1. Early life and sumo experience

2. Career
    Tournament championship and ōzeki run 

3. Fighting style

4. Career record

5. See also

6. References

7. External links

Takakeishō Mitsunobu (貴景勝 光信, born August 5, 1996 as Takanobu Satō) is a professional sumo wrestler from the Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. He made his debut in November 2014 and quickly reached the top makuuchi division in January 2017, in his 14th tournament. He then won his first championships in the highest division in November 2018, four years after his debut in sumo. He wrestles for Chiganoura stable. His highest rank has been ōzeki. He has won seven special prizes and three gold stars for defeating a yokozuna. In March 2019 he earned promotion to the ōzeki rank.

Early life and sumo experience

Sato's given name of Takanobu was based on yokozuna Takanohana, who would eventually become his stablemaster. In early primary school Satō was active in full-contact karate and was runner up for the championship in a national competition. However, Satō's father was determined that he become a sumo wrestler, and in his third year he began participating in sumo at a local dojo. After primary school, he entered a junior high school known for its sumo program. In his third year there he won a national championship and took the title of junior high school yokozuna or grand champion. Encouraged by his father to eat hamburgers and French fries, his weight increased from 30 kilos in the third grade to 80 kilos by sixth grade.^[1] He then moved to eastern Japan and entered the private high school Saitama Sakae, which had an athletics course. In his time there he had two successive championships in the free weight category of both the Kantō regional high school sumo tournament as well as the national junior sumo tournament. In total he took 10 national titles in his high school years. In his third year, he was also champion in the free weight category of a world junior sumo tournament held in Taiwan.^[2]

Career

Satō was quite eager to join the pro sumo world, so after high school, he decided to forego going to university and competing in national sumo tournaments (which would have given him a chance to later gain makushita tsukedashi status) and quickly joined Takanohana stable.^[3]

Though it is common practice for wrestlers to take on a ring name upon entering this particular stable, he chose to keep his ring name as Satō. Because of his strong desire to join the ranks of pro sumo as quickly as possible, he participated in maezumo (preliminary sumo tryouts) in September 2014 whilst still a high school student, a very rare occurrence. His coach, the former yokozuna Takanohana made an arrangement with Sato's high school that he would continue to attend school when not participating in official tournaments. Later news reports however stated that he had dropped out of high school.

Satō officially entered the sumo ring in November 2014, and in his debut took the lowest division or jonokuchi championship with a perfect 7–0 record.^[4] He added on another championship, again with a perfect 7–0 record in his next tournament in the next highest division jonidan. In the following March tournament in Osaka, competing in the sandanme division, he finally lost his first bout on the third day of the tournament, ending his successive win record at 15 bouts. In the following tournament, in the makushita division, he had a perfect 6–0 record up until his last bout, but he lost this one to the future Takaryū, who took the championship. This happened again two tournaments later, where he chalked up another six wins in his first six bouts, only to lose to veteran Azumaryū. This was still a good enough record to compete in an eight-man playoff. He defeated two opponents to make it to the final round, but then lost the last round for the championship to future sekitori Chiyoshōma.^[5] In the following November tournament after winning three bouts in a row, he lost his next four and got his first make-koshi or losing tournament. He would bounce back two tournaments later, in March of the following year, winning all of his bouts and defeating former sekitori Ōiwato in his final bout to clinch his first makushita championship. This was a decisive championship that would, in the next tournament, propel him into the salaried ranks of jūryō.

In his first jūryō tournament he became only the sixth wrestler in history, and the first ever in his teens to win eight consecutive bouts (a kachi-koshi) in his debut. He however went on to lose four bouts and ended with an 11–4 record for that tournament. He spent the next few tournaments rising steadily up the ranks of jūryō recording only one make-koshi, his second up to that point. This culminated in his fourth tournament in jūryō where he chalked up a 12–3 record in the ultra-competitive upper ranks of this division and earned his first championship as a salaried wrestler. In January, he was promoted to the top flight makuuchi division. On this occasion he chose to change his ring name to Takakeishō. The first character in his shikona comes from the first character in the shikona of his stablemaster Takanohana, and the second two characters are taken from the given name of the Japanese historical figure Kagekatsu Uesugi.^[6]

In Takakeishō's top division debut he only managed a 7–8 record.^[5] However, he followed up with eleven wins against four losses in the March 2017 tournament and was awarded his first special prize, for Fighting Spirit. Another 11–4 record in May saw him promoted to maegashira 1, but he struggled at his new rank and recorded only five wins in July. Ranked at maegashira 5 in September 2017, he earned his first kinboshi or victory over a yokozuna by defeating Harumafuji,^[7] who went on to win the tournament. Takakeishō was awarded the Outstanding Performance Prize on the final day. In November he again recorded eleven wins, earning two further kinboshi with victories over Harumafuji and Kisenosato and receiving a second consecutive prize for Outstanding Performance.^[8]

In January 2018 Takakeisho made his sanyaku debut at komusubi, the first member of Takanohana stable to reach this rank since his stablemaster established the stable in February 2004.^[9] He fell short with a 5–10 record, and withdrew from the following tournament in March due to injury with only three wins. He returned to the komusubi rank in September 2018 and secured a winning record. Shortly after this tournament his stable was dissolved and he moved to Chiganoura stable.

