歴史 History
Longitudinal analysis of professional sumo's top division from November 1958 to the present. 67 years of bout-by-bout records from sumo-api.com, aggregated into decade-level patterns - technique evolution, grand champion timelines, internationalization, body changes, and the all-time yusho leaderboard.
~67 years of Makuuchi bout records
The sumo-api provides full bout-by-bout records for Makuuchi dating back to November 1958 - the earliest digital record of Japan's top division. Every match on every day of every 15-day tournament is captured.
What's knowable at each depth
Sumo data deepens as it comes forward. The Japan Sumo Association tracked rankings systematically from ~1757, but recorded match results only from 1909, and made everything cleanly machine-readable from 1958 onward. The longer the lookback, the thinner the record - this diagram is honest about which questions we can answer at which depth.
TIER 1 IS SHIPPED. TIERS 2 + 3 ARE PLANNED FOLLOW-ONS - SEE DOCS/DATA.MD §6.
Every sanyaku career since 1958 - one line per wrestler
Each thread is one wrestler who reached sanyaku (Komusubi, Sekiwake, Ozeki, or Yokozuna) at least once. The y-axis is their position on the banzuke - 1 is the very top (Yokozuna), higher numbers sit lower. Color marks the peak tier reached: dark red for Yokozuna, orange for Ozeki, amber for Sekiwake, olive for Komusubi. The bold, labeled lines are the era's most-decorated wrestlers - the eight with the most career tournament championships - traced over the faint field of every other sanyaku career. Gold stars mark each of those champions' yusho.
→ scroll horizontally to pan 406 bashos
How sumo changed across the decades
Three lenses on 60+ years of Makuuchi: the shifting mix of winning techniques, the growing size of the average wrestler, and the evolving win-rate gap between rank tiers. All three panels share the same 1958-2020 x-axis - read any decade column straight down for a snapshot of that era.
Body measurements are JSA-reported career values, averaged across wrestlers active in each decade - not per-basho time series.
DOTTED GOLD LINE = 50% BASELINE (ZERO-SUM REFERENCE).
Every grand champion's span - 1789 to present
Each row is one yokozuna (grand champion). The bar spans their promotion to retirement on a true time-scale - scroll the timeline sideways to traverse 240 years; the names stay pinned left and the decade axis stays pinned to the top. Bar length reflects longevity; yusho (championship) count sits at the bar's right edge. Pre-1958 reigns (muted bars) come from the documented lineage - promotion and retirement years only, no bout-level data, and the championship counts are the retroactive historical tally. The line is conventionally traced to Akashi (1624); documented reigns begin with the 4th yokozuna, Tanikaze, in 1789.
Longest reigns all-time
- 1 Hakuho Sho 14y
- 2 Umegatani Tōtarō II 13y
- 3 Haguroyama Masaji 13y
- 4 Hitachiyama Taniemon 12y
- 5 Terukuni Manzō 12y
- 6 Kitanoumi Toshimitsu 10.5y
- 7 Inazuma Raigorō 10y
- 8 Miyagiyama Fukumatsu 10y
- 9 Taiho Koki 9.5y
- 10 Chiyonofuji Mitsugu 9.5y
- 11 Onogawa Kisaburō 9y
- 12 Futabayama Sadaji 9y
Most championships as yokozuna
- 1 Hakuho Sho 45
- 2 Taiho Koki 32
- 3 Chiyonofuji Mitsugu 31
- 4 Asashoryu Akinori 25
- 5 Kitanoumi Toshimitsu 24
- 6 Takanohana Koji 22
- 7 Tanikaze Kajinosuke 21
- 8 Wajima Hiroshi 14
- 9 Futabayama Sadaji 12
- 10 Musashimaru Koyo 12
- 11 Tachiyama Mineemon 11
- 12 Akebono Taro 11
The internationalization of Makuuchi, basho by basho
The share of foreign-born wrestlers in the top division was near zero through the 1970s. The arrival of Hawaiian-born Akebono in 1988, and the Mongolian cohort through the 2000s, drove a steady climb. Today roughly 24% of Makuuchi is foreign-born.
SHARE OF FOREIGN-BORN WRESTLERS IN MAKUUCHI. ONE POINT PER BASHO. SOURCE: SUMO-API RIKISHI SHUSSHIN FIELDS.
Tournament champions since 1958
All-time yusho (tournament championship) counts for wrestlers active since November 1958. Hakuho's 45 is an outlier by any historical comparison - the next closest is Taiho with 32. Bar length is proportional to yusho count.
| # | Shikona | Yusho | Wins | Span | Era |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hakuho Sho | 45 | 2006–2021 | 2000s-2020s | |
| 2 | Taiho Koki | 32 | 1960–1971 | 1960s-1970s | |
| 3 | Chiyonofuji Mitsugu | 31 | 1981–1990 | 1980s-1990s | |
| 4 | Asashoryu Akinori | 25 | 2002–2010 | 2000s-2010s | |
| 5 | Kitanoumi Toshimitsu | 24 | 1974–1984 | 1970s-1980s | |
| 6 | Takanohana Koji | 22 | 1992–2001 | 1990s-2000s | |
| 7 | Wajima Hiroshi | 14 | 1972–1980 | 1970s-1980s | |
| 8 | Musashimaru Koyo | 12 | 1994–2002 | 1990s-2000s | |
| 9 | Akebono Taro | 11 | 1992–2000 | 1990s-2000s | |
| 10 | Kitanofuji Katsuaki | 10 | 1967–1973 | 1960s-1970s | |
| 11 | Terunofuji Haruo · 照ノ富士 春雄 | 10 | 2015–2024 | 2010s-2020s | |
| 12 | Harumafuji Kohei | 9 | 2009–2017 | 2000s-2010s |
COVERS NOVEMBER 1958 TO PRESENT, MAKUUCHI ONLY. SOURCE: SUMO-API BASHO YUSHO RECORDS.