Daikiho Masahiro

Daikiho Masahiro - 大喜鵬 将大 (born May 13, 1989) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Iizuka, Fukuoka. He made his debut in March 2012 and wrestled for Miyagino stable. He reached the makuuchi division in May 2013. His highest rank was maegashira 16 and he retired in September 2019.

## **Early Life**

At the age of three, Yamaguchi moved from Iizuka, Fukuoka to Tokyo. Although he first practiced rugby, he decided to start sumo due to his father's suggestion. He started attending a local dojo in his neighborhood in his fourth year of elementary school.

He left his parents and moved to Tottori to attend Tottori City Nishi Junior High School, where he won the national sumo tournament in his third year. He decided to attend Tottori Johoku High School, where he has been practicing at since his junior high school days. During his first year he became a high school yokozuna. He was the first person to achieve high school yokozuna in his first year in 24 years since Keita Kushima (future Kushimaumi).

After graduation, he enrolled in the Department of Physical Education at Nihon University. In his first year he won the national tournament and the Uwajima tournament. In his fourth year he served as captain of the sumo wrestling club and became university yokozuna. Including the aforementioned title, Yamaguchi won in total 19 titles during his amateur career. He subsequently earned the attention of many scouts, including yokozuna Hakuho of the Miyagino stable.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Yamaguchi joined Miyagino stable and made his debut in March 2012. Due to his amateur success he was given makushita tsukedashi status. In his first tournament he finished with a 5-2. The next tournament he achieved a 4-3 record. The following tournament he finished with a perfect 7-0 record and the makushita yusho; he was promoted to juryo in the September 2012 tournament.

### **Juryo Career**

Upon his promotion to juryo, he changed his shikona from his family name, 'Yamaguchi' to 'Daikiho'. In his first two tournaments he achieved two consecutive 9-6 records. However the following tournament he suffered his first career make-koshi (losing record) of 7-8. He would bounce back with another 9-6 kachi-koshi which earned him promotion to the makuuchi division in the May 2013 tournament. He was the 23rd rikishi from Fukuoka to earn promotion to makuuchi, and the first since Shohozan in 2011.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Daikiho made his debut at the rank of maegashira 16 and lost his first seven matches. He defeated Shotenro on the eight day, Asahisho on the 13th day and Asasekiryu on the final day. He finished with a poor 3-12 record and was demoted back down to juryo. This would be his only makuuchi tournament in his career.

### **Later Career**

After his demotion he would continue to struggle and posted two consecutive 7-8 records. On the November 2013 tournament, he was 2-7 by the 9th day, but went on to win the final six matches and finished with a satisfactory 8-7 record. However the following three tournaments he scored a 5-10, 6-9 and a disastrous 2-13 record which demoted him back to the unsalaried ranks.

In his first tournament back in makushita, he lost his first four matches and then pulled out due to a hip surgery. His physical condition continued to decrease as he still had tremors in his hands and lost almost 20 kilograms. Due to the major setback he lost all 7 matches in the next tournament and was demoted down to sandanme in the November 2011 tournament. This was his first career sandanme tournament, because he started at makushita tsukedashi and was allowed to skip that division. In his sandanme debut he achieved a 4-3 record, his first winning record in over a year. However in the following tournament he suffered a 3-4 record and couldn't earn re-promotion to makushita. He reverted his shikona back to his family name of Yamaguchi.

In March 2015 he was diagnosed with Graves' disease (an autoimmune thyroid disease) and was considering to quit sumo. However his medications were working and he gradually recovered. After his physical condition improved his results started to improve as well. After three consecutive records in sandanme, he was promoted back to makushita. In his makushita return he scored four consecutive 5-2 records as well as a 6-1 record at the rank of makushita 8. This promoted him to makushita 2 for the September 2016 tournament. He won all seven wins, including a win in the last day over Tamaki and he took his second career makushita championship. This guaranteed a promotion back to juryo.

In his first couple tournaments back in juryo in over 2 years he posted two consecutive 9-6 records as well as an 8-7 record. This brought him to juryo 4 for the September 2017 tournament. He was eyeing promotion back to makuuchi, but after 6 straight losses on the final days, he finished with a 5-10 record. He bounced back with a 9-6 record, but the next tournament he scored another 5-10 record. Yamaguchi fell into another slump and suffered two other consecutive losing records. In the January 2018 tournament, he pulled out on the 14th day after losing the last ten matches due to an injury on his right knee. He was demoted from juryo to makushita for the March 2018 tournament and would never return back to sekitori status.

After suffering 6 straight make-koshi and demotion back to sandanme, Daikiho scored a 4-3 record in the march 2019 record. This would be his last career kachi-koshi and he continued to produce losing records after that.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

In the September 2019 tournament, Yamaguchi reverted back to his old ring name of Daikiho and finished with a 2-5 record. This guaranteed demotion down to jonidan for the first time in his career and he submitted his retirement papers to the Japan Sumo Association on September 22nd, 2019. Daikiho cited that due to ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), he couldn't practice and this damaged his results. The doctors also told him that even after surgery, he should not do sumo, and if he did practice sumo there will be a big chance that the disease (OPLL) would interfere with his daily life.