Tournament championship and ōzeki run

The 2018 Kyūshū basho in November saw many withdraws due to injury (kyūjō), not starting the tournament were yokozuna Hakuhō and Kakuryū as well as komusubi Kaisei. Takakeishō started the tournament well going undefeated the first six days including wins over yokozuna Kisenosato on Day 1, and ōzeki Gōeidō on Day 2. He suffered his first lost on Day 7 to sekiwake Mitakeumi. He then proceeded to win the next six days including a win over ōzeki Tochinoshin on Day 9, before getting his second loss to ōzeki Takayasu on Day 14 tying them up at two losses apiece. He won his final bout against Nishikigi insuring that he would at least have a playoff with Takayasu if he won his final bout. But instead he watched as the same wrestler who handed him his first loss Mitakeumi guaranteed him his first top division championship (yūshō) by defeating Takayasu in the final bout. With just 26 career tournaments under his belt this victory tied him with yokozuna Akebono for fourth fastest all time from debut to first yūshō. At 22 years of age he was the sixth youngest top division championship winner since the six tournaments per year system began in 1958.^[10] The win also meant that he has won championships in all but the sandanme division in his career.

Takakeishō followed up with an 11–4 record in January 2019, winning the Technique Prize. This gave him a record of 33 wins over the last three tournaments, but he was not promoted to ōzeki due to scoring only 9–6 in September, and his one-sided loss to Gōeidō on the final day.^[11] In March he entered the penultimate day with a record of 9-4, including wins over Kakuryu and Takayasu, but was quickly defeated by Ichinojo. On the final day he was matched against Tochinoshin who needed a win to preserve his ōzeki rank. Takakeisho dominated the bout and pushed his opponent out to win by oshi-dashi.^[12] Reports in Japan declared it a certainty that he would be promoted to ōzeki,^[13] and at a press conference in Higashiōsaka he spoke of his relief at earning promotion after missing out in January.^[14]

The Sumo Association made the ōzeki promotion official on 27 March 2019, and delivered the news to Takakeishō at a press conference in Ōsaka.^[15] "I will respect the bushidō spirit," he said in his acceptance speech, "and be thoughtful and thankful at all times while devoting myself to the way of the sumo."^[15] After his promotion ceremony, Takakeishō thanked his parents Kazuya and Junko Sato for supporting him, and promised to repay them through sumo.^[16] He said that reaching the rank of ōzeki is "a childhood dream", but that "there's a higher rank in the banzuke."^[16] He made ōzeki 28 tournaments after his professional debut, which is the sixth fastest rise since the six-tournament a year system was established in 1958. At 22 years and seven months he was also the ninth youngest to be promoted to ōzeki.^[17]

Fighting style

Takakeishō specializes in pushing and thrusting techniques (tsuki/oshi). He regularly wins by oshi-dashi (push out) and hataki-komi (slap down).

Career record

    {{Basho|}}    {{Basho|}}    {{Basho|}}    {{Basho|}}    {{Basho|MAEZUMOU}}    {{Basho|jk|18|w|7|0
Champion}}  {{Sumo record year end}}  {{Sumo record year start|2015}}    {{Basho|jo|10|e|7|0
Champion}}    {{Basho|sa|18|e|5|2}}    {{Basho|ma|55|e|6|1}}    {{Basho|ma|27|w|4|3}}    {{Basho|ma|21|w|6|1|PPP}}    {{Basho|ma|7|w|3|4}}  {{Sumo record year end}}  {{Sumo record year start|2016}}    {{Basho|ma|13|w|4|3}}    {{Basho|ma|9|e|7|0
Champion}}    {{Basho|j|13|e|11|4}}    {{Basho|j|6|w|6|9}}    {{Basho|j|9|e|10|5}}    {{Basho|j|3|w|12|3
Champion}}  {{Sumo record year end}}  {{Sumo record year start|2017}}    {{Basho|m|12|e|7|8}}    {{Basho|m|13|e|11|4|||F}}    {{Basho|m|7|w|11|4}}    {{Basho|m|1|w|5|10}}    {{Basho|m|5|w|9|6|||o|*}}    {{Basho|m|1|w|11|4||j|o|*|*}}  {{Sumo record year end}}

    {{Basho|k|1|e|5|10|}}    {{Basho|m|3|w|3|8|4}}    {{Basho|m|10|w|10|5|}}    {{Basho|m|3|w|10|5|}}    {{Basho|k|1|w|9|6|}}    {{Basho|k|1|e|13|2||y|f|o}}  {{Sumo record year end}}

    {{Basho|s|1|e|11|4||j|t}}    {{Basho|s|1|e|10|5|||t}}    {{Basho|o|2|e|||}}    {{Basho||||||}}    {{Basho||||||}}    {{Basho||||||}}  {{Sumo record year end}}

See also

• List of sumo tournament top division champions
• List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers
• List of active gold star earners
• List of ōzeki

References

External links

• {{Goo Sumo|id=3582}}

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