Noshirogata Kinsaku

Noshirogata Kinsaku (能代潟 錦作) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Yamamoto (now Mitane), Akita Prefecture. Known as a tenacious wrestler, he reached the makuuchi division in May 1921 and is the first wrestler from Akita Prefecture to have reached the rank of ōzeki before Terukuni in 1942 and Kiyokuni in 1969. He retired in May, 1936 and died in June, 1973.

History
Born on May 5, 1895, in the Fujisato district of Yamamoto, in the Akita Prefecture, Noshirogata was the second son of a family of farmers. Known as a strong child, he participated in amateur tournaments as a country ōzeki. During the 1914 summer, he met a touring group of professional wrestlers and was convinced to become a rikishi. He began his career under the shikona, or ring name, Tsukiyama (突山), which is a reference to a mountain range in his hometown.

Noshirogata later inherited the old shikona of his master at Nishikijima stable (former sekiwake Orochigata). He made his sekitori debut in 1919 and was promoted to the Makuuchi division in May 1921, but had to sit out the tournament and was consequently demoted to the rank of jūryō for the year 1922. Noshirogata however won the jūryō championship in January 1922, securing a makuuchi comeback for the tournament of May of the same year. As a makuuchi wrestler he won a tournament in March 1928 and ended second place in two others.

When the Shunjuen Incident broke out in January 1932, Noshirogata was solicited by the group of strikers ("Great Japan Emerging Rikishi Group"), but he refused to join them. In the January 1933 tournament, he was demoted from the rank of ōzeki strait to komusubi. This was the last known situation where an ōzeki fell directly to the rank of komusubi and the last time an ōzeki who won a tournament fell below the rank of sekiwake. One of his last feats was to win a kinboshi against Yokozuna Tamanishiki during the May 1933 tournament. However, as a 41 years-old veteran wrestler, he began to suffer from neuralgia and asthma, an illness that already forced him to withdraw temporarily from the March 1929 tournament. Noshirogata chose to retire from active competition after two complete absences in the January and May 1936 tournaments.

After retiring, he assumed the elder name Tatsutayama (立田山), and established his own stable. As a stablemaster, he raised Komusubi Matsuragata. However, following an air raid on March 9, 1945, Matsuragata died and the stable closed, its staff being transferred back to Nishikijima stable. Noshirogata was a close friend of Yokozuna Futabayama, and helped trained him. When Futabayama retired and established his Sumo Dojo, Noshirogata became an affiliate and helped coaching Futabayama's wrestlers.

When the Japan Sumo Association introduced a mandatory retirement age in 1961, he retired and died on June 8, 1973, at the age of 78.

As a sports figure, his keshō-mawashi and photographs are exhibited at the History and Folklore Museum in Fujisato, Akita. In May 1989, his family donated a silver cup Noshirogata won in a "prizematch" sumo tournament in 1926.