Maruyama Gondazaemon was a sumo

Sumo

is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

 wrestler. He is officially recognised as the third yokozuna (grand champion). His real name was . He came from a village in the Sendai Domain

Sendai Domain

was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. Most of its holdings were contiguous, covering all of modern-day Miyagi Prefecture, small portions of southern Iwate Prefecture, and a portion of northeastern Fukushima Prefecture. The domain's capital, and the ruling family's castle, were located in what...

 (part of what is now Miyagi Prefecture).

Career

Gondazaemon went to Edo at the age of just 17, and was trained by . His height was 197 cm and his weight was 166 kg. He left Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 to fight in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

 sumo. In Osaka, he debuted at west ozeki in 1737. It is said that he lost only two bouts in his career.

He is considered to have been a strong wrestler but it has not been proven that he was awarded a yokozuna license. In honor of him, the house of Yoshida Tsukasa allowed him to be their disciple from August 1749 but this did not confer him the status of yokozuna. However, there are tales told that he wore a black-and-white rope. Though it was not a traditional shimenawa

Shimenawa

Shimenawa are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They can vary in diameter from a few centimetres to several metres, and are often seen festooned with shide...

, Masahiko Nomi

Masahiko Nomi

Masahiko Nomi was a Japanese journalist who advocated Takeji Furukawa's idea of an influence of blood type on personality. He was also known as a sumo essayist....

 conjectured that it may have been related to the shimenawa.

Gondazaemon died in Nagasaki while an active sumo wrestler on November 14, 1749 possibly from dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

. His grave lies in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture

Nagasaki Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Nagasaki.- History :Nagasaki Prefecture was created by merging of the western half of the former province of Hizen with the island provinces of Tsushima and Iki...

. A statue of him stands in Yoneyama, Tome

Tome, Miyagi

is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.Previously a district consisting of eight towns, on April 1, 2005, they, along with the town of Tsuyama formerly of Motoyoshi District, merged to form a new city. As of 2010, Tome city had an estimated population of 84,070 and a population density of...

, Miyagi Prefecture

Miyagi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...

.

External links

• Brief biography