 He became the fifth oldest wrestler post World War II to earn promotion to "sekiwake" at 35 years, 5 months.He was demoted from "sekiwake" after the November 2017 tournament, but back in the "maegashira" ranks in January 2018 he defeated two "yokozuna" on consecutive days – Hakuhō on Day 4 and Kisenosato on Day 5.After having surgery on a knee injury in June 2019, he announced that he would miss the July 2019 tournament, resulting in a fall to "jūryō" for the first time since 2007.