Amakaze Koichi

Amakaze Koichi - 天風 浩一 (born July 7, 1991) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kotohira, Kagawa. He made his debut in March 2007 and currently wrestles for Oshiogawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 2016. His highest rank as of 2023 is maegashira 13.

## **Early Life**

Born the youngest of three boys, Kawanari has been active in Judo, since before his elementary days due to his brother's influence. He attended Kotohira Elementary School Kotohira Elementary School and continued his judo in their judo club. He won the judo championship in his fourth year of elementary school during the Kagawa Prefecture Games. He later attended Kawanoe Kita Junior High School in Shikokuchuo City. During his junior high school years he won the judo competition in the Ehime prefecture's 90kg class. In his second year, he won the Shikoku junior high school competition. This achievement earned him the attention from several sumo scouts, including ex. ozeki, Kotokaze who went on to recruit him for his Oguruma stable.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Kawanari made his debut on March, 2007 at the age of 15. He was the first wrestler from Kagawa Prefecture since the retirement of Gokenzan in November, 2006. In Amakaze's first tournament he produced a 4-3 record which was good enough for promotion to the jonidan division. He would spend his next five tournaments in the jonidan division before earning himself a promotion to the sandanme division in May, 2008. He would spend the next year in sandanme, before earning promotion to the makushita division in May, 2009.
He would spend the next couple of years in makushita, even reaching the top of makushita, and was at the brink of sekitori status, in March 2013, but he could only manage a 1-6 record. He had this opportunity again in November, 2013, but he only managed a 3-4 record and would have to sit out the next tournament due to an injury. After making attempts to lose weight his results began to improve and he earned promotion to the juryo division after the January 2015 tournament, where he produced a 4-3 record at the rank makushita 1 east.

### **Juryo Career**

To celebrate his promotion to sekitori status he changed his shikona from his real name to Amakaze. He chose the shikona himself, with "kaze" (wind) being a suffix used by all wrestlers at Oguruma stable, and "Ama" taken from Amanogawa (the Milky Way), because his birthday of July 7 co-incides with the start of Tanabata (Star Festival) celebrations. The same kanji is also used for a river near his parents' home in Kotohira. He commented on his new name, "It means looking up to the heavens, it's good" but his stablemaster joked that he should take care not to become an "Ama-chan", or one who takes things lightly.

In Amakaze's first juryo tournament, he produced a strong 10-5 record which earned him a promotion to juryo 5. However after a string of bad tournaments he found himself at the bottom of juryo. On the March, 2016 tournament, Amakaze produced a 9-6 record, but then the following tournament he produced a losing record of 7-8. This caused him to fall down to Juryo 10. However he bounced back and produced a 13-2 record and took the juryo championship along with him. This earned him an immediate promotion to the makuuchi division.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Amakaze's promotion to makuuchi led him to joining his veteran stablemates Takekaze and Yoshikaze. Working his way up the ranks Amakaze had served as a tsukebito*,* or personal attendant to Takekaze. Ranked at maegashira 13 in his makuuchi debut in September 2016, he managed only five wins against ten losses and was demoted straight back to juryo. For the next eight tournaments he held his own in juryo but did not look like earning promotion back to makuuchi*.*

### **Later Career**

In March 2018 a poor 3–12 record caused his demotion to makushita which he followed up with another poor 2–6 record in May 2018. He injured his knee in his first bout in July 2018 and withdrew from the tournament. He did not compete again until March 2019, by which time he had fallen to the jonidan division. In this tournament he fought another former makuuchi wrestler, Terunofuji. Amakaze gradually worked his way back up to the makushita division as of 2020. Following the closure of his stable, he moved to Oshiogawa stable in February 2022.

## **Personal Life**

* Amakaze is known for his sense of fun and love of food, and enjoys posting photos of himself and fellow wrestlers at leisure on social media. In 2015 a video of himself, Takatenshu and Kaiho attempting a 40-yard dash while on a tour in Wakayama went viral.
* Amakaze's favorite food is Kumamoto confectionary "Tsukimura".

## **Fighting Style**

Amakaze was one of the heaviest wrestlers in sumo at 208 kg (459 lb; although he slimmed down and is currently 187.5 kg), and likes to use his weight to his best advantage by grabbing his opponent's mawashi and forcing them out by yori-kiri. His preferred grip is hidari-yotsu, a right arm outside, left arm inside position. Roughly half of his winning bouts are with the yori-kiri technique. His other regular winning kimarite include oshi-dashi (push out) and hataki-komi (slap down).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 420-372-47/791 (99 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 5-10/15 (1 basho)
* **Juryo:** 132-138/270 (18 basho)
* **Makushita:** 165-153-26/317 (49 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 83-50-21/133 (22 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 31-18/49 (7 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 4-3/7 (1 basho)

## **Shikona History**

* Kawanari Kento (2007.03 - 2015.01)
* Amakaze Kento (2015.03 - 2016.07)
* Amakaze Koichi (2016.09 - )

## **Gallery**

### **JSA Profile Pictures and Tegata**

Amakaze Koichi - 2018 (Retrieved from the JSA)Amakaze Koichi - 2017 (Retrieved from the JSA)Amakaze Koichi - 2016 (Retrieved from the JSA)Amakaze Koichi - 2015 (Retrieved from the JSA)Amakaze Koichi - 2015 (Retrieved from the JSA)Amakaze's Tegata
### **Career Overview**

Kawanari gets recruited into Oguruma stable (c. 2007)Kawanari ensures promotion to Juryo (c. 2015)Kawanari becomes Amakaze upon promotion to Juryo (c. 2015)Amakaze defeats Hidenoumi (c. 2015)Amakaze defeats Gagamaru to win the Juryo Yusho (c. 2016)Amakaze wins his first Juryo Yusho (c. 2016)Amakaze celebrates his Juryo Yusho (c. 2016)Amakaze after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2016)Amakaze defeats Endo (c. 2016)Amakaze defeats Kizenryu (c. 2017)Amakaze prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2017)Amakaze defeats future Yokozuna Terunofuji (c. 2018)Amakaze wins his match after falling to Jonidan (c. 2019)Amakaze defeats Kyokutaisei (c. 2023)

## **Sources**

* Amakaze Koichi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Amakaze Koichi Rikishi Information