 He was one of the few high ranking sumo wrestlers from Shizuoka Prefecture, which has not supplied nearly as many new entrants as the colder northern parts of Japan such as Aomori and Hokkaidō.When he reached the top division in 2002 he was the first wrestler from Shizuoka Prefecture to do so since Katsunishiki, who spent just one tournament in "makuuchi" in January 1976.