Terunofuji’s lifting of the Emperor’s Cup in the just-finished July tournament completed what may be the most unlikely comeback in the history of sumo.
It’s not so long ago that former ozeki who faced demotion from the sport’s top tier generally opted to retire rather than suffer the ignominy of toiling away in a lower division, while the notion of keeping going after dropping to the unsalaried ranks was something not even worth considering.
Terunofuji though not only fell out of the paid divisions, after a series of injuries and illnesses, but plummeted all the way down to sumo’s second lowest tier.