Daiju Hisateru

Daiju Hisateru - 大受 久晃 (born March 19, 1950) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Setana, Hokkaido. He made his debut in March 1965 and wrestled for Takashima stable. He reached the makuuchi division in May 1970 and has eleven special prizes. His highest rank was ozeki, and he retired in May 1977.

## **Early Life**

Sakaiya was born in the town of Setana in Hokkaido prefecture. During his sixth year of elementary school, he met Takashima Oyakata (former ozeki Mitsuneyama) who offered him a spot in the stable due to his big body. At the age of 13, he moved into the stable, but could not make his debut as he did not meet the height requirements. Standing at only 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in), he injected silicone in his head to increase his height to 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) which allowed him to make his professional debut in March 1965.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Initially fighting under his surname, Sakaiya rose up the unsalaried ranks rather quickly, reaching sandanme in March 1966 and makushita in March 1967. Upon promotion to makushita, he changed his shikona to "Daiju" (大受). In July 1969, he produced a 6-1 record at the rank of makushita 2 and was promoted to juryo in September 1969 at the young age of 19.

### **Juryo Career**

In his first tournament ranked as a sekitori, Daiju produced a strong 10-5 record. However, he followed with a 6-9 record in November. In the next January 1970 tournament he finished with an impressive 12-3 record which promoted him to the top of juryo. There, he finished with a spectacular 14-1 record, which won the juryo yusho, and was promoted all the way to the rank of maegashira 6 in the following May 1970 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Daiju finished with a satisfactory 9-6 record in his makuuchi debut and was awarded his first of many Technique prize. In January 1971, he produced a strong 11-4 record and was promoted to the sekiwake. In his san'yaku debut, he finished with a 8-7 record and was awarded his first Outstanding Performance prize. He held the rank for two more tournaments before falling back down to the maegashira ranks in September 1971.

Daiju went on a slump in 1972 where he earned no special prizes and finished with no double-digit winning records. His best record came in November 1972 where he finished with a 9-6 record.

In January 1973, Daiju finished with a strong 10-5 record (he was awarded the Technique prize in this tournament) and was promoted to komusubi in the March tournament where he finished with another 10-5 record (he was awarded the Outstanding Performance prize in this tournament). He was a runner-up in the May 1973 tournament to Wajima with a score of 11–4 and defeated two more yokozuna, Kotozakura and Kitanofuji (the latter for the first time in twelve attempts). He did even better in July, defeating Kitanofuji again and finishing in third place on 13–2. He had a clean sweep of all three special prizes, the first wrestler ever to achieve this. Having accumulated 34 wins in the previous three tournaments, his ozeki promotion was confirmed for the September 1973 tournament.

### **Ozeki Career**

Daiju proved unworthy of such a prestigious rank and he had to withdraw from the tournament on the 8th day due to back pain. In the following November 1973 and January 1974 tournaments, Daiju finished with the tournament a subpar 9-6 records. However, he also began suffering from neck and knee injuries and after two consecutive losing records, he was demoted back down to sekiwake after only five tournaments as an ozeki.

### **Later Career**

He was never able to return, and though he remained at sekiwake for four tournaments he then fell back to the maegashira ranks. After a 4–11 score in March 1977 he finished his career back in the juryo division, the first former ozeki ever to compete at such a low rank. After three straight losses he pulled out of the May 1977 tournament and announced his retirement at the age of just 27.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After his retirement he became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Tateyama, and worked as a coach at his old stable until it closed in 1982 due to the ill health of his old coach. He then worked at Kumagatani stable until it too shut down in 1996, upon which he was transferred to Tatsunami stable. After twenty years as an assistant coach, in May 1997 he was asked to become head coach of the Asahiyama stable after the sudden death of the previous stablemaster, former komusubi Wakafutase, and he adopted the name Asahiyama. Daimanazuru briefly made the top division in 2006 and Tokusegawa was a member of the stable for a short time after it absorbed Kiriyama stable in 2011, but there were no more sekitori after his retirement. Asahiyama also worked as a judge of tournament bouts. Asahiyama stable was shut down in January 2015 as Asahiyama approached the mandatory retirement age of 65, and he moved to Asakayama stable. He left the Sumo Association in March 2015, opting not to be re-employed for five years for a consultancy role as allowed by a rule change in 2014. Instead the Asahiyama elder name was acquired by former sekiwake Kotonishiki.

## **Personal Life**

He had a pronounced dome on his head, due to him injecting silicone to meet the Sumo Association's height requirements when he was first recruited as a wrestler. It was removed in 2010.

Since Daiju was the only sekitori in his stable for most of the time, he would often visit Kokonoe stable for training sessions and yokozuna Kitanofuji praised his enthusiasm for training.

## **Fighting Style**

Daiju was very much an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushes and thrusts to the opponent's chest rather than fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common winning technique by far was oshidashi, a simple push out, which accounted for half his victories at sekitori level.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 462-388-31/845 (74 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 308-296-26/600 (42 basho)
* **Juryo:** 42-22-5/63 (5 basho)
* **Makushita:** 60-38/98 (14 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 26-16/42 (6 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 21-14/35 (5 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Technique Prize (6), Outstanding Performance Prize (4), Fighting Spirit Prize (1)
* **Record:** Tied for 12th most special prizes (11 special prizes)

## **Shikona History**

* Sakaiya Toshiaki (1965.03 - 1967.01)
* Daiju Hisanori (1967.03 - 1969.05)
* Daiju Hisateru (1969.07 - 1977.05)

## **Gallery**

Daiju Hisateru - (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Daiju's tegataDaiju in Maezumo as he joins professional sumo (c. 1965)Daiju with one of his many sansho prizes (c. 1971)Daiju pushes out Fujinokawa in a bloody match (c. 1971)Daiju with fellow future Ozeki Takanohana (c. 1971)Daiju prepares for his upcoming match (c. 1973)Daiju pushes out Yokozuna Kitanofuji (c. 1973)Daiju becomes the first rikishi to wins all three sansho prizes (c. 1973)Daiju gets promoted to Ozeki (c. 1973)Daiju defeats Fujizakura (c. 1973)Daiju poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1976)Daiju becomes the first Ozeki demoted to Juryo (c. 1977)Daiju's retirement ceremony pamphlet (c. 1977)Daiju after retirement as Asahiyama Oyakata (c. 2015)
## **Sources**

* Daiju Hisateru Japanese WIkipedia Article
* Daiju Hisateru Rikishi Information