Yokozuna Takanohana has finally bowed out of the dohyo. Looking back over his active career, he certainly made spectacular achievements. There can be no objections to his being described as one of the all-time great grand champions of sumo.

Takanohana set new records one after another, including being the youngest sekiwake, the youngest sumo wrestler to make the first grade and the youngest wrestler to win a tournament. He and his elder brother Wakanohana, also a sumo wrestler, created a sensation. Brought up in a sumo family, their skills and personalities attracted enormous -- and some might even say excessive -- attention. In what became known as the "Waka-Taka age," the popularity of sumo soared.

Devoted to pursuing the way of sumo, Takanohana eventually stopped listening to outside opinions. In the current tournament, he took the extraordinary step, for a yokozuna, of trying to make a comeback after already once dropping out of the tournament with an injury. The conventional wisdom in sumo is that a wrestler who has reached the top echelon has only one choice in a situation where he cannot compete to the best of his abilities -- to pull out. Unlike other yokozuna, however, Takanohana took a very different course.