 He was awarded his tenth Fighting Spirit Prize (two ahead of his nearest rival, stablemate Akinoshima) and third Outstanding Performance Award, and was promoted to a "san'yaku" rank for the final time for the May 2000 tournament.In total he spent 15 tournaments at "sekiwake" and 11 at "komusubi".Takatōriki fell into the "jūryō" division in 2001 and announced his retirement in September 2002.