his personal assurance was good enough to secure a loan to cover all of the construction costs.

Otojiro, now Oe following his adoption, was still too young to compete when he joined Ozumo.   However, around this time, Ikazuchi Oyakata, recognizing Otojiro’s raw talent and natural ability, decided to put him through what may have been Ozumo's very first elite sumo training course by assigning him an exclusive personal trainer in the shape of komusubi Onigatani.  Otojiro not only had a genuine sumo ability and sense, but he was also a very dedicated student who soon started to show great promise.

In March 1892, Otojiro made his dohyo debut under the shikona of Umenotani Otomatsu in the jonokuchi ranks. He progressed to jonidan in January 1894, and to sandanme in May of the same year. It took some time for him to get comfortable with his success, but, finally, in January 1896, he made his makushita debut. As a makushita rikishi, during jungyo tours at the time he became such a popular figure that he was frequently asked to do a dohyo-iri by himself.

Umenotani rose through the higher ranks quickly in the succeeding years, making his juryo debut in January 1897.

Two bashos later, in January 1898 (at the time only 2 bashos were held most years) at the age of 20, he rose to makuuchi.  Once in makuuchi, Umenotani showed his true worth by going on to defeat Yokozuna Konishiki in his maku debut basho.  (Konishiki would come to dread facing Umegatani as he never beat the Toyama native despite having four chances to do so) At the following May 1898 basho, Umegatani proceeded to a  7 win, 1 loss and 1 draw record - equivalent to the yusho - and was promoted first to komusubi in January 1899 and to sekiwake in May of 1899.  By this time he was widely viewed as the next rikishi capable of carrying Ozumo to new heights of popularity but, despite achieving a kachikoshi as a sekiwake in May 1899, he was demoted to komusubi for the January 1900 tournament. He did not let this deter his ambitions though and earned a record good enough to secure promotion to ozeki after the next basho at the age of 22.

In the meantime, his career long rival Hitachiyama had also been building up his strength and making a name for himself as another great hope for Ozumo. Hitachiyama faced Umenotani for the first time at the January 1895 basho while both were still in sandanme.  Hitachiyama won the bout. The