Kotonowaka Terumasa

I have a real soft spot for sumo guys, and Kotonowaka is exactly the kind I gravitate toward. Picture it: a kid from Obanazawa up in snow-buried Yamagata, packing nothing but his own body off to the dohyo to make a life of it, and honestly that origin story alone gets me. Born in 1968, so by the time you really clock him he's not some fresh-faced upstart but a guy who's tasted the bitter and the sweet of it. What I love about sumo isn't the flashy throws anyway, it's that hush before the clash, the salt, the stomp, two men just staring each other down. I read that patience and stubborn grip as pure Tohoku, the kind of grit you only get from growing up where the winters don't mess around. The sort of wrestler who makes you sit up a little straighter watching.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kotonowaka Terumasa is a Japanese former sumo wrestler born on May 15, 1968, in Obanazawa, Yamagata Prefecture. He made his professional debut in 1984, reached the top makuuchi division in 1990 and stayed there until retiring in 2005, with a highest rank of sekiwake; he then took over Sadogatake stable as its head.

Name (English)

Kotonowaka Terumasa

Name (Japanese)

琴ノ若晴將

Reading

ことのわか てるまさ

Real name

鎌谷満也

Born

May 15, 1968 (age 58)

Origin

Obanazawa, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Sumo wrestler

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Monkey

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%90%B4%E3%83%8E%E8%8B%A5%E6%99%B4%E5%B0%87
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1531859

Tags

• From Yamagata Prefecture
• Sumo wrestler

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.