Complete List of Yokozuna: All 75 Grand Champions in Sumo History

🎋 What Makes Someone a Yokozuna?

Yokozuna is not simply the top of the ranking ladder. Every other rank in sumo — including ōzeki, the second-highest — rises and falls with results. A yokozuna is never demoted: he is expected to keep winning at the highest level, and when he no longer can, to retire. That is why so many yokozuna careers end in long injury absences rather than in a slide down the banzuke.

Promotion normally requires two consecutive top-division championships (yusho) as an ōzeki, or a performance the Japan Sumo Association judges to be equivalent. The Yokozuna Deliberation Council then makes a recommendation, weighing not only results but hinkaku — the dignity, conduct and bearing expected of the rank.

The name means "horizontal rope": the white tsuna worn at the ring-entering ceremony (dohyō-iri). It is tied in one of two styles, Unryū (one loop at the back) or Shiranui (two loops), named after the 10th and 11th yokozuna. The Style column in the full table below shows which each modern yokozuna chose.

For the ranks below yokozuna see sumo ranks explained, and for the basics of a tournament see how sumo works.

🏯 Edo Period Yokozuna (1st–12th, 1600s–1867)

The earliest yokozuna belong to a period before any central sumo association existed. The title was a licence granted by the Yoshida Tsukasa family of referees, and the first two names on the list are known mainly from legend. The first licences that are documented beyond doubt went to Tanikaze and Onogawa in 1789 (both are listed as promoted that year).

🌸 Meiji Period Yokozuna (13th–22nd, 1868–1912)

Sumo lost its samurai patrons after the Meiji Restoration and rebuilt itself as a national spectacle. The two rope-tying styles still used at every yokozuna ring-entering ceremony today take their names from the 10th and 11th yokozuna, Unryū and Shiranui, who straddle the end of the previous era.

🎎 Taishō Period Yokozuna (23rd–31st, 1912–1926)

This generation saw the Tokyo and Osaka sumo bodies merge into the Japan Sumo Association (1925). Three of these nine champions came from the Dewanoumi stable, which produced more yokozuna than any other stable in history.

⛩️ Pre-War and Wartime Shōwa Yokozuna (32nd–38th, 1926–1945)

The headline name here is Futabayama (35th), whose 69-bout winning streak set between 1936 and 1939 is still the all-time record. Tournaments were disrupted during the war years, which is why several champions of this group have short tenures and small title counts.

🎌 Post-War Shōwa Yokozuna (39th–62nd, 1945–1989)

The television age produced sumo's first modern superstars: the Tochinishiki–Wakanohana rivalry of the 1950s, Taihō's 32 championships in the 1960s, Kitanoumi's 24 in the 1970s and Chiyonofuji's 31 in the 1980s. Note that the Futagoyama stable listed for the 56th, 59th, 65th and 66th yokozuna is the old Futagoyama stable (founded by the 45th yokozuna, Wakanohana I, after his retirement) — not the current Futagoyama stable founded in 2018 that this site follows.

🌊 Heisei Period Yokozuna (63rd–72nd, 1989–2019)

The Heisei era opened the rank to wrestlers born outside Japan: Akebono (64th, 1993) was the first foreign-born yokozuna, Asashōryū (68th, 2003) the first Mongolian, and Hakuhō (69th) went on to set the all-time record of 45 championships. Kisenosato (72nd, 2017) was the first Japanese-born promotion since Wakanohana in 1998.

🌸 Reiwa Period Yokozuna (73rd–75th, 2019–present)

Terunofuji (73rd) rebuilt his career from the lower divisions after injury, reached the rope in 2021 and retired in January 2025. The two active yokozuna as of the September 2026 Aki Basho are Hōshōryū (74th) and Ōnosato (75th). Ōnosato, ranked East Yokozuna that tournament, won it at 12–3 for his sixth title; Hōshōryū (West) sat out the entire tournament.

📊 Complete Yokozuna Reference Table (1st–75th)

All 75 yokozuna in official order. "Titles" counts top-division championships; figures before 1909 are unofficial. † marks a yokozuna who died while still holding the rank. "unknown" means the standard records do not give a reliable value.

📈 Patterns: What the Full List Shows

Most top-division championships (since the yusho system began in 1909)

Where yokozuna come from

67 of the 75 were born in Japan. The rank was first held by a wrestler born abroad in 1993 (Akebono, Hawaii); since then 2 Hawaiian-born and 6 Mongolian-born wrestlers have reached it. Between Wakanohana's promotion in 1998 and Kisenosato's in 2017, no Japanese-born wrestler was promoted at all — a 19-year gap that explains the celebration around Kisenosato and, later, Ōnosato.

Stables that have produced the most yokozuna

• Dewanoumi — 9 yokozuna
• Takasago — 6 yokozuna
• Tatsunami — 4 yokozuna
• Futagoyama — 4 yokozuna
• Sadogatake — 3 yokozuna

Stable names are listed as they were at the time of promotion; some stables have since closed or merged.

Short reigns are common

1 yokozuna retired without a title (Futahaguro, 60th), and 7 others managed only one. 6 yokozuna died while still holding the rank (marked † in the table), the most recent being Tamanoumi (51st) in 1971. Of the 75, 2 are active today.

🧭 Common Misconceptions

"A yokozuna who loses gets demoted." No. Yokozuna is the one rank that cannot be lost; a struggling yokozuna withdraws from tournaments or retires instead.

"Every yokozuna was a dominant champion." Not quite. The list includes one yokozuna with zero titles and several with only one, alongside Hakuhō's 45.

"Taihō was the 64th yokozuna" / "Akebono was the 62nd." Ordinal numbers are often misquoted online. In the official numbering Taihō is 48th, Akebono 64th, Asashōryū 68th and Hakuhō 69th — see the table above.

"Yokozuna is a rank you earn with a single great tournament." The working standard is two consecutive championships as an ōzeki (or an equivalent run of results), judged together with conduct by the Yokozuna Deliberation Council.

🔗 Related Articles

• Ōnosato — 75th Yokozuna profile
• Hōshōryū — 74th Yokozuna profile
• Hakuhō — the record-holder with 45 championships
• Most Sumo Championships in History
• Best Sumo Wrestlers of All Time
• Sumo Ranks Explained
• Live scores and standings for the current tournament