Hachijin Rintaro

Hachijin Rintaro (1949 - 1997) was a sumo wrestler from Osaka, Japan whose highest rank was yokozuna. He joined his father's Onogawa-beya in 1965 and initially fought under his surname of Kitanuma. upon reaching the second highest Juryo division he adopted his father's shikona of Hachijin. He made his debut in the top division at the young age of 19 years old and many people thought he would have a storied rivalry with the similarly young rikishi Kuroyama. However, Kuroyama would go on to surpass him and Hachijin would climb the ranks slower, although still young, reaching the rank of Ozeki while still only 22 years old. He was one of the very few wrestlers to beat Kuroyama multiple times, ending up with a 4-30 head to head record against him. He was finally promoted to yokozuna in 1976 and his career seemed to be going on the right track until he found himself 7-7 on the final day of the September tournament of that year and facing the 14-0 Kuroyama, while many had hoped he could pull of an upset, or even that Kuroyama would throw the bout to help out his struggling rival, He lost and finished the tournament with a 7-8 record, becoming only the second yokozuna to finish a tournament with 8 or more losses (although the one preceding him, Takanofuji, did have a fusen as one of his losses) He instantly retired while still only 27, and did not remain in the kyokai although many had expected he would oneday inherit his father's onogawa-beya. instead he finished school and being a self-described "born-again" christian became a christian minister and noted televangelist. He had put his former life as a yokozuna behind him and died of a heart attack in 1997 at the age of 48.