Hoshi was born in Hiroo, Hokkaidō. An uncle was an acquaintance of former yokozuna Kitanofuji, who by then had retired from competition and was running Kokonoe stable, and at his invitation Hoshi moved to Tokyo. Upon leaving school, his first appearance in the ring was March 1979, aged just 15, using his real name as his shikona or ring name. Also starting at the same time was future yokozuna Futahaguro.
It took him four years to reach the second-highest jūryō division in March 1983, aged 19, the same time as fellow Tokachi district rival Ōnokuni entered the top division. By this time his stablemate Chiyonofuji had been promoted to yokozuna. Hokutoumi made his debut in the top makuuchi division in September 1983. He changed the spelling of his shikona's given name to 延芳 in November 1985.
In March 1986 at the sekiwake rank he won his first yūshō or tournament championship with a record of thirteen wins and two losses. Despite this impressive result he was not immediately promoted to the second-highest ōzeki rank as he had not done particularly well in the previous two tournaments, only managing 30 wins in the most recent three tournaments when 33 is generally required. It also did not help his cause that there were already five ōzeki, leaving the Sumo Association with no incentive to loosen the promotion criteria. However, he carried on producing excellent results with an 11–4 in May, and then went 12–3 in July, securing his promotion for the September tournament. Futahaguro was promoted to yokozuna at the same time.

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