In 1948, when he was 19, Taro Asahiyo stowed away on a cargo ship to Amami in order to fight in his first sumo match. He would go on to win numerous titles and championships in yokozuna wrestling until his retirement in 1962. He is distinctive for his stature, thick eyebrows, and chest hair. During a wrestling championship in Osaka in 1959, it was said that his winning record of 13-2 broke a longstanding jinx on sumo wrestlers with chest hair in yokozuna.

He suffered from lumbar separation disease, which affected his later wrestling performance and hastened his retirement. Asahiyo died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 58, the exact cause of which is the subject of some controversy; a combination of over drinking and the sudden strain on his body as he attempted to train for his 60th birthday ceremony may have contributed to the hemorrhage. A statue of Asahiyo was erected at his birthplace in 1995.

Asahiyo’s sole film credit was as the mighty god Tajikarao in The Three Treasures (1959).