Dewanohana Yoshitaka

Dewanohana Yoshitaka - 出羽の花 義貴 (born May 13, 1951) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Nakasato, Aomori. He made his debut in March 1974 and wrestled for Dewanoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 1977 and has 10 special prizes as well as 2 kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in January 1988.

## **Early Life**

After graduating from Goshogawara Agricultural & Forestry High School, Nomura attended Nihon University where he was a member of the sumo club. He earned the the title of amateur yokozuna in 1973 after winning the National Student Sumo Championships.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He joined Dewanoumi stable, which was recommended to him by his cousin, a former wrestler at the stable named Dewanohana Yoshihide, and fought his first bout in March 1974. He was granted makushita tsukedashi status due to his amateur accomplishments and was allowed to start at the bottom of the makushita division. He had a losing record or make-koshi in his debut tournament, and was demoted to the sandanme division. However, five consecutive winning records in his next five tournaments saw him promoted to the juryo division in May 1975, whereupon his changed his shikona or fighting name from Nomura to Dewanohana.

### **Juryo Career**

He weighed barely more than 100 kilos and initially struggled as a sekitori, falling back to makushita for five tournaments. Upon his return to juryo he won the division championship or yusho with an 11–4 record. In November 1977 he was promoted to the top makuuchi division.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Dewanohana was to spend 62 consecutive tournaments in the top division, compiling a record of 441 wins against 483 losses, with 6 injury absences. He received ten sansho or special prizes, one for Outstanding Performance, five for Fighting Spirit and four for Technique. He earned two kinboshi or gold stars for defeating a yokozuna when ranked as a maegashira. (He also defeated Kitanoumi twice at sekiwake rank.) His best performance in a tournament was in January 1985 when he was runner-up to Chiyonofuji with an 11–4 record in the first tournament held in the new Ryogoku Kokugikan. His first appearance in the sanyaku ranks was at komusubi in November 1979, and he spent a total of 19 tournaments in sanyaku, 12 at komusubi and seven at sekiwake. He held the sekiwake rank for four straight tournaments in 1982 but failed to mount a challenge for ozekipromotion, falling to 6–9 in September 1982. His last appearance in the sanyaku ranks came in September 1987 at the age of 36, where he could only score three wins against twelve losses. He retired just two tournaments later in January 1988, rather than face demotion to juryo.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He remained in sumo as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association, and worked as a coach at Dewanoumi stable. His elder name for the whole of his post-retirement career was Dekiyama Oyakata. He was a judge of tournament bouts and joined the Sumo Association's executive board in 2014, managing the public relations department. He reached the mandatory retirement age for elders of 65 in 2016, but was re-employed as a consultant for a period of five years on reduced pay, ending upon his 70th birthday in 2021.

## **Personal Life**

* Dewanohana is close friends with Japanese actor Akira Nakao and actress Shino Ikenami.
* Dewanohana had a grip strength of nearly 100 kg and could squeeze an apple with ease: because of this, his nickname was the "Human Juicer".
* Dewanohana has a sincere personality and was popular among sumo wrestler. In addition, Hideaki Kobayashi (later Ryogoku) who was a junior wrestler at Nihon University chose Dewanoumi stable over many other stables because of Dewanohana.
* Dewanohana's son is an athletic trainer and he competed in amateur sumo at Nippon Sports Science University.
* He shares the exact same birthday as Kurosegawa (Kiriyama Oyakata), so because of that they both reached mandatory retirement age at the exact same time.

## **Fighting Style**

Dewanohana was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who grappled rather than pushed, and was noted for his skill on the mawashi. His most common winning kimarite were yorikiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw), and he also liked to employ the rare move komatosukui (over thigh scooping body drop). Among his most memorable rivalries were with Wakashimazu (with whom he had a 15–14 win/loss record in the top division) and Takanosato (12–16).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 572-586-6/1156 (84 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 441-483-6/922 (62 basho)
* **Juryo:** 78-72/150 (10 basho)
* **Makushita:** 48-29/77 (11 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (5), Technique Prize (4), Outstanding Performance Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 2: (1) Wakanohana II, (1) Takanosato

## **Shikona History**

* Nomura (1974.03 - 1975.03)
* Dewanohana Yoshitaka (1975.05 - 1988.01)

## **Gallery**

Dewanohana defeats his opponent in college sumo (c. 1973)Dewanohana's early career in the unsalaried ranksDewanohana poses with his kesho-mawashiDewanohana prepares for his upcoming matchDewanohana defeats Ozeki Takanohana (c. 1978)Dewanohana with one of his many sansho prizes (c. 1979)Dewanohana after promotion to Komusubi (c. 1979)Dewanohana celebrates Yokozuna Mienoumi's Yusho (c. 1980)Dewanohana receives multiple sansho in one tournament (c. 1982)Dewanohana (c. 1986)Dewanohana after retirement as Dekiyama Oyakata (c. 2016)Dewanohana's tegata
## **Sources**

* Dewanohana Yoshitaka Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Dewanohana Yoshitaka Rikishi Information