He born in Edogawa, Tokyo, and is a third generation Korean-Japanese. He was a teammate of Takanohana at the Meidai Nakano High School's sumo club. He was also a former amateur sumo champion at Meiji University, and was considered extremely promising. He came third in the All Japan Sumo Championships. He made his professional debut in March 1997 at the bottom of the third "makushita" division. He was a runner-up in his first tournament but had a few setbacks before finally reaching the second highest "jūryō" division in September 1999.