Tosanoumi

Tosanoumi Toshio (born February 16, 1972 as Toshio Yamamoto in Aki City, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan), is a former sumo wrestler. He first reached the top division of professional sumo in 1995, winning 13 special prizes and earning 11 ''kinboshi'' or gold stars for defeating ''yokozuna'' over his long career. The highest rank he reached was ''sekiwake''. He retired in 2010 to become a coach at his stable, Isenoumi stable under the name of Tatekawa.

Career

After success in amateur sumo competitions while at Doshisha University, where he was a two-time winner of the All Western Japan Sumo Championships in 1992 and 1993, Yamamoto was recruited by former ''sekiwake'' Fujinokawa and joined Isenoumi stable. He was given the ''shikona'' of Tosanoumi, meaning "sea of Tosa", from his native Kōchi Prefecture. Because of his amateur achievements he had ''makushita tsukedashi'' status and entered professional sumo in the third, '' makushita'' division in March 1994. He entered ''jūryō'' four tournaments later. Another four tournaments later he was promoted to the highest, '' makuuchi'' division. Because he had won the '' yūshō'' or tournament championship with a 14–1 record from the rank of ''jūryō'' 1, he entered at '' maegashira'' 7, the second highest top division debut rank after Daiju in 1970. For his first ''makuuchi'' bouts he was drawn against some tough opponents; first ''ōzeki'' Wakanohana, followed by ''yokozuna'' Takanohana the second day. He lost both bouts, and would finish the tournament 7–8.

Recovering from this, his first ever '' make-koshi'', Tosanoumi continued to rise through the ranks, reaching '' komusubi'' in January 1996 and ''sekiwake'' in May 1997. His best result in a tournament came in November 1998, when he finished as runner-up to Kotonishiki with 12 wins. Although he never rose higher than ''sekiwake'', he held the rank for seven tournaments in total, the last being in May 2005. He was also ranked at ''komusubi'' on thirteen occasions, for a total of twenty tournaments in the '' san'yaku'' ranks. He remained in ''makuuchi'' continuously from July 1995 until January 2006, when a 5–10 result at ''maegashira'' 14 resulted in demotion to ''jūryō''. He reappeared in ''makuuchi'' just two tournaments later in May 2006, but remained at the bottom of the division. He fell to ''jūryō'' on three further occasions, in May 2007, March 2008 and September 2008, but each time made an immediate return to the top division.

Tosanoumi won a total of thirteen prizes (equal to the seventh highest ever) and eleven gold stars (the fourth highest ever) in his long ''makuuchi'' career. He defeated two ''yokozuna'' in the same tournament on four separate occasions. He earned four gold stars from Takanohana, and three each from Wakanohana and Akebono. He is the only wrestler to win ''kinboshi'' in four consecutive tournaments, which he achieved from November 1998 to May 1999. His last gold star came in 2003 when he beat Musashimaru, in what was the latter's last bout before retirement. In July 2007 he recorded his 600th career win, which came by default when his opponent withdrew. Tosanoumi is tenth on the all-time list of most top division appearances with 1183, and he had 80 tournaments ranked in the top division.

He became the oldest active '' sekitori'' after the March 2009 tournament following the retirement of Ōtsukasa. However, he was unable to maintain his ''makuuchi'' position, dropping to ''jūryō'' 6 after winning only four matches at ''Maegashira'' 15. An 8–7 record in May was not enough to return him to the top division this time. He could manage only a 5–10 score in July, his first ever ''jūryō'' ''make-koshi''. He recorded his 700th career win in the January 2010 tournament, the first ''makushita tsukedashi'' entrant to achieve this feat.

Following the large number of demotions to the ''jūryō'' division in September 2010 after six wrestlers were suspended from competition he made a surprise return to the top division, becoming at 38 years and six months the oldest man ever to do so (this record has since been broken by Aminishiki). He was however out of his depth and scored only 2–13, resulting in demotion straight back to ''jūryō''.

Retirement from sumo

In November 2010 Tosanoumi could score only 4–11 at ''jūryō'' 8, which would have resulted in demotion to the ''makushita'' division. This broke a run of 97 consecutive tournaments at a '' sekitori'' rank. Instead Tosanoumi chose to retire, announcing his decision on December 15 shortly before the release of the new rankings. He has stayed in sumo as a coach at Isenoumi stable under the '' toshiyori'' name Tatekawa, and his '' danpatsu-shiki'' or official retirement ceremony took place at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan on May 28, 2011.

Fighting style

Tosanoumi's fighting style was solidly ''oshi-sumo'', using pushing and thrusting techniques as opposed to ''yotsu-sumo'' or grappling techniques. He has attributed his relative lack of injuries during his career in part to this preference. Over 30 percent of his wins in sumo were ''oshi-dashi'', a simple push out.

Family

Tosanoumi announced in September 2008 that he would be getting married. The wedding reception and ceremony were held in January 2009.

Career record

See also

* Glossary of sumo terms
* List of sumo record holders
* List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
* List of sumo tournament second division champions
*List of past sumo wrestlers
* List of sumo elders
* List of sekiwake

References

External links

*

Tosanoumi's basho results



{{DEFAULTSORT:Tosanoumi Toshio
1972 births
Living people
Japanese sumo wrestlers
Sumo people from Kōchi Prefecture
Sekiwake
Doshisha University alumni