Hanaarashi Kazumi

Hanaarashi Kazumi - 花嵐 一美 (born April 3, 1957) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Yura, Wakayama. He made his debut in March 1980 and last wrestled for Hanakago stable. He reached the juryo division in March 1984. His highest rank was juryo 9 and he retired in November 1985.

## **Early Life**

Kotani practiced judo in junior high school before switching to sumo wrestling after enrolling at Minabe High School. After high school, he received many offers from professional sumo stables, but decided to decline them and continue his amateur career at the collegiate level. He joined Nihon University's sumo club and in his fourth year, he won the national student sumo championship to become college yokozuna.

## **Career**

After graduating from university, he opted to turn professional and joined Hanakago stable. He made his professional debut in March 1980. Due to his amateur accomplishments, he was granted makushita tsukedashi status which allowed him to make his debut at the bottom go the makushita division. Even though he was given this special dispensation, he still struggled to break through to juryo wall and was stuck in makushita for four years. After changing his shikona to "Hanaarashi" (花嵐) in May 1982, he began to produce stronger results and was promoted to juryo in March 1984.

Hanaarashi was only ranked in juryo for a total of three tournaments. In his first tournament, he could only manage a 7-8 record after losing to Wakasegawa on the final day. Since he was ranked at the bottom of juryo, he was demoted back down to makushita. Nevertheless, he returned to sekitori status in July 1984 and posted a winning record. As a result he was promoted to the rank of juryo 9, but could only manage 4 wins at that rank and was demoted from juryo.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After losing his sekitori status, Hanaarashi remained in makushita for another year before announcing his abrupt retirement prior to the start of the November 1985 tournament. The reason for this was because his Hanakago stable closed down and he was not accustomed to living in a stable with so many wrestlers as all the personnel from Hanakago stable transferred to Hanaregoma stable.

### **Professional Wrestling Career**

After he left Sumo he would join professional wrestling signing with Wrestle Association R (WAR) under the ring name Arashi, debuting for the company on November 11, 1993, against Yuji Yasuraoka as Arashi, but would later left to form Tokyo Pro Wrestling (TPW) with several others and would rename himself to Dunktane.

In Tokyo Pro Wrestling Dunktane was one of the Tokyo Pro's main wrestler. In 1995 in a show when Tokyo Pro Wrestling made a show in The Great Kabuki, Kotani renamed himself to Daikokubo Benkei and a formed a team with Kabuki, boasting one of the best strengths in the group. This is the fact that the potential of Benkei has been drawn out by the wrestler company and the promotion would later close its doors.

After the closing of Tokyo Pro Wrestling, he started to wrestle in the Japan Pro Wrestling and IWA Japan. He would also wrestle in other japanese promotions like Fuyuki Army, where he took part of a tournament for the Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling's FMW Six Man Street Fight Tag Team Championship. He later joined Big Japan Pro Wrestling where he spent the majority of his career. He was a one time BJW Heavyweight champion and a one time BJW Tag Team champion alongside Abdullah Kobayashi.

In 2012 after doing a surgery due to deterioration of his articulations, he would have a long-term hiatus but he refused to retire in 2014. From the missing point, such as staff to the stores and he also appears in the store after his retirement. His official retirement match was on October 23, 2014 when he teamed up with Kazuki Hashimoto and Masashi Otani losing to the SECRET BASE wrestlers Amigo Suzuki, Jun Ogawauchi and Mototsugu Shimizu.

## **Fighting Style**

Hanaarashi was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling to pushing and thrusting techniques. He favored a hidari-yotsu (right hand outside, left hand inside) position when gripping his opponent's mawashi (belt). His most common kimarite was yorikiri, or force out.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 138-125-6/263 (35 basho)
* **Juryo:** 19-26/45 (3 basho)
* **Makushita:** 119-99-6/218 (32 basho)

## **Shikona History**

* Kotani (1980.03 - 1980.11)
* Rashao (1981.01 - 1981.05)
* Wakanonada (1981.07 - 1982.03)
* Hanaarashi Kazumi (1982.05 - 1985.11)

## **Gallery**

Hanaarashi (c. 1984)Hanaarashi after retirement as a professional wrestler (c. 1996)Hanaarashi's tegata
## **Sources**

* Hanaarashi Kazumi Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Hanaarashi Kazumi Rikishi Information