For roughly half a century, Nihon University not only had the most dominant program in collegiate sumo, but it also exercised an outsize?influence on the professional version of the sport.

Prior to the recent ascent of Onosato, Nihon could lay claim to being the only university ever to have produced a wrestler who reached the rank of yokozuna in ¨­³ú³Ü³¾¨­.

That was Wajima ¡ª a dominant force in both versions of sumo ¡ª who won back to back college national championships in the late 1960s, and lifted the Emperor¡¯s Cup 14 times after turning pro.