He was a runner-up in two top division (makuuchi) tournaments, finishing three wins behind Tamanoshima in May 1968 and losing a playoff to ozeki Kiyokuni in July 1969.
In just his third top division tournament March 1967 he defeated a yokozuna, earning his first kinboshi, won two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Technique, and scored 12 wins against three losses.
[1] On the sixth day of the July 1971 he suffered an injury to his left leg in a match with Yoshinohana, which led to him withdrawing from the tournament and being demoted to the juryo division.
[3] He apologized to Japan's vice sports minister Kenshiro Matsunami on behalf of the Sumo Association over the case of Jun'ichi Yamamoto in February 2008.
He was responsible for developing in 2011 questionnaires to assess the wrestlers' fighting spirit that are handed out to the public on tournament match days.
Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi