His body frame was far beyond one of any Japanese during his childhood. At 12 years old, his weight already reached to 100kgs(220lbs), which is far over the average weight of an adult male (approx. 65kgs(143lbs)). In taking advantage of his big body, he made a full-fledged start in sumo during high school, and became the youngest amateur sumo champion(first ever in record as a high school student). 28 individual victories is the most wins of any amateur wrestler and it still remains unbeaten. His weight at that time was over 180kgs(397lbs).

When he was a professional, he was the top 5 biggest sumo wrestlers, and attracted many sumo fans. Retiring in 1998, he has been buckling to train younger sumo wrestlers as the stable master of Tagonoura Stable (Nihon Sumo Kyokai as Japan Sumo Association)

His weight even after retiring remained almost the same as when he was a professional, it was the heaviest ever - 205kgs(453lbs)

Even though he was advised of his obesity by his doctor, he still could not reduce his eating because he had a bad eating habit during his childhood.

However, starting from cardiac infarction problems which he had developed because of obesity and stress in 2003, he decided to lose his weight and tried his first diet ever in his life.

Along with his wife, he implemented a diet centered on meals. During the process of trial and error, they found their unique method of "diet with eating".

After the result of their practices for about two years, he restored his health and succeeded in his shedding of 70kgs(155lbs) by diet. His weight had always increased, but never decreased until he started dieting. It was reduced from 205kgs(453lbs) to 127kgs(280lbs), and is still continuing steadily.

Wife : Ayako Kushima She is in charge of recipes for "sumo wrestler's diet", supports with setting up the menus and cooking methods subject to the diet with "eating". She establishes the diet knowledge as a support representative, how people around such as family and friends support will depend on the people who are on a diet to make it successful.