Tamarikido Hideki

Tamarikido Hideki - 玉力道 栄来 (born April 19, 1974) is a former Korean-Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Edogawa, Tokyo. He made his debut in March 1997 and wrestled for Kataonami stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 2001. His highest rank was maegashira 8 and he retired in January 2010.

## **Early Life**

Yasumoto was a teammate of Takanohana at the Meidai Nakano High School's sumo club. He was also a former amateur sumo champion at Meiji University, and was considered extremely promising. He came third in the All Japan Sumo Championships. He was a devoted student and graduated with a bachelor of commerce. After graduation he entered Kataonami stable.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He was given the shikona "Tamarikido" (玉力道) and made his debut at the bottom of makushita due to his amateur accomplishments (makushita tsukedashi). In his first tournament he produced a strong 6-1 record and was placed in an eight-man playoff, but lost in the last round to Kogawa. However, he withdrew from the following tournament and fell back down to sandanme. He eventually recovered and was promoted to juryo in September 1999.

### **Juryo Career**

Initially, Tamarikido could not establish himself in juryo and fell down to makushita after only two tournaments. He immediately returned and posted a solid 9-6 record. A 10-5 record in November 2000 earned Tamarikido a promotion to makuuchi in January 2001.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Tamarikido struggled in his makuuchi debut and could only manage six wins and as a result fell back down to juryo. He returned to makuuchi in November 2011, but could only stay in the division for three tournaments. His third stint in makuuchi began in November 2002 and he was able to stay there for a whole year before falling back down to juryo due to injury.

### **Later Career**

2004 was a disastrous year for him as a knee injury in May meant he missed nearly all his matches and fell to the fourth sandanme division. It was subsequently discovered that due to the lack of treatment of earlier injuries, his anterior cruciate ligament was completely worn away. He began his comeback in 2005, winning the sandanme division championship in March of that year.

He eventually managed to return to the jūryō division in March 2006, and having fallen to sandanme 80, he was the lowest ranking former top division wrestler ever to regain sekitori status. He had climbed as high as juryo 4 by the November 2006 tournament. However, he was demoted back to the unsalaried ranks after the September 2007 tournament when he managed only a 3–12 score at juryo 12. He continued to slide down the rankings, with four consecutive make-koshi scores of 3–4 from November 2007 to May 2008. After recording only one win in November 2008 he was demoted back to the sandanme division for the January 2009 tournament. He made an immediate return to the third division with a 6–1 score.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Tamarikido retired after the January 2010 tournament, with a final day defeat to Kitazakura leaving him with a 1–6 record. His danpatsu-shiki, or retirement ceremony, was held in June at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. He stayed in sumo as a coach at Kataonami stable under the toshiyori name Araiso Oyakata. In June 2013 he switched to the Nishonoseki name after it was vacated by the retiring stablemaster Kongo. In 2014 he swapped elder names with Matsugane Oyakata, the former ozeki Wakashimazu, and joined the renamed Nishonoseki stable.

## **Personal Life**

* Tamarikido is a third generation Korean-Japanese. His Korean name is Cho Young-rae (조영래) and his family originates from Daegu, South Korea. He is member of Mindan (Republic of Korean Residents Union in Japan) and paid a courtesy visit to the organization's headquarters when he was promoted o juryo.
* In August 2020 it was announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, although he had not been displaying symptoms and was not believed to have been in close contact with other sumo personnel during the most recent tournament.

## **Fighting Style**

Tamarikido preferred to fight on the opponent's mawashi, and his favored grip was (somewhat unusually) morozashi, or double hand inside. His most common winning kimarite was yorikiri, a straightforward force out.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 376-354-120/725 (78 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 65-93-7/157 (11 basho)
* **Juryo:** 163-154-88/313 (27 basho)
* **Makushita:** 124-103-18/227 (35 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 24-4-7/28 (5 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Juryo** Championship (September 2002)
* 1 **Makushita** Championship (March 2005)

## **Gallery**

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

Tamarikido Hideki - 2001 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tamarikido's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Tamarikido gets recruited into Kataonami stable (c. 1997)Tamarikido after promotion to Juryo (c. 1999)Tamarikido in Juryo (c. 1999)Tamarikido wins the Juryo Yusho (c. 2002)Tamarikido poses with his Juryo Yusho certificate (c. 2002)Tamarikido during the dohyo-iriTamarikido after wrestling a matchTamarikido announces his retirement (c. 2010)Tamarikido's retirement ceremony (c. 2010)Tamarikido after retirement as Matsugane Oyakata

## **Sources**

* Tamarikido Hideki Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Tamarikido Hideki Rikishi Information