Tochitsukasa Tetsuo

Tochitsukasa Tetsuo - 栃司 哲史 (born April 25, 1958) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Nakagawa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi. He made his debut in March 1981 and last wrestled for Kasugano stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 1983 and has 2 special prizes as well as 3 kinboshi. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in May 1992.

## **Early Life**

Tetsuo Goto's parents operated a construction company called "Goto Crane" ( (有) 後藤クレーン). Initially, Goto practiced swimming competitively in elementary school, but took up sumo upon attending junior high school. He excelled in sumo and took the title of junior high school yokozuna. He continued his amateur career all the way to the collegiate level at Nihon University.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

A former amateur champion at Nihon University, he turned professional at the age of 23, joining Kasugano stable in March 1981. Due to his amateur accomplishments, Goto was given makushita tsukedashi status which allowed him to start at the bottom of the makushita division. He was given the shikona "Tochitsukasa" