Uppon promotion to komusubi in 1824, he changed his ring name to , meaning "lightning bolt" in Japanese. He reached the highest rank of ōzeki on ability alone, after only 6 tournaments (some ōzeki of the period were merely given the rank because of their size or status). Ōnomatsu is said to have been his rival and their competition established the golden age of sumo in the late Edo period.In 1828, the  offered him a yokozuna license and two years later he received one from the Yoshida family, and thus has been accepted as an official yokozuna.
If the former is correct, he was the youngest yokozuna until the promotion of Umegatani Tōtarō II in 1903. The details of his younger days are unclear. He entered the Sadogatake stable in 1821, under the shikona, or ring name, .