Daikiho could not qualify for toshiyori stock, because he did not have the required amount of tournaments at sekitori level. After retirement he was employed at a temporal staffing agency before leaving to establish his own company. In May 2022, he opened up a food truck called "Daichan Shokudo" (大ちゃん食堂) with his wife in his wife's hometown of Nagoya. The food truck sells chankonabe, Chinese noodles, and fried foods.

After almost 4 years since retiring, Daikiho had his hair-cutting ceremony on September 3rd 2023 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan.

## **Personal Life**

* Daikiho is married and has one son.
* Daikiho is close friends with Ishiura as they were teammates/stable mates throughout junior high school, high school, university and Miyagino stable.
* Daikiho's hobbies include watching sports.
* Since the March 2013 tournament, Daikiho would slap his body many times and make a loud voice. He started this warm up after getting an operation to treat his detached retina on his left eye. This warmup was a superstition which was very much influenced by Takamisakari's warm up routine. However he was asked by the gyoji to not raise his voice while doing his routine on the 7th day of the same tournament. He decided to do a new version of the routine which was more mild, however he was warned again by the Inspection Committee during the May 2013 tournament.
* On the 12th day of the November 2013 tournament, Daikiho was warned by the judging department after over pushing Akiseyama, even though he was already out of the dohyo. Due to the fall, Akiseyama knocked over a bucket of salt, but luckily was not injured from the fall.
* Daikiho's shikona reverted back to his family name of Yamaguchi and he was promoted back to juryo in November 2016. His "new" shikona had only 6 strokes which was the least of any of the 70 sekitori (Yamaguchi: 山口). He claimed that it was "easy to sign everything".
* Daikiho is one of the rare sumo wrestlers that drive a car. He bought a 300,000 yen car at Yahoo. He said that after training he will ride the car with his stablemates and attendants, and that it was definitely not a waste of money.
* Daikiho couldn't serve as Hakuho's tsuyuharai (dew sweeper) in his one makuuchi tournament, because he didn't have an oichomage. However during the jungyo tours he served as Hakuho's tsuyuharai. He would also sometimes serve as Hakuho's flag bearer during his championship parade.
* Daikiho played a sumo wrestler in a movie called *Thermae Romae*.

## **Fighting Style**

Asahisho is an oshi-sumo specialist who prefers pushing and thrusting techniques to grabbing the opponent's mawashi. His most common winning kimarite is hatakikomi, or slap down. He also regularly wins by yorikiri (frontal force out) and oshidashi (push out), the two most common techniques in sumo.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 220-247-7/465 (46 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 3-12/15 (1 basho)
* **Juryo:** 122-147-1/268 (18 basho)
* **Makushita:** 61-48-3/109 (16 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 34-40-3/73 (11 basho)

### **Championships**

* 2 **Makushita** Championships
	+ 1st (July 2012)
	+ 2nd (September 2016)

## **Shikona History**

* Yamaguchi Masahiro (2012.03 - 2012.07)
* Daikiho Masahiro (2012.09 - 2015.01)
* Yamaguchi Masahiro (2015.03 - 2019.07)
* Daikiho Masahiro (2019.09 - 2019.09)

## **Gallery**

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

Yamaguchi Masahiro - 2016 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho Masahiro - 2014 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho Masahiro - 2013 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho Masahiro - 2013 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho Masahiro - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho Masahiro - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Daikiho's tegataYamaguchi's Tegata
### **Career Overview**

Daikiho gets recruited into Miyagino stable (c. 2012)Daikiho gets measured upon joining professional sumo (c. 2012)Daikiho defeats Suzaku in his first match (c. 2012)Daikiho after promotion to Juryo (c. 2012)Daikiho gets presented with his kesho-mawashi (c. 2012)Daikiho prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2012)Daikiho serves as Yokozuna Hakuho's flag bearer (c. 2012)Daikiho mimics Takamisakari's warmup (c. 2013)Daikiho after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2013)Daikiho defeats Shotenro (c. 2013)Daikiho defeats Amuru (c. 2014)Yamaguchi falls to the unsalaried ranks (c. 2015)Yamaguchi ensures re-promotion to Juryo (c. 2016)Yamaguchi wins his second Makushita Yusho (c. 2016)Yamaguchi prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2017)Yamaguchi during the Juryo dohyo-iri (c. 2018)Daikiho after wrestling his final match (c. 2019)Daikiho has his hair-cutting ceremony (c. 2023)
## **Sources**

* Daikiho Masahiro Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Daikiho Masahiro Rikishi Information