Of the four ranks in sumo¡¯s top division, komusubi is the one at which a rikishi is least likely to win a championship.

Since the advent of the six-tournament system in 1958, yokozuna have lifted the Emperor¡¯s Cup on 294 occasions, ozeki have won 84 titles, sekiwake have emerged victorious 19 times, while komusubi have won just five tournaments.

Although becoming a champion as a maegashira is much easier than as a komusubi, managing that feat a second time is exponentially less likely, with just one man in history having achieved it so far.

Kotonishiki¡¯s two championships are more than those of one yokozuna (Futahaguro) and numerous ozeki.

Indeed, not a single one of the last nine men promoted to the latter rank has managed to win a second title (or in Takayasu¡¯s case a first.)

Kotonishiki took his first Emperor¡¯s Cup in 1991 as a No. 5 maegashira. Both yokozuna pulled out of that tournament, but he fought the six-highest remaining men in the rankings, and went 13-2 overall, only losing to the Hanada brothers ¡ª both of whom would later become yokozuna.

Seven years later Kotonishiki (literally) went one better with a 14-1 record and split the Hanada series against the (by now) yokozuna pair of Wakanohana and Takanohana.

Those two championships weren¡¯t Kotonishiki¡¯s only achievements, however.

Although not a big rikishi, his high-speed pushing style (nicknamed F1 sumo) helped him to four runner-up performances, eight wins over yokozuna and an incredible 18 special prizes over the course of his 16-year career.

After retirement Kotonishiki had trouble finding a permanent name share and was forced to borrow and use seven different elder names until he finally gained ownership over the Asahiyama stock and opened a stable under the same name in 2016.