With the retirement of former ozeki Tochinoshin this week, the curtain has fallen on 22 years of Georgian involvement in professional sumo.

A native of Mtskheta — the oldest continuously inhabited European city outside of Greece and Cyprus — Tochinoshin (real name Levan Gorgadze) was the youngest and most successful of the four Georgian rikishi that joined ōzumo between 2001 and 2006.

Although Gorgadze initially struggled to find a stable willing to give him a shot, the former junior world medalist quickly rose up the ranks once he made it into the professional game.

It took the Kasugano stable man just two years to reach the top division following his debut in the sport.

Tochinoshin’s greatest successes, however, came in the second half of his career — after injury-enforced absences had previously dropped him back down into the unsalaried ranks.

The high point of his 102-tournament run in Japan’s national sport was undoubtedly a five month spell from the start of 2018, when a maiden championship and five special prizes helped propel the veteran to sumo’s second-highest rank.

While his tenure at ozeki wasn’t as long as Kotooshu or Baruto — the only other Europeans to reach that rank and lift the Emperor’s Cup — Tochinoshin retires as the continent’s all-time most decorated wrestler.

In addition to his 14-1 championship in January 2018, Tochinoshin’s resume contains 11 career special prizes, two gold stars, and four runner-up performances.

He also won the second tier jūryō division on three occasions, and is one of only five men to have done so with a perfect 15-0 record.

While Tochinoshin may be the most successful Georgian ever in professional sumo, his country has had a high hit rate overall in the sport.

Gagamaru and Kokkai both reached komusubi, sumo’s fourth-highest rank, while the latter man’s promising younger brother Tsukasaumi was on a similar track, before the sudden death of their father forced him to return home to help care for their mother.

With a strong amateur sumo scene and a solid track record at international tournaments, it’s somewhat surprising that no other Georgian has been able to find a slot in professional sumo in the 17 years since Tochinoshin made his debut.

Zaza Balashvili perhaps came the closest in 2012, with the Tbilisi native spending several weeks in Tokyo showcasing his skills at various stables.

Unfortunately, the 2008 junior world championship gold medalist was already past the age when most stablemasters are comfortable taking on a raw foreign recruit, and, despite an impressive physique, it was clear he’d fallen well behind Osunaarashi — the man he had beaten to claim gold four years earlier in Estonia.

A dearth of new hopefuls isn’t just a Georgian issue, though.

While Mongolian domination was already well underway in the early part of the new millennium, European sumo was also riding high.

In addition to the Georgians, rikishi from Bulgaria, Estonia, the Czech Republic and the Ossetia region of Russia were enjoying success in Japan’s national sport.

Two decades later and Bulgarian Aoiyama, the soon-to-be 37-year-old stablemate of Tochinoshin, is the sole European left in sumo’s top two divisions.

Ukrakian Shishi, who is knocking on the door of promotion to jūryō, is currently the only other rikishi from west of the Ural mountains competing in professional sumo — though a countrymate has been accepted into Ajigawa stable and will make his official debut in the next few months.

These days it’s increasingly difficult for Europeans, or indeed wrestlers from any of sumo’s former international recruiting grounds, to gain a toehold in a sport whose limited foreign slots are monopolized by Mongolian-born fighters — many of whom came through Japan’s underage amateur system.

It’s a fact that makes Tochinoshin’s decision not to pursue Japanese nationality and stay in the sport an even bigger loss.

In addition to being a fan favorite and a well-liked rikishi inside the sport, Tochinoshin’s presence ensured sumo’s continued popularity in the Caucasus region.

Had he followed fellow former European ozeki Kotooshu and become an elder and eventually a stablemaster, it would have also ensured a greater diversity of life experience and viewpoints among sumo’s decision makers.

Dealing with a rapidly changing sporting landscape and the needs of international fans is something that sumo has continued to struggle with, so losing one of its few young non-Japanese or Mongolian members is a blow to hopes for greater understanding and adaptability in the future.

One glimmer of hope, though, is the fact that the 2023 World Championships will be held in Tokyo in just over six months’ time.

At the same event in Osaka in 2005, a young Georgian man by the name of Levan Gorgadze was desperately asking everyone present for help in getting into professional sumo.

Following the meet, the future ozeki stayed in Japan, training at university clubs and hammering on doors until he eventually found a stable willing to take him in.

In a time when potential rikishi from other countries find it difficult to even get a reply from sumo stables, being physically present in the sport’s home city later this year will be a massive help.

Whether or not there is another Tochinoshin already making plans for a similar push following October’s meet in Tachikawa isn’t known, but in a sport that lacks the international flavor of the mid-2000s — and is about to lose one of its few remaining Europeans — it would only be a positive development.