Asabenkei Daikichi

Asabenkei Daikichi - 朝弁慶 大吉 (born February 12, 1989) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Hiratsuka, Kanagawa. He made his debut in March 2007 and currently wrestles for Takasago stable. He reached the juryo division in November 2015. His highest rank as of 2023 is juryo 7.

## **Early Life**

Asabenkei was born in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa to parents who operated a Chinese restaurant. Sakai had no experience with sports until Junior High School. After entering Kanagawa Prefectural Goryugadai High School he joined the judo club and excelled in competitions due to his body weight. He was considering joining a university judo club, and even went to listen to a Yasuhiro Yamashita (one of the best judoka) lectures. However he also met Takasago oyakata who held sumo summer camps in Sakai's home town of Hiratsuka since 1994. At first he rejected Takasago's offer, but in the end they convinced him when they told him that he couldn't eat a lot of food if he did judo.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Sakai started sumo using the shikona Asasakai, "asa" a prefix used by most wrestlers in the Takasago stable, and "Sakai", his family name. Even though he trained with yokozuna, Asashoryu, he struggled due to his lack of sumo experience. In his very first tournament, Asasakai suffered a make-koshi or losing record. The next tournament he achieved a 5-2 winning record which was good enough for promotion to the jonidan division. Asasakai rose steadily through the jonidan division and earned promotion to the sandanme division in September 2008. In May 2009, he changed his shikona to "Asabenkei". The shikona was devised by juryo gyoji, Kimura Asanosuke, who belongs to the same stable and also comes from Kanagawa Prefecture.
Asabenkei continued to rise through the sandanme division, and earned promotion to the makushita division in November, 2010 after producing a 6-1 record the tournament before. However in May 2011, Asabenkei pulled out of the tournament, citing back pains. Asabenkei established himself as a makushita regular around 2012. In January 2015, Asabenkei went on huge run, achieving 5 straight kachi-koshi or winning records. He first produced a 4-3 record, then the following tournament produced a 6-1 record. This propelled him up the banzuke to the rank of makushita 7. He continued to impress and produced two consecutive 4-3 records. This was able to put him at a career high of makushita 2. He produced a 6-1 record and even defeated juryo wrestler, Amakaze on the 15th day, which gave him a slot in a playoff for the makushita championship. However he lost to Chiyoshoma in the first round of the playoff. Nonetheless, a promotion to juryo was guaranteed.

### **Juryo Career**

The last wrestler produced by Takasago stable promoted to juryo was Oga in 2006 (nine years). He was also the first wrestler promoted to sekitori status from Kanagawa Prefecture since Asanosho's promotion in 1993. In his juryo debut in November 2015, Asabenkei lost his last 5 matches which gave him a 6-9 losing record. The following tournament, Asabenkei produced another losing record of 7-8. He was demoted to the juryo 12 rank, where he produced his first juryo kachi-koshi, 8-7. The next tournament, Asabenkei achieved a career best double-digit 10-5 record. This was good enough for promotion to the rank of juryo 7. However Asabenkei suffered a losing record of 5-10 and then a 4-11 which relegated him back to the makushita division.

Asabenkei would stay in the makushita division for about a year and half. On March 2018, Asabenkei produced a 6-1 record at the rank of makushita 3, which was good enough for a re-promotion to the juryo division. Nevertheless, he lost his first seven matches and on the 13th day, he seriously injured his knee in a match against Daishoho. He suffered a bone cartilage inflammation and had to get medical treatment for meniscal damage for four weeks. He would sit out for two straight tournaments.

Asabenkei fell down the rankings from juryo 12 to sandanme 25. In his first tournament back he achieved a mediocre 4-3 record as he was still dealing with the effects of his injury. The following tournament in January 2019, he took the sandanme yusho with a perfect 7-0 record. He was reported to the upper levels of makushita and would remain there for around most of 2019. On March 2020, Asabenkei achieved a 6-1 record at the rank of makushita 3 which promoted him back to the juryo divison. Asabenkei started the tournament with two straight losses and three straight wins. However he went on a drought go nine straight loses and pulled out on the last day. He finished with a 3-12 and was demoted back down to makushita.

## **Personal Life**

* Asabenkei's hobbies include watching movies and reading.

## **Fighting Style**

Asabenkei is an oshi-zumo specialist, which means he prefers thrusting and pushing techniques rather than fighting on the mawashi. The most common kimarite that he employs is oshidashi (force-out), yorikiri (push-out) and hattakikomi (slap-down). Due to his huge weight advantage (201 kg at his biggest), he would also commonly employ kimedashi (arm barring force out).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 377-352-21/725 (99 basho)
* **Juryo:** 46-73-1/117 (8 basho)
* **Makushita:** 201-185-20/384 (58 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 87-60/147 (21 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 35-28/63 (9 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 8-6/14 (2 basho)

### **Achievements**

* 1 **Sandanme** Championship (January 2019)

## **Shikona History**

* Asasakai Yasunobu (2007.03 - 2009.03)
* Asabenkei Keisei (2009.05 - 2012.03)
* Asabenkei Onimaru (2012.05 - 2012.07)
* Asabenkei Keisei (2012.09 - 2012.11)
* Asabenkei Daikichi (2013.01 - )

## **Gallery**

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

Asabenkei Daikichi - 2017 (Retrieved from the JSA)Asabenkei Daikichi - 2016 (Retrieved from the JSA)Asabenkei Daikichi - 2015 (Retrieved from the JSA)Asabenkei Daikichi - 2015 (Retrieved from the JSA)Asabenkei's Tegata
### **Career Overview**

A young Asabenkei outside Takasago beya (c. 2007)Asabenkei congratulated on Juryo promotion (c. 2015)Asabenkei after promotion to Juryo (c. 2015)Asabenkei meets the mayor of his hometown (c. 2015)Asabenkei's Juryo promotion party (c. 2015)Asabenkei defeats Tokushindo (c. 2015)Asabenkei defeats Tenkaiho (c. 2016)Asabenkei defeats Jokoryu (c. 2017)Asabenkei ensures re-promotion to Juryo (c. 2018)Asabenkei during the Juryo dohyo-iri (c. 2018)Asabenkei defeats future Yokozuna Terunofuji (c. 2018)Asabenkei wins the Sandanme Yusho (c. 2019)Asabenkei after ensuring re-promotion to Juryo (c. 2020)Asabenkei loses to Hoshoryu (c. 2020)Asabenkei defeats Shonannoumi (c. 2021)Asabenkei defeats Arauma (c. 2022)Asabenkei battles Kenshin (c. 2023)

## **Sources**

* Asabenkei Daikichi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Asabenkei Daikichi Rikishi Information