Hitachiyama Taniemon (常陸山 谷右衞門, January 19, 1874 – June 19, 1922) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture.

His great rivalry with Umegatani Tōtarō II created the "Ume-Hitachi Era" and did much to popularise sumo.

[1] Hitachiyama was born as Ichige Tani (市毛 谷), on January 19, 1874, to a samurai family which belonged to the Mito Domain.

However, he fell in love with his head coach's niece; and when he was refused permission to wed her, he ran away from Tokyo sumo in the summer of 1894.

[3] However, he was determined to see sumo held in higher regard within Japanese society, a task he saw as more important than merely winning bouts.

Although absent from the January 1908 tournament due to the journey, nobody criticized Hitachiyama as he was seen as a visionary and a pioneer for sumo.

[3] After his return from the long journey he was not quite as dominant as he had been before, although he still managed to win a title in the first Ryōgoku Kokugikan, which opened in 1909 and which he had helped to build.

In the course of his career, he would have the best record in 8 tournaments, but only his last one is counted as an actual championship after the system was established in 1909 After his retirement in May 1914, he became the stablemaster of Dewanoumi stable.

[6] He had such charisma and personality that he was able to tempt many wrestlers away from the less successful Osaka and Kyoto based sumo associations, which caused friction between the rival organisations.

[7] As head coach he produced many top division wrestlers, including no fewer than three yokozuna: Ōnishiki Uichirō, Tochigiyama Moriya and Tsunenohana Kan'ichi.