Takanohana Reflects on First Photo and Life with New Wife

Last August, Koji Takanohana, 52, “the great yokozuna of the Heisei era,” who retired from the Japan Sumo Association in 2006, remarried in a surprise move to a woman he had dated in his teens. On June 1, about a year later, he launched the “General Incorporated Association Takanohana” to transmit the philosophy and physical theories he had acquired through sumo, and held a reception. He remarried to a woman with whom he had a serious relationship when he was 17 years old during his juryo years. The first report was in the January 5-12, 1990 issue of “FRIDAY.

You mean that day?　Of course I remember. I had just moved up to juryo, and I never dreamed that I would be photographed by a photo magazine. I didn’t know (that I was being photographed) until the article appeared, but as it turns out, there was a car parked there that looked just like that one. …… And the headline is very cool, just like FRIDAY, isn’t it? “The night I got my love hanging out” (laughs). After all, that was the day I began my life of looking around 360 degrees (laughs).

FRIDAY” reported in detail on the date between Kikanada, who became the youngest sumo wrestler in history at 17 years and 2 months old and was expected to be the “yokozuna of the future,” and his first love, Ms. A, who was one year older than him.

Takanada was persistent and persistent in his signature “two-piece waist” style… The night that Kikanada “hung out his love” with an 18-year-old beauty.

In December 1989, after winning 8-7 in the Kyushu tournament in November, Takanada was spotted in Yokohama wearing jeans and a leather half-coat, with his long hair pulled back in an unkempt bun. That was Takanada at the time. He had gone to Ms. A’s house, where she was attending high school in Tokyo, to visit and make love.

They stayed there for about two hours and left A’s house, where they spent 40 minutes crouching on the front porch and talking. After leaving Mr. A’s house, the couple, aged 17 and 18, parted for two hours. Photos were taken of them walking shoulder to shoulder amicably between their house and the train station, and of the scene where they lifted Ms. A in their arms as if to hang up the other rikishi at the main sumo stadium.

At the time, he had been in a relationship for two months. Noriko Fujita (now Noriko Fujita), who was the hostess of the room, told the magazine , “I didn’t know her at all, but I hope she will be open and cheerful in her relationship with Takanohana. However, I think it is a little early to call her a specific girlfriend. ……” She commented with a somewhat mixed expression.

Takanohana’s love affair with Ms. A did not bear fruit, and he later announced his engagement to Rie Miyazawa, 51, whom he had met and hit it off with in a sports newspaper interview, but the relationship broke off after only two months. In 1995, when he had risen to the rank of yokozuna, he married Keiko Kono (59), an announcer for Fuji Television Network, but their 23-year marriage came to an end in 2006.

After two breakups, the former yokozuna was determined to live alone for the rest of his life. He and Ms. A, whose first romance was reported by “FRIDAY” some 34 years ago, were reconnected through an interview with Takanohana published in March ’23. She later remarried Mr. A, whose husband had died about six years earlier.

A year has now passed since their unexpected union of a love that had failed when she was 17, and Takanohana reveals, “I am happy now.

I am happy now. When I wake up in the morning, my wife is making me dinner. At my age, I realized for the first time that there was a world like the one I saw in TV dramas.

When he was photographed on a date with Mr. A at the age of 17, what did Futagoyama, who was known as a strict master at the time, say to him? How does he feel now that he has parted ways with Rie Miyazawa and Keiko Kono? Why did Takanohana, who had resolved to live alone for the rest of his life, remarry Mr. A?

In addition, the paid edition of “FRIDAY GOLD” reports in detail on his hidden thoughts about his older brother Torakami Hanada, his mother Noriko Fujita, and his apprentice whom he has devoted himself to, and what kind of activities he intends to pursue in the future.