Sumo is an extremely physical sport with injury an ever-present risk for its participants.
Blown-out knees or other wrecked joints have stymied many promising careers.
Anyone who manages to survive for 10 years has likely overcome serious injury at some point. Sticking around for a full two decades is practically a miraculous achievement, especially if the bulk of that time is in the top division.
When the rikishi is very small or light and has to enduring a daily hammering from much larger opponents both in tournaments and in training, the likelihood of a long career in sumo isn¡¯t high.
Terao was one of the few who defied those odds.
Hailing from of one of the great sumo families, the Tokyo native fought for 23 years and reached sumo¡¯s third-highest rank (sekiwake) before retiring in 2002 and opening Shikoroyama stable. He is still stablemaster there with his most famous current rikishi being Abi.
Terao¡¯s brother and father were also sekiwake who ran their own stablesm, with the former recruiting and coaching yokozuna Kakuryu until his recent passing.
A third brother was also a rikishi, and several other members of his family tree (by both blood and marriage) had sumo connections.
Terao had a ferocious trusting style that earned him the nickname ¡°The Typhoon.¡±
He was also considered to be extremely handsome and as a result was one of the more popular rikishi of his era.
Terao was never a title threat ¡ª ten wins in the July tournaments of 1985 and 1989 were the only times he reached double digits in the top division ¡ª but he was often a difficult opponent for the top-rankers in individual bouts and downed yokozuna seven times in his career.
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