Ryuden Goshi

Ryuden Goshi - 竜電 剛至 (born November 10, 1990) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kofu, Yamanashi. He made his debut in March 2006 and currently wrestles for Takadagawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 2018 and has two special prizes. His highest rank as of 2023 is komusubi.

## **Early Life**

Watanabe was the youngest of three brothers and had a background in judo. However, he was persuaded by the former sekiwake Akinoshima, a coach at Takadagawa stable who was visiting his junior high school to scout a judo classmate, to give sumo a try.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He made his debut in March 2006, the same tournament as Tochinoshin, Sakaizawa and Masakaze. He was immediately given the shikona of Ryuden, with the "Ryu" part taken from his hometown school and the "den" part from the legendary wrestler Raiden.

Ryuden gradually rose the ranks through the lower divisions and reached the makushita division in March 2008 at the young age of 17. He bounced back and forth between makushita and sandanme for a couple of months, before becoming a makushita regular beginning from November 2008. In July 2009, Ryuden produced a 6-1 record and was placed in an eight-man playoff for the makushita yusho, however he lost to Sotairyu in the first round.

He was talked of, alongside Masunoyama, as a candidate for the first wrestler born in the Heisei era to reach the sekitori ranks when he produced a 5–2 score at the rank of makushita 15 in November 2009. However his progress then stalled with two consecutive make-koshi, and he suffered a concussion after falling from the dohyo in a match against Takanoiwa in March 2010, and was embarrassed when he had to be carried off in a wheelchair. He was overtaken by Takayasu who did become the first Heisei born sekitori in November 2010, with Masunoyama. However after scoring a perfect 7–0 record and taking the makushita championship, Ryuden eventually reached the juryo division himself after the September 2012 tournament.

### **Juryo Career**

He was the first sekitori produced by the new Takadagawa head Akinoshima, who had taken over the running of the stable from former ozeki Maenoyama in 2009. He was also the first sekitori from Yamanashi Prefecture since Hidenohana 24 years earlier.

However Ryuden suffered a fracture of his right hip joint in his juryo debut in November and had to withdraw from the tournament. During his long injury recuperation he made two abortive attempts to return, breaking the hip twice more. This resulted in him falling all the way down to jonokuchi 17 in the rankings. For four consecutive tournaments from January until July 2014, although still injured, he fought (and won) one match at the end of the tournament, solely to prevent falling off the banzuke completely. He was finally fit to return in September 2014 and won three consecutive yusho to quickly return to the third highest makushita division. He was finally promoted back to juryo in November 2016. Only Hokutokuni (off the banzuke) and Kotobeppu (jonokuchi 39) had returned to juryo from lower ranks than Ryuden had. Ryuden remain in juryo for eight tournaments, where he only produced one losing record out of the eight tournaments.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Ryuden was promoted to the top makuuchi division in January 2018, becoming the second top division wrestler from Takadagawa stable after Kagayaki to achieve this since the new head coach took over. He was the first Yamanashi Prefecture native to be ranked in makuuchi since Onohana in March 1988. He scored ten wins in his top division debut and shared the Fighting Spirit prize with fellow newcomer Abi. Since then, he has stayed in makuuchi and has mainly shown solid performances. In May 2019 he won ten bouts and received his first Technique prize. He was promoted to komusubi for the July 2019 tournament, the first from Yamanashi Prefecture since Fujizakura 47 years earlier. He scored only 4–11 in his komusubi debut, and remained in the mid-maegashira ranks until May 2021, where he fell to maegashira 14. He was withdrawn from that tournament by his stablemaster, who said he had breached COVID-19 compliance guidelines and may face further sanction from the Sumo Association.

