Chiyonofuji Mitsugu

Chiyonofuji Mitsugu (Japanese: 千代の富士 貢; June 1, 1955 – July 31, 2016), born Mitsugu Akimoto (秋元 貢, Akimoto Mitsugu), was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler and the 58th yokozuna of the sport.

Chiyonofuji was considered one of the greatest yokozuna in sumo's history, winning 31 tournament championships (yūshō) at the top division (makuuchi), second only to Taihō at the time of his retirement. He was particularly remarkable for his longevity in sumo's top rank, which he held for a period of ten years from 1981 to 1991. Promoted at the age of twenty-six after winning his second championship, his performance improved with age, winning more tournaments in his thirties than any other wrestler and dominating the sport in the second half of the 1980s. He finally retired in May 1991, just short of his thirty-sixth birthday. Following his retirement as a wrestler, he became an elder (oyakata) of the Japan Sumo Association and became the Kokonoe-oyakata the following year in 1992, serving as the stable master of Kokonoe stable until his death.

During his 21-year professional career, Chiyonofuji set records for most career victories (1045) and most wins in the top makuuchi division (807), earning an entry in the Guinness World Records, although both of these records were later broken by Kaiō. He won the November Kyushu tournament, one of the six annual honbasho, a record eight consecutive years from 1981 until 1988, and also set the record for the longest postwar run of consecutive wins (53 bouts in 1988). That record stood for 22 years until Hakuhō broke it with his 54th straight win in September 2010.

In a sport where weight is often regarded as vital, Chiyonofuji was comparatively light at around 120 kg (260 lb), making him the lightest yokozuna since Tochinoumi during the 1950s and 60s; he primarily relied on his muscle and superior technique to defeat his opponents. Chiyonofuji was a popular sumo wrestler who also went by his nickname "The Wolf" (ウルフ, Urufu) due to his muscular build atypical of most other sumo wrestlers, his competitive ferocity, and his appeal as a sex symbol owing to his body and his masculine facial features.