Aobajo Yukio

Aobajo Yukio - 青葉城 幸雄 (born November 14, 1948) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sendai, Miyagi. He made his debut in March 1964 and last wrestled for Oshiogawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 1975 and has one special prize as well as one kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in July 1986.

## **Early Life**

Shoji was a member of the soccer club in junior high school. Since elementary school, he had been delivering newspapers, even in the grueling winter which had given shoji a foundation for harsh training. Even though he had no sumo experience prior to joining professional sumo, he aspired to become a strong sumo wrestler, so he joined Nishonoseki stable after graduating junior high school.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He made his professional debut in March 1964 and was given the shikona "Oshoji" (大庄司). He was promoted to sandanme in May 1966 and makushita in November 1966. In November 1970, he won a nine-way playoff to claim the makushita yusho and he followed with two more winning records to earn a promotion to the juryo division in May 1971.

### **Juryo Career**

Upon reaching the elite sekitori ranks, he changed his shikona to "Aobajo" (青葉城). He put up consistent, but unspectacular numbers during his first run in juryo. After two disastrous records consisting of 2-13 and 3-12 records, he was demoted back down to makushita in May 1973. He returned to juryo in March 1974 after a year in makushita. In November 1974, he produced a strong 10-5 record at the rank of juryo 3, but missed out on the yusho after losing to Banryuyama in the playoff. Nevertheless, he was promoted to makuuchi in the following January 1975 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He reached the top makuuchi division for the first time in January 1975. In only his fourth top division tournament he was a tournament runner-up, won a sansho (for Fighting Spirit) and earned a kinboshi for defeating a yokozuna. He was never to achieve any of those things again, but he fought in the top division for 62 tournaments in total. He made his san'yaku debut in September 1975 at komusubi and in October of that year he followed the former ozeki Daikirin to the newly established Oshiogawa stable. He dropped into the juryo division in 1981, but fought his way back, and an 8-7 score at maegashira 1 in May 1983 took him to his highest rank of sekiwake, which he held for just one tournament. This was his second and final appearance in the san'yaku ranks, 47 tournaments after his first - the longest such gap since the six tournaments per year schedule began in 1958. It had also taken him 116 tournaments from his professional debut to reach sekiwake, which is the slowest ever. In 1985 he surpassed Fujizakura's record of 1543 consecutive career appearances, and when he retired in July 1986, having not missed any matches since his debut, he had set a new record of 1630 consecutive bouts. He was nearly 38 years old, having been an active wrestler for over 22 years.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After retirement from active competition he became an elder in the Japan Sumo Association (at Deputy Director level) under the name Shiranui Oyakata. He coached at the Oshiogawa and Oguruma stables and reached the Sumo Association's mandatory retirement age of 65 in November 2013.

## **Fighting Style**

Aobajo was a yotsu-sumo wrestler, preferring a hidari-yotsu, or right hand outside, left hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi. His most common winning kimarite was yorikiri (force out). He also regularly used tsuridashi (the lift out) and sukuinage (the scoop throw).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 789-842/1630 (135 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 429-501/930 (62 basho)
* **Juryo:** 176-196/371 (25 basho)
* **Makushita:** 108-81/189 (27 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 33-23/56 (8 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 40-37/77 (11 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 3-4/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Juryo** Championship (July 1981)
* 1 **Makushita** Championship (November 1970)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** (1) Kitanoumi
* **Record:** **1st** most consecutive career bouts (1630 consecutive career bouts)
* **Record:** **8th** most career bouts (1630 career bouts)

## **Shikona History**

* Oshoji Yukio (1964.03 - 1971.03)
* Aobajo Yukio (1971.05 - 1986.07)

## **Gallery**

Aobajo (right) serves as Kongo's flag bearer (c. 1975)Aobajo defeats Yokozuna Kitanoumi (c. 1975)Aobajo (left) with his only sansho prize (c. 1975)Aobajo after promotion to Komusubi (c. 1975)Aobajo poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1976)Aobajo battles SadanoumiAobajo prepares for his upcoming matchAobajo after retirement as Shiranui Oyakata (c. 2013)Aobajo retires from the Japan Sumo Association (c. 2013)Aobajo's tegata
## **Sources**

* Aobajo Yukio Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Aobajo Yukio Rikishi Information