Hokutōriki managed only a 3-12 record in his "sekiwake" debut and never managed a return to the "san'yaku" ranks, instead bouncing up and down the "maegashira" ranks. He is one of the few wrestlers (along with Kotetsuyama and Hayateumi) whose only tournament in "san'yaku" was at "sekiwake" rather than "komusubi." He won another Fighting Spirit Award for his twelve wins from "maegashira" 11 in January 2006, but in November of that year he pulled out of the tournament on the ninth day with no wins at all and was relegated to the "jūryō" division. However, a 9-6 record at "jūryō" 4 in March 2007 was good enough to earn promotion back to the top division for the May 2007 tournament. Although he remained in "makuuchi" he did not manage to defeat a "yokozuna" again and had several disastrous openings to tournaments, going 0-10 in July 2008 from "maegashira" 2 and 0-12 in March 2009 from "maegashira" 1. In May 2009 another poor record of 4-11 saw him demoted to "jūryō" for the second time. However, an 11-4 score there returned him immediately to the top division.