Career
His highest rank was komusubi. During the 1990s he was one of the most popular wrestlers in sumo due to his wide variety of techniques and great fighting spirit in battling opponents nearly twice his size. Mainoumi initially failed the Sumo Association"s physical entrance exam, because he was too short to meet their height requirement, which at that time was 173 cm.
He got round this by persuading a doctor to inject silicone into his scalp, giving him the necessary couple of centimetres.
To prevent any future hopefuls from having to go through this painful procedure, the Sumo Association changed its rules to allow special dispensation for amateur champions who do not meet the height requirements. Mainoumi made his professional debut in May 1990 in the third makushita division and reached jūryō in March 1991.
He was forced to sit out the rest of that tournament and all of the next, dropping to the jūryō division. He returned to the top division in May 1997 but since his injury he had lost some of his speed and he was finding it more difficult to hold his own.
In March 1998 he fell back to jūryō once again, where he remained until his retirement from sumo in November 1999.
Mainoumi had such an extensive knowledge of sumo techniques that he was nicknamed Waza no Depaato, or the Department Store of Techniques. He used up to 33 different kimarite during his career. In November 1991 he defeated the 204 cm, 200 kg wrestler Akebono by mitokorozeme, a "triple attack force out", which involves simultaneously tripping one leg, grabbing the other, and pushing with the head into the opponent"s chest to force him down backwards.
Before Mainoumi, no wrestler had used this technique in the modern era.
Mainoumi also had a very unusual tachi-ai, and was the first to introduce the tactic of nekodamashi, of clapping of the hands in front of the opponent"s face to distract him at the initial charge. Mainoumi chose not to stay in sumo as a coach after retiring from the ring, a decision that caused some disquiet in the Sumo Association at a time when the sport"s popularity was at a low ebb.
Instead he launched a new career as a television personality. He can still be heard commentating on Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai"s sumo broadcasts.
He appeared in 2005 Hollywood film Memoirs of a Geisha as a sumo wrestler, credited as Shuhei Nagao, his real name.
Mainoumi was married in May 1997, to a nightclub manager with two children from a previous marriage.