 He won his first "makuuchi" tournament or "yūshō" in November 1975 and was promoted to "ōzeki" the following January.He lost a majority of bouts in the next two tournaments, resulting in an automatic demotion back to "sekiwake", but a good result of 10 wins to 5 losses in the next tournament was sufficient to restore him to "ōzeki".In May 1979 he was a runner-up for the fourth time, to Wakanohana with a 13–2 record.