Ryogoku Kajinosuke (born 1962)

## Ryogoku Kajinosuke

Ryogoku Kajinosuke - 両国 秀昭 (born July 30, 1962) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Nagasaki City, Nagasaki. He made his debut in March 1985 and wrestled for Dewanoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in March 1987 and has 2 special prizes as well as 3 kinboshi. His highest rank was komusubi and he retired in January 1993.

## **Early Life**

He was a premature baby, who had to be given special care because of his tiny size. He was interested in sumo from a young age, but played soccer until high school as there was no opportunity to practise sumo at his junior high. He was an amateur sumo champion at Nihon University where he won six major titles.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Upon joining the professional sport he had makushita tsukedashi status, allowing him to make his debut at the bottom of the third makushita division. He had a losing score in his first tournament and so his first appearance on the banzuke ranking sheets was actually in the fourth sandanme division. However, he responded with five straight winning records and was promoted to the second juryo division for the first time in March 1986.

### **Juryo Career**

In his juryo debut, he only managed 6 wins and was demoted back down to makushita. He returned immediately in July 1986 and posted two consecutive 8-7 records. After taking part in two playoffs for the juryo championship in November 1986 and January 1987 he was promoted to the top makuuchi division for the March 1987 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Until this point he had been fighting simply as Kobayashiyama, based on his own surname, but to mark his promotion he was granted the shikona of Ryogoku, which had previously been used by three previous wrestlers from his Dewanoumi stable, most notably sekiwake Ryogoku Kajinosuke II, who won the makuuchi division yusho in 1914 at his first attempt. He was initially known as simply Ryogoku Hideaki, before switching to the full Ryogoku Kajinosuke shikona in 1989.

He achieved kachi-koshi in his first two top division tournaments and reached komusubi rank in July 1987. It was to be his highest rank, and he held it on three further occasions. He earned two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Fighting Spirit. His three kinboshi for defeating yokozuna were all earned against Chiyonofuji. In July 1990 he not only defeated Chiyonofuji but was also the only man to beat the winner of the tournament, Asahifuji. Injury problems in his later career forced Ryogoku's demotion back down to juryo a couple of times, and he retired in January 1993.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He remained in the sumo world as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Nakadachi Oyakata. He established his own training stable, Nakadachi stable in 1998. In 2003 he acquired the Sakaigawa elder name and it was renamed Sakaigawa stable. It is one of the strongest stables in sumo, with seven sekitori ranked wrestlers as of 2011. His first top division wrestler was Iwakiyama in 2002, like himself a former amateur champion, followed by Hochiyama in 2006. In 2014 his most senior wrestler Goeido reached ozeki rank and won a tournament championship in 2016.

## **Fighting Style**

Ryogoku 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 kimarite was yorikiri, or force out.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 316-313-20/626 (47 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 217-252-11/467 (32 basho)
* **Juryo:** 64-47-9/110 (8 basho)
* **Makushita:** 29-13/42 (6 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 6-1/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Juryo** Championship (January 1991)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (1), Outstanding Performance Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** (3) Chiyonofuji

## **Shikona History**

* Kobayashiyama Hideaki (1985.03 - 1987.01)
* Ryogoku Hideaki (1987.03 - 1989.07)
* Ryogoku Kajinosuke (1989.09 - 1993.01)

## **Gallery**

Ryogoku gets measured upon joining professional sumo (c. 1985)Ryogku defeats Yokozuna Futahaguro (c. 1987)Ryogoku prepares for his upcoming match (c. 1988)Ryogoku sings at a sumo charity event (c. 1988)Ryogoku awarded with a sansho prize (c. 1990)Ryogoku poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1992)Ryogoku after retirement as Sakaigawa Oyakata (c. 2016)Ryogoku's tegata
## **Sources**

* Ryogoku Kajinosuke Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Ryogoku Kajinosuke Rikishi Information