Asahiyutaka Katsuteru (born 10 September 1968) is a former

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

wrestler from Kasugai, Aichi,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. His highest rank was '' komusubi''. He is now the head coach of Tatsunami stable.

Career

He joined

Ōshima stable was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Tatsunami ''ichimon'' or group of stables. It was set up in 1980 by former '' ōzeki'' Asahikuni, who branched off from Tatsunami stable. The head of Tatsunami stable opposed the setting up of the new ...

and made his professional debut in March 1987, and was ranked in the lowest '' jonokuchi'' division in the following tournament. However, due to various injury problems he fell off the ''

banzuke A , officially called is a document listing the rankings of professional sumo wrestlers published before each official tournament (''honbasho''). The term can also refer to the rankings themselves. The document is normally released about two w ...

'' ranking sheets and did not actually record his first win in ''jonokuchi'' until May 1988. By May 1990 he had progressed to the '' makushita'' division and after taking his second ''makushita'' '' yusho'' or tournament championship in September 1993 he was promoted to the second highest ''

jūryō Professional sumo as administered by the Japan Sumo Association is divided into six ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win–loss records in official tournaments. For ...

'' division. After winning the ''jūryō'' ''yusho'' in January 1995 he made the top '' makuuchi'' division. Asahiyutaka was ranked in the top division for 24 tournaments, winning two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Technique. He also earned four '' kinboshi'' or gold stars for defeating ''

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

''. He reached his highest rank of ''komusubi'' in 1996 and held it for three tournaments, but he lacked the weight to regularly beat the top men, and never managed to progress further.

Retirement from sumo

In 1995 he had married the daughter of Osamu Annen, the head coach of the Tatsunami stable, and was legally adopted by him as his son, changing his real name from Taiji Ichikawa to Taiji Annen. This enabled him to take over the running of Tatsunami stable when Annen reached the mandatory retirement age of sixty five in February 1999. Asahiyutaka had in any case lost his top division status at the previous tournament in January, recording only four wins at '' maegashira'' 13, and had announced his retirement from active competition. Asahiyutaka's marriage allowed him to inherit the Tatsunami elder name and

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

, but it eventually broke down with the couple being divorced in August 2001. In February 2003 Annen took Asahiyutaka to court, demanding that he be paid for the elder stock that Asahiyutaka had received for free as a result of his marriage. Annen was initially awarded 175 million yen, but Asahiyutaka appealed and the decision was overturned by a higher court in January 2004. Annen did succeed however, in evicting Asahiyutaka from the stable premises. Asahiyutaka moved Tatsunami stable to a new site, and remarried in 2005. He recruited the Mongolian wrestler Mōkonami who reached the top division in 2009, but Mokonami was forced to retire in 2011 after being found guilty of match-fixing. He voted against the Tatsunami-Isegahama group of stables preferred candidate for the head of the Sumo Association in the 2012 elections, and left the group as a result, aligning his stable with the Takanohana group instead. That group was dissolved by the Sumo Association after high profile scandals involving Takanohana and the stable went independent in 2018, but after the Sumo Association indicated that stables must belong to an ''ichimon'', it aligned itself with the Dewanoumi group. After several years without any sekitori, Meisei reached the jūryō division in 2016.

Fighting style

Asahiyutaka was a ''yotsu-sumo'' wrestler who specialised in grappling rather than pushing techniques. His preferred grip on the opponent's '' mawashi'' was ''hidari-yotsu'', a right hand outside, left hand inside position. His favourite '' kimarite'' were ''uwatenage'' (overarm throw) and ''katasukashi'' (under-shoulder swing down).

Career record

References

External links