Because his hometown is located in an island, he became fisherman and wrestled as an amateur sumo wrestler, serving as a local ōzeki.

[3] Shortly after his promotion to the jūryō division, he received the shikona, or ring name, Itsutsushima with the character 五, meaning five, borrowed from his native islands' name (五島列島).

Since he was relegated back to the rank of sekiwake, he lost his motivation to continue fighting and left the Japan Sumo Association.

In his autobiography, Ōzeki Masuiyama I mentions Itsutsushima as a caring mentor during the period when their respective careers overlapped.

Itsutsushima's name is engraved in the Chikara-zuka (力塚, 'power mound') monument, built in 1937 in the Ekō-in Temple's precincts by the Sumo Association as a memorial to past wrestlers.

The keshō-mawashi depicts Zhong Kui and had been presented to him on the occasion of his promotion to ōzeki by supporters of the village of Narao.