Tochitsukasa Tetsuo (born 25 April 1958 as Tetsuo Goto) 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 Nakagawa,

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

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 '' sekiwake''. After his retirement from sumo in 1992 he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association and established Irumagawa stable in 1993, which he ran until 2023.

Career

A former amateur champion at

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice (Japan), Minister of Justice, in 1889. ...

, he turned professional at the age of 23, joining Kasugano stable in March 1981. He reached the top '' makuuchi'' division in September 1983, and in 1984 he earned his first special prize for Fighting Spirit, and defeated Takanosato in his first ever bout against a '' yokozuna'' to earn his first of his three '' kinboshi''. He spent most of 1985 in the second ''

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, but in 1986 made the '' san'yaku'' ranks at '' komusubi''. In November 1987 he scored 10–5 from the '' maegashira'' 6 ranking, defeating two '' ōzeki'' and winning the Technique Prize. However, by the end of the year he was in'' jūryō'' again due to injury problems. He won the ''jūryō'' '' yūshō'' on two occasions in 1989 and won promotion back to the top division. After missing the September 1990 tournament he fell to ''jūryō'' again and made only one more appearance in ''makuuchi'' before retiring in May 1992 at the age of 34.

Retirement from sumo

He became an

elder An elder is someone with a degree of seniority or authority. Elder or elders may refer to: Positions Administrative * Elder (administrative title), a position of authority Cultural * North American Indigenous elder, a person who has and tr ...

of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Irumagawa Oyakata, and established Irumagawa stable in 1993. His wrestlers Yotsukasa and Otsukasa both reached the top division in 1999, and they were followed by Masatsukasa in 2008 and

Sagatsukasa is a retired Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Mishima, Shizuoka. A former amateur competitor at Toyo University, he made his professional debut in March 2004, reaching the top ''makuuchi'' division for the first time in March 2010. He w ...

in 2010. He is due to reach the retirement age for elders of 65 in April 2023, and in preparation for this he handed over control of his stable to former ''komusubi'' Kakizoe in February 2023, with the stable henceforth being known as Ikazuchi stable.

Fighting style

A powerful and versatile wrestler, Tochitsukasa preferred ''tsuki/oshi'' or pushing and thrusting techniques rather than fighting on the '' mawashi.'' His favourite '' kimarite'' were ''oshi-dashi'' (push out) and ''tsuki otoshi'' (thrust over). However he also regularly won by ''yori-kiri'' (force out), and was also capable of pulling off throws, both overarm (''uwatenage'') and underarm (''shitatenage'').

Trivia

He had a crowd-pleasing quirk of always staying in a squat position for much longer than normal and rocking back and forth before returning to his corner during the ''shikiri'', or warm-up phase of a match.

Career record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tetsuo, Tochitsukasa 1958 births Living people Japanese sumo wrestlers Sportspeople from Nagoya Sumo people from Aichi Prefecture Sekiwake Nihon University alumni