Dewaminato Rikichi

Dewaminato Rikichi - 出羽湊 利吉 (born March 20, 1907 - May 17, 1964) was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Akita City, Akita. He made his debut in March 1928 and wrestled for Dewanoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 1935 and has one kinboshi and one top division championship. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in November 1944.

## **Early Life**

Rikichi Sato was born on March 20, 1907, in Akita City as the second son in a family that runs a rice store. After graduating from Akita Shiritsu Tsuchizaki Elementary School, he participated in amateur sumo while working at a sake brewery. He joined Dewanoumi stable in 1928 off the recommendation of his older brother.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He first entered the ring in the Summer 1928 tournament. In 1932, he was one of the few unsalaried wrestlers to be expelled from sumo by the Japan Sumo Association for being involved in a strike called the "Shunjuen Incident" that was largely unsuccessful. He, along with many others, was allowed back in from the Spring 1933 tournament. He was allowed into the makushita division, but unranked. His hiatus seemed to have recharged his sumo, as he posted eight winning tournaments over four years from this point. In this period, he also took the makushita championship in the Summer 1933 tournament, and after entering juryo, in the following tournament, took the juryo championship with a perfect 11–0 record in the Summer 1934 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He was promoted to the top makuuchi division for the Spring 1935 tournament. He managed to enter the titled ranks at sekiwake for the Spring 1937 tournament but only managed a 2–9 record and was demoted back to the untitled ranks of maegashira. In the Spring 1938 tournament, though he only had a 2–5 record before pulling out due to injury, he still managed a gold star or kinboshi win over yokozuna Minanogawa, incidentally one of the leaders of the strike back in 1933. He had another losing tournament that he had to withdraw from due to injury in Summer 1938. When he returned for the next tournament in the summer 1939 tournament at maegashira 17, he was on the cusp of relegation to the second division. He responded by posting a 13–0 record, including a victory over future yokozuna Haguroyama and winning the championship. Because he was a lower maegashira, he was not matched against yokozuna Futabayama, who in this same tournament had his record-setting winning streak broken at 69 by Dewaminato's stablemate Akinoumi. The impact of Dewaminato's perfect championship, called a zensho-yusho was overshadowed by the fact that Futabayama had achieved zensho-yusho in the five previous tournaments up to this point, and would bounce back to achieve yet another one in the following Summer tournament.

Dewaminato fought on after this, managing to stay in the upper maegashira ranks, and even managed to return to sekiwake for two consecutive tournaments in 1942–43. His fortunes began to decline after this however, and after losing all ten of his bouts in the Summer 1944 tournament, he retired before the start of the Autumn 1944 tournament.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After retiring, he served as a sumo elder under the name Hamakaze Oyakata and worked as a coach at Dewanoumi stable. He left the Sumo Association in July 1963. He died in May 1964 at the age of 57.

## **Fighting Style**

Dewaminato was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling to pushing and thrusting techniques. He favored a migi-yotsu (left hand outside, right hand inside) position when gripping his opponent's mawashi (belt). His most common winning techniques were hatakikomi (slap down), sotogake (outer leg trip) and sukuinage (scoop throw).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 197-158-35-1d/352 (41 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 121-120-35-1d/238 (21 basho)
* **Juryo:** 18-4/22 (2 basho)
* **Makushita:** 25-19/44 (7 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 23-13/36 (6 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 10-2/12 (2 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 0-0/0 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makuuchi** Championship (January 1939)
* 1 **Juryo** Championship (May 1934)
* 1 **Makushita** Championship (May 1933)

## **Shikona History**

* Sato Rikichi (1928.04 - 1930.05)
* Tsuchigasaki Rikichi (1930.10 - 1933.05)
* Dewaminato Rikichi (1934.01 - 1944.11)

## **Sources**

* Dewaminato Rikichi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Dewaminato Rikichi Rikishi Information