Daitensho Ken

Daitensho Ken - 大天霄 健 (born July 31, 1984) is a former Mongolian professional sumo wrestler from Ulaanbaatar. He made his debut in March 2001 and last wrestled for Takashima stable. His highest rank was makushita 7 and he retired in July 2010.

## **Early Life**

Ayurzana came to Japan in 2000 alongside six other Mongolians (which included 69th-yokozuna Hakuho). The seven Mongolians first practiced sumo at the Settsu Warehouse sumo club (摂津倉庫) and he got an offer from Takashima stable. He was given the shikona "Daitensho" (大天霄) and made his professional debut in March 2001.

## **Career**

Initially, Daitensho was extremely small; standing 5 ft 9 in (1.76 m) and weighing 165 Ib (75 kg), he struggled to make it past the first two divisions. Once he started to put on some weight, Daitensho was promoted to sandanme in May 2003.

He was promoted to makushita in January 2005. By the time, he already stood at 6 ft 0.5 in (1.84 m) and weighed 258 Ib (117 kg). He immediately established himself as a makushita regular, but he pulled out of two tournaments in 2006 due to injuries which caused him to fall back down to sandanme. He bounced back by winning all seven sandanme bouts and defeated Kaishoryu in a playoff to earn the sandanme yusho. Daitensho wrestled mainly in the mid-upper makushita ranks and reached a career-best makushita 7 in January 2009.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

### **Controversial Retirement**

Daitensho's retirement papers were handed by his Oyakata before the July 2010 tournament even started. He alleges that his stablemaster handed in the papers without his permission and that his stablemaster kept him on only because he was waiting for a new recruit, and as Daitensho was the only wrestler, firing him before recruiting someone else would have caused the heya to close. On April 1st, 2011, Daitensho filed a lawsuit against the Japan Sumo Association, demanding 5,000,000 yen and to be reinstated in sumo. However, in November of the same year, he gave up on his chances on reinstatement and was looking for a financial settlement. On October 31st, 2012, an undisclosed settlement was established at the Tokyo District Court between Daitensho and the Japan Sumo Association.

## **Personal Life**

* Daitensho obtained Japanese citizenship on November 9th, 2009. He changed his legal name from Norjinhand Ayurzana (Норжинханд Аюурзана) to Ken Takayama (高山健).
* Daitensho trained in an extremely small stable and in September 2009 he became the only wrestler at his stable. He usually could not practice by himself and preferred training sessions at other stables. The size of his stable proved to be a major negative as it led to his controversial retirement.

## **Fighting Style**

Daitensho was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling to pushing and thrusting techniques. He won most of his bouts with a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. He was also fond of employing hatakikomi (slap down), uwatenage (overarm throw), and yoritaoshi (frontal crush down).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 202-174-16/374 (57 basho)
* **Makushita:** 113-99-12/211 (32 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 44-36-4/79 (12 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 34-29/63 (9 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 11-10/21 (3 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Sandanme** Championship (July 2006)

## **Gallery**

A young Daitensho awaits for his upcoming match (c. 2001)Daitensho prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2007)Daitensho during a training session at Nakamura stable (c. 2006)

## **Sources**

* Daitensho Ken Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Daitensho Ken Rikishi Information