 He reached the "sekitori" level in November 1975 upon promotion to the second highest "jūryō" division and in January 1977 he made his debut in the top "makuuchi" division.He got as far as "sekiwake" before suffering a severe injury to his left knee joint which forced him to miss several tournaments and plunge all the way down to the unsalaried "makushita" division.He made his way back to the top division in just one year.