Known for his great fighting spirit, he won 14 tournament prizes, including a record ten Kantō-shō, and earned nine gold stars for defeating yokozuna ranked wrestlers.
He retired in 2002 and became the head coach of Ōtake stable, having married the daughter of the previous owner of the heya, the great yokozuna Taihō.
[1] Initially fighting under his own surname of Kamakari, he rose up the ranks rather slowly, finally becoming a sekitori in May 1989 after six years in the unsalaried divisions.
He won eleven bouts and the Fighting spirit prize in his top division debut, and in his next tournament he defeated his first yokozuna, Ōnokuni.
[2] This win was considered a great upset as two poor performances had sent him down to maegashira 14 in the rankings, and Takatōriki faced demotion from makuuchi altogether.
He employed nichonage, the body drop down, on three occasions in makuuchi, and once pulled off the spectacular amiuchi, or fisherman's net casting throw.
Along with five other oyakata (Magaki, Ōnomatsu, Otowayama, Tokiwayama and Futagoyama), he was forced to leave the Nishonoseki ichimon or group of stables in January 2010 after declaring his support for his former stablemate Takanohana's unsanctioned bid to be elected to the board of directors of the Sumo Association.
[6] In June 2010 he admitted that he had been gambling illegally on baseball, after an investigation by the Sumo Association and Tokyo police prompted by articles in the tabloid weekly Shukan Shincho.
In March 2011 prosecutors announced that Ōtake, as well as Kotomitsuki and 25 others involved in the scandal, would be spared indictment over gambling due to lack of implicating evidence.
Afterwards, he announced he would be debuting soon in the professional wrestling circuit, and that he would challenge his old sumo enemy and fellow pro wrestler Akebono in the future.
[16] On April 16, 2014 Takatoriki debuted for RJPW, teaming up with Minoru Suzuki to defeat Jadogun (Atsushi Onita and Ichiro Yaguchi).
He would later appear in 2015 for Legend Pro Wrestling, teaming up with Riki Choshu and Tiger Mask to defeat again Jadogun, now including Hideki Hosaka.
Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi