Yokosuka (横須賀市, Yokosuka-shi?) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 419,067 and a population density of 4,160 people per km². It covered an area of 100.62 km². Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in Greater Tokyo, 12th in the Kantō region.
Yokosuka occupies most of Miura Peninsula, and is bordered by the mouth of Tokyo Bay to the east and Sagami Bay on the Pacific Ocean on the west.
The area around present-day Yokosuka city has been inhabited for thousands of years. Archaeologists have found stone tools and shell middens from the Japanese Paleolithic period and ceramic shards from the Jōmon and Kofun periods at numerous locations in the area. During the Heian period, local warlord Muraoka Tamemichi established Kinugasa Castle in 1063. He became the ancestor of the Miura clan, which subsequently dominated eastern Sagami Province for the next several hundred years. The Miura clan supported Minamoto no Yoritomo in the foundation of the Kamakura shogunate, but were later annihilated by Hōjō Tokiyori in 1247. However, the family name was reassigned to a supporter of the Hōjō clan, and the Miura continued to rule Miura Peninsula through the Muromachi period until their defeat at Arai Castle in a 1518 attack by Hōjō Sōun. Following the defeat of the Late Hōjō clan at the Battle of Odawara, Toyotomi Hideyoshi transferred Tokugawa Ieyasu to take control over the Kantō region, including Yokosuka in 1590.
Tomomi Tsuruta (鶴田 友美, Tsuruta Tomomi?, March 25, 1951 – May 13, 2000), better known by his ring name Jumbo Tsuruta, was a professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling for most of his career, and is well-known for being the first ever AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavyweight Championship, the NWA United National Championship, and the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, and unifying the three titles.
Tsuruta participated in many sports, such as swimming, basketball, and sumo while attending Hikawa Senior High School in Yamanashi-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture.
While at Chuo University, he began an amateur wrestling career. He won the All Japan Amateur Wrestling Championship in freestyle and Greco-Roman as a superheavyweight (at the time, an unlimited class for those weighing over 100 kilograms) in the years 1971 and 1972.
He also competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. He finished the Greco-Roman tournament with no wins.
Scouted by AJPW promoter Giant Baba, he was sent to the local Amarillo, Texas promotion in the U.S. to train as a pro under Dory Funk Jr. While wrestling in the United States, Tsuruta was the first Japanese wrestler to be cheered by an American crowd, due to his hard work ethic and wrestling ability. The name "Jumbo" was given to him by a fan contest in Japan to replace his given name, which was seen as too feminine. Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu became the first AJPW Unified World Tag Team Champions on June 10, 1988.
Genichiro Tenryu (天龍源一郎 Tenryū Gen'ichirō), real name Genichiro Shimada (嶋田源一郎 Shimada Gen'ichirō, born February 2, 1950), is a Japanese professional wrestler. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was his shikona.
As a sumo wrestler, Tenryu was ranked as a sekitori for 27 tournaments, 16 of them in the top makuuchi division. His highest rank was Maegashira 1. He retired from sumo in September 1976 at the early age of 26 after a dispute with the Japan Sumo Association over his transfer to a newly created training stable.
Scouted by Giant Baba, the All Japan Pro Wrestling owner, Tenryu was sent to the Amarillo territory to get trained by Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk, and debuted in Texas in 1976, against Ted DiBiase. After returning to Japan, he stayed in the undercard until about 1982 when he began to get a slight push in that year's Champion's Carnival tournament. In 1983, following a brief stint in Jim Crockett Promotions, his push began in earnest when Jumbo Tsuruta pursued the NWA International heavyweight title, now the main title in the Triple Crown.
Yoshiaki Yatsu (谷津嘉章 Yatsu Yoshiaki) (born July 19, 1956) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, amateur wrestler and mixed martial artist.
At the age of 20, Yatsu competed in amateur wrestling at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He did not place in the tournament.
He would have participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but Japan chose to follow the American-led boycott.
In 1980, after Japan decided not to send their athletes to take part in the Summer Olympics in Moscow, Yatsu garnered a great deal of national attention, when he announced his intention of becoming a professional wrestler. Within just a few years, Yatsu became a regular headliner for New Japan Pro Wrestling, before joining Riki Chōshū, when he left the promotion for All Japan Pro Wrestling at the end of 1984. In All Japan Yatsu and Chōshū formed a tag team, which would go on to win the NWA International Tag Team Championship.
In 1986 Yatsu took a hiatus from professional wrestling in order to one last time chase his Olympic dream. However, after winning a Japanese National Championship in the super heavyweight division in 1986 and while training for the 1987 Asian Wrestling Championships, the International Olympic Committee declared that Yatsu was a professional athlete and banned him from not only that competition, but also from the 1988 Summer Olympics. The decision stunned many people, but Yatsu didn't file an appeal.