Wakanami
| Wakanami Jun | |
|---|---|
| 若浪 順 | |
| Personal information | |
| Born | Jun Tomiyama March 1, 1941 Ibaraki, Japan |
| Died | April 17, 2007 (aged 66) |
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
| Weight | 103 kg (227 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Tatsunami |
| Record | 568-557-20 |
| Debut | March, 1957 |
| Highest rank | Komusubi (July, 1964) |
| Retired | March, 1972 |
| Championships | 1 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō) 2 (Makushita) |
| Special Prizes | Fighting Spirit (2) Technique(2) |
| Gold Stars | 3 Kashiwado Kitanofuji |
| * Up to date as of July 2007. | |
Wakanami Jun (born Jun Tomiyama, 1 March 1941 - 17 April 2007) was a sumo wrestler from Iwai, Ibaraki, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. He won a top division tournament championship in March 1968. He was also a sumo coach.
He joined the Tatsunami stable in March 1957 and reached the top makuuchi division in May 1963. He was small, at just 178 cm and 103 kg, but he was very popular with sumo fans. In July 1964 he reached his highest rank of komusubi, which he was to hold on three occasions with a combined record of only 10 wins against 35 losses. He was runner-up to Kashiwado in the July 1967 tournament.
In March 1968, ranked as a maegashira, he won the championship (yūshō) in the top division with a 13-2 record, finishing ahead of ōzeki Yutakayama and Tamanoshima. Yokozuna Taihō was out through injury and Sadanoyama announced his retirement, and Wakanami did not have to face anyone ranked higher than sekiwake during the tournament. It was not a popular victory, as the public had wanted the well-liked Yutakayama to finally win his first yūshō (which he never managed to achieve), and it led to demands that low ranking maegashira challenging for the yūshō be matched against all the other contenders in the crucial final days of the tournament, now a standard practice. He was promoted to komusubi for the following tournament but could manage only two wins there.
He fought in the makuuchi division for 52 tournaments in total. He won four special prizes, two for Fighting Spirit and two for Technique. He earned three kinboshi or gold stars for defeating yokozuna. He fell briefly to the jūryō division in 1969 and won the second division championship, becoming the first wrestler to do this after winning the top division championship. He retired in March 1972.
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