Chiyoarashi Yoshinobu ( ja, 千代嵐慶喜, chiyoarashi yoshinobu; born July 12, 1991, as Watanabe Yoshinobu) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

who wrestles for

Kokonoe stable is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Takasago group of stables. It was formed in 1967 and until 2021 was located in Ishiwara, Sumida, Tokyo. As of November 2022 it had 27 sumo wrestlers, four of whom are of ''sekitori'' rank. It is the most s ...

. He debuted in March 2007, and reached his highest rank of ''

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 ...

'' 10 in November 2011.

Early life and entry into sumo

Born in

Kisarazu is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 136,023 in 63,431 households and a population density of 980 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kisarazu is located in the midwest ...

, Chiyoarashi began sumo training with his father beginning in elementary school. In his third grade of elementary school he met former

Chiyonofuji , born , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler and the 58th ''yokozuna'' of the sport. Following his retirement as a wrestler, he was the stable master of Kokonoe stable until the time of his death. Chiyonofuji was considered one of the gr ...

, the then ''

oyakata The following words are terms used in sumo wrestling in Japan. A B C D E F G H ...

'' of

. He then joined Kokonoe stable at the age of 15.

Career

Debuting in March 2007, Chiyoarashi reached the salaried ''

'' division in September 2011. He was promoted alongside his Kokonoe stablemate . His first tournament in the division he posted an 8-7 score which saw him promoted to his career highest rank of ''Jūryō'' 10 in November 2011, but he failed to complete the tournament due to injury and posted a losing score of 4-6-5. He then sat out the next tournament in January 2012 and when he returned in March of that year he was in the lower ranks of '' makushita''. He once again returned to ''jūryō'' in May 2013 at Jūryō 12 where he posted a score of 7–8. In the next tournament in July 2013, he was ranked at ''Jūryō'' 13, however, once again due to injury he had to pull out in the last day ending the tournament with a record of 4-10-1. He was forced to sit out three tournaments from November 2013 to January 2014, whereupon his return he was in '' sandanme''. In March 2014 he won his first '' yūshō'' in ''sandanme'' in a playoff against Takakasuga, the two wrestlers achieving a perfect record of 7–0. By May 2015 he was in the upper ranks of Makushita but again was injured and had to pull out of the tournament and he sat out three tournaments from July 2015 to November 2016. He returned in January 2016 at the rank of Jonidan 32 and lost the yusho in a playoff to Kaito. Between January 2017 and 2021, he wrestled consistently in the Makushita division, sitting out only one tournament in January 2021 due to a

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

outbreak in his stable. The Japan Sumo Association announced after the November 2021 tournament that Chiyoarashi had been promoted back to ''jūryō'', after an absence of 49 tournaments or eight and a half years. This is the longest time taken by a wrestler to return to ''jūryō'' in sumo history. He scored six wins against nine losses in his return to ''jūryō'', and fell back to ''makushita'' after just one tournament. However, a 4–3 score at ''Makushita'' 1 East in March 2022 saw him promoted to ''jūryō'' again.

Fighting style

Chiyoarashi is an

oshi ''Oshi'' (Kanji: 押) is a strategy board game published by WizKids and designed by Tyler Bielman. ''Oshi'' is played on a 9×9 board and each player controls a set of 8 pieces (colored oxblood or ivory). Story of the game According to the ins ...

-style wrestler with his primary kimarite being

oshidashi ''Kimarite'' ( ja, 決まり手) is the technique used in sumo by a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) to win a match. It is officially decided or announced by the ''gyōji'' (referee) at the end of the match, though judges can modify this decision. The rec ...

Career record

References

External links