When Ryuden competed again after his suspension in November 2021, he entered the competition at the rank of makushita 47. He commented that since the Sumo Association had let him continue to fight, he now had no choice but to fight without shame, while staying away from the press for a while. Ryuden won the makushita division title with a perfect 7–0 record. Thanks to his championship victory, he was promoted to makushita 5 and during this period he was competing to win a second tournament in a row but was beaten on the final day by Gonoyama (then called Nishikawa). He however earned a promotion to the juryo division for the March 2022 tournament, where he won his first championship in that division. After the May tournament of the same year, where he scored a 9–6 record, he won the juryo division again in July, leading to his promotion back to the makuuchi division. On his return to sumo's top division, he finished just a few victories behind the tournament winner (junyusho), maegashira Tamawashi, notably achieving a seven-match winning streak. Ryuden was subsequently promoted to maegashira 6.

## **Controversy**

### **COVID-19 Violations**

He was withdrawn from that tournament by his stablemaster, who said he had breached COVID-19 compliance guidelines and may face further sanction from the Sumo Association. The compliance committee's official investigation about Ryuden concluded that he has been going on non-essential outings to meet a woman, who was not his wife, 25 times in a period spanning 2020-2021. Ryuden was later suspended for three tournaments retroactive to the May basho; he will be eligible to compete again in November. In addition, his oyakata (former sekiwake Akinoshima), was docked 20% of his salary.

## **Personal Life**

* On February 1st, 2019, Ryuden announced his engagement with a nurse 5 years his senior called Ai Fukumaru. They have been in a relationship for four yeas before the engagement was announced.
* Ryuden's tsukebito, or personal attendant, and long-time friend Shobushi passed away on May 13th, 2020, from multiple organ failure due to complications from COVID-19. They attended the same junior high school and were both members of the judo club at the school. Ryuden considered him to be a younger brother.
* Ryuden's favorite foods are raindrop cake (a dessert made of water and agar that is supposed to resemble a raindrop), Hamburg steak, and pasta.

## **Fighting Style**

Ryuden is a yotsu-sumo specialist who prefers grappling techniques. His favorite winning kimarite is yori-kiri, with a moro-zashi hold, or both arms inside his opponent's.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 527-422-99/948 (105 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 198-207-15/405 (28 basho)
* **Juryo:** 96-63-21/158 (12 basho)
* **Makushita:** 146-113-21/259 (40 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 47-26-11/73 (12 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 25-10-7/35 (6 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 15-3-24/18 (6 basho)

### **Championships**

* 2 **Juryo** Championship
	+ 1st (March 2022)
	+ 2nd (July 2022)
* 2 **Makushita** Championships
	+ 1st (September 2012)
	+ 2nd (November 2021)
* 1 **Sandanme** Championship (January 2015)
* 1 **Jonidan** Championship (November 2014)
* 1 **Jonokuchi** Championship (September 2014)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Sprit Prize (1), Technique Prize (1)

## **Gallery**

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

Ryuden Goshi - 2023 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2022 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2019 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2018 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2017 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden Goshi - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Ryuden's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Ryuden ensures promotion to Juryo (c. 2012)Ryuden wins his first Makushita Yusho (c. 2012)Ryuden after promotion to Juryo (c. 2012)Ryuden's Juryo promotion party (c. 2012)Ryuden's first stint in Juryo (c. 2012)Ryuden falls to Jonokuchi (c. 2014)Ryuden repromoted to Juryo after a four year absence (c. 2016)Ryuden prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2017)Ryuden defeats Aminishiki (c. 2018)Ryuden after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2018)Ryuden defeats Kaisei (c. 2018)Ryuden with his first of many sansho prizes (c. 2018)Ryuden after promotion to Komusubi (c. 2019)Ryuden defeats Ozeki Tochinoshin (c. 2019)Ryuden defeats Takarafuji (c. 2020)Ryuden prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2021)Ryuden pushes out Yutakayama (c. 2021)Ryuden defeats Chiyonoumi to win the Makushita Yusho (c. 2021)Ryuden ensures repromotion to Juryo after suspension (c. 2022)Ryuden defeats Myogiryu to win his second Juryo Yusho (c. 2022)Ryuden defeats Hoshoryu (c. 2023)
## **Sources**

* Ryuden Goshi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Ryuden Goshi Rikishi Information