ETERNAL TERAO

Terao's Marriage to Izumi Tanaka

Below is the article written by Lora Sharnoff in the Off the Dohyo column of Sumo World magazine.

Yokozuna Takanohana is not the only one in the sumo world to have fallen recently for a woman eight years older than himself. Not long before the Haru Basho, popular maegashira (and sometime sekiwake) Terao revealed that he secretly got married last year to 40-year-old Izumi Tanaka, a former clothign designer. The couple have a baby boy named Seiya, and Izumi also has an 18-year old child from a previous liaison.

According to Terao, he met Izumi about seven years ago at a mutual acquaintance's wedding. Although he was told her age at their first encounter, she seemed so youthful that the eight-year difference never made muh of an impression on him. Over the years, Izumi proved to be a source of comfort when he was feeling down, and he eventually fell in love with her.

It is interesting that the only lower-ranked opponent to beat Takanohana in the Haru Basho also chose a bride of the same age difference. And, of course, like Takanohana, Terao is the ''baby'' of a noted sumo family. Another interesting coincidence is that marriages to older women seem to run both in Tahanohana's Hanada family and Terao's Izitsu Beya.

Takanohana's mother, Noriko, is three years older than his father Futagoyama Oyaka (ex-ozeki Takanohana) while his brother, Ozeki Wakanohana, last year married a former JAL stewardess, Meiko, two years his senior. Another current Futagoyama Beya rikishi with an an older wife is Misugsato, whose wife Yumi is four years his senior.

Terao's Izitsu Bey stablemate, former ozeki Kirishima, is married to a woman three years older than he. Similar to Terao's case the marriage was not revealed until after the couple had a baby. Moreover, Terao's older brother, ex-sekiwake Sakahoko, announced at a party in February to celebrate the news his new role as stablemaster of Izitsu Beya that he has a wife, ANri, two years his senior, and a seven-year-old daughter named Sayaka.

Other past and present rikishi with older wives include Kushimaumi, who'se wife Ayaho is seven years his senior, Tomonohana (one year older), Kotobeppo (three years), Kotofuji (one year), and Musashigawa Oyaka /ex-yokozuna Mienoumi (two years). In addition, 26-year-old Asahuyutaka is scheduled to wed Tatsonami Oyakata's 31year old daughter later this year.

Older wives have been fairly common among professonal baseball players in Japan for quite some tim Given the fact that women tend to live longer, this phenoneon may only a a natural course. However, some public figures with older wicves recently interviewed by the Japanese weekly, Shukan Shincho generally concurred that such women are apt to be more attentive to their partners, which makes them particularly suitable for men in high-presssure jobs like sumo and pro baseball.

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