teethsalad - 2009-08-12
"He was born on the island of Sakhalin to a Japanese mother and an ethnic Ukrainian father who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution. However, he is regarded as having come from Teshikaga, Hokkaid?, where he moved to as a child after the Soviet Union took control of Sakhalin in 1945. While on a sumo tour to the Soviet Union in 1965 he tried to locate his father, but without success. Taiho was the first of three great yokozuna who all hailed from Hokkaido, the most northerly of the main islands of Japan, and who among them dominated sumo during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s."
"At the time of his promotion Taiho was the youngest ever wrestler to achieve sumo's highest rank of yokozuna at 21 years and three months, a record subsequently surpassed by Kitanoumi who was one month younger. Exceptionally for a newly promoted Yokozuna he also managed to win his first tournament subsequent to his promotion."
"His career win ratio was in excess of 80%, which is also a post-war record."
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