tsuyoshi has this physical status:

His father was a construction worker who competed in amateur sumo tournaments. The young Mienoumi did judo in junior high school and was introduced to a sumo coach at Dewanoumi stable, but was initially rejected due to his short stature. He contacted the stable again a few years later, and this time was accepted by Dewanoumi Oyataka himself, the former Dewanohana Kuniichi. His first bout was in July 1963, aged just 15. At first fighting under his real name, he took on the shikona of Mienoumi in July 1966, but did not adopt the Tsuyoshi given name until September 1976. After being personally trained by the new Dewanoumi Oyakaya, former yokozuna Sadanoyama, he developed his technique and was promoted to the jūryō division in March 1969, and makuuchi, the top division, in September 1969. In July of the following year, he reached the rank of komusubi, defeating two yokozuna (Taihō and Tamanoumi) and receiving his first prize for Outstanding Performance. He was promoted to sekiwake in the next tournament in September 1970.

Mienoumi suffered from a chronic liver problem throughout his career, and although he tried to keep it under control by changing his diet, it was a factor in his eventual retirement.

In September 1974, his 11th day match with Futagodake was declared a draw (hikiwake). This is the last draw in the top division to date. Mienoumi won his first makuuchi tournament or yūshō in November 1975 and was promoted to ōzeki the following January. He lost a majority of bouts in the next two tournaments, resulting in an automatic demotion back to sekiwake, but a good result of 10 wins to 5 losses in the next tournament was sufficient to restore him to ōzeki.

In May 1979 he was a runner-up for the fourth time, to Wakanohana with a 13–2 record. He followed that up with a superb 14–1 record in the following tournament, defeating Wakanohana, Kitanoumi and Wajima, only losing the championship in a playoff to Wajima on the final day. In September 1979 he was finally promoted to yokozuna. The 97 tournaments it took him to do so is the slowest ever progress to sumo's top rank. His oyakata declared that he would be happy with just one more yūshō before Mienoumi's retirement. In the event, Mienoumi won his second and third tournaments as yokozuna, the latter with a perfect record, but after this had several absences due to injury and illness, fighting a full fifteen bouts in only four tournaments as yokozuna, before retiring in November 1980. He has the lowest win–loss ratio of any post-war yokozuna.

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