TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Seven years after leaving the Japan Sumo Association, former yokozuna and 22-time Emperor's Cup winner Takanohana sees current grand champion Onosato as the wrestler to carve out a new era in Japan's ancient sport.

The 53-year-old from Tokyo, whose rise together with his older brother Wakanohana helped boost sumo's popularity from the early 1990s, said he believes his fellow Japanese yokozuna can build a dynasty of his own, while offering some caveats based on his own experience.

"If he wrestles like he usually does, there will come an era dominated by Onosato. There's nobody but him," Takanohana told Kyodo News in a recent interview. "Watching him at the Autumn meet, I wonder if there are many wrestlers who will keep pace."

Onosato, who entered professional sumo out of university, reached the top echelon this year at 25. Takanohana fought as yokozuna for the first time in 1995 at age 22 and says he understands the mindset that is unique to the very best.

"Once you become yokozuna, greed sets in and you start thinking you can wrestle in a different way. That sort of thinking doesn't work," he said. "Unless you keep honing the ability that got you promoted, you can't cut it as yokozuna."

Takanohana had long-term rival Akebono already anchoring at yokozuna upon his promotion and later welcomed Wakanohana and Musashimaru at the rank in a rare era of four grand champions.

An all-round talent with few weaknesses, Takanohana won 11 titles in his first 18 meets as the grand champion. But he said he was already thinking about retirement during that time, at the peak of his power.

"There's nowhere to drop once you get there, so you can wrestle without restraint for about three years," he said. "After those three years pass, strains begin to appear in every joint of your body, and you begin to decline."

"I thought about (retiring) in my mid-20s. It really is a solitude once you stand in that rank. You get worried and crushed."

Takanohana said there was only one way forward.

"In any world, you don't learn how to do your job without succeeding. Win, learn and keep gaining experience. There's nothing to learn from losing a bout of sumo in this world."

Takanohana retired in 2003 and had to wait 14 years for a new Japanese yokozuna to emerge, with two-time top-tier winner Kisenosato, now the stablemaster of Onosato, ending that barren run for the home wrestlers.

Already on five Emperor's Cups, the hopes are high on Onosato.

"I want him to thoroughly pursue his sumo, in which he gets the right underarm belt hold and attack, and keep asking himself questions while sharpening all his senses," he said.

"If I were to suffer a severe disease in the future, I'd accept it and wouldn't have life-prolonging treatment. Because while being a yokozuna, I was going to the raised ring ready to die at any moment."