Hahuko now stands alone.

The Mongolian-born yokozuna capped a historic fortnight Sunday by finishing the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament undefeated and winning his 33rd career championship, the most in the nearly 270 years of sumo’s recorded history.

The 29-year-old eclipsed the previous record of 32 held by Taiho, the legendary 1960s yokozuna widely regarded as the greatest champion of the post-war period.

Hakuho’s victory over Kakuryu at Tokyo’s Ryougoku Sumo Hall sealed his 11th undefeated championship (zensho-yusho), also a record.

It didn’t come easy. Initally unable to lock his favored right-handed grip on his opponent’s belt, Hakuho overcame a stalemate and drove him from the ring to win by yorikiri, one of sumo’s most common techniques.



“My plan now is to relax and take things slowly,” Hakuho told the Asahi Shimbun. “I might have surpassed Taiho numerically, but mentally I still have a long way to go.”

All of Hakuho’s 33 titles have come in the 51 tournaments since May 2006. No other competitor has won more than 10 yusho, or championships, during that span.

The 6ft 3in, 352lb yokozuna had in fact clinched the record-breaking title on Friday with a victory over Kisenosato, the highest-ranked wrestler of Japanese descent in sumo’s top division — of no minor symbolic value given the trend of foreign dominence in recent years.

The match was too close to call with both wrestlers spilling from the ring simultaneously. Officials ordered a rematch and Hakuho won by oshidashi, clinching the title and the all-time record with two days to spare.



Hakuho’s win over Kisenosato on day 13 clinched his record-breaking championship.

That win lifted Hakuko’s record to an insumountable 13-0 for the tournament — where competitors wrestle once daily and the best record after 15 days wins — with both his nearest competitors having fallen to 10-3.

“It wasn’t easy,” he said.



Hakuho had equalled Taiho’s all-time record at the November basho — sumo’s grand tournaments are held every two months throughout the year in the odd-numbered months — and he’d been favored to eclipse the mark after winning five of six tournaments in 2014.

Yet Sunday’s march into history wasn’t always such a foregone conclusion.



When he arrived in Japan from Mongolia in 2000, Hakuho — born Mönkhbatyn Davaajargal — was 15 and weighed less than 140lb. Given his late start and modest size, no training stable was eager to accept him. Even after he was chosen by the Miyagino stable on his final day in Japan, the ascent to stardom was hardly immediate.

Then a 2003 growth spurt of two inches and 75lb sparked his steady climb up sumo’s Confucian hierarchy of ranks. In 2007, he became just the 69th man in the history of Japan’s ancient sport — and only the fourth foreigner — to earn the rank of yokozuna.



He’s also managed to help restore the profile of an institution racked by controversy in recent years, including illegal gambling by wrestlers on baseball games and, worse, a 2011 match-fixing scandal with ties to Japan’s criminal underworld.



“At a time when trust in sumo was plumbing the depths, the achievements of Hakuho, who propped up the sport as the lone yokozuna, are significant,” a Yomiuri Shimbun editorial read this week. “The latest tournament has been sold out each day, and the Emperor and Empress also came to watch. Sumo’s popularity is certainly recovering.”



At 29 and still considered prime, Hakuko is widely expected to add to a record that had previously stood for 44 years.



“Nobody can touch Hakuho, so it’s only natural that he win by a good margin,” said Japan Sumo Association chairman Kitanoumi told the Japan Times.

“Hakuho is not a yokozuna who is at the end of the road. I’d like to see him go for 40 titles. If he keeps going the way he is, that’s a possibility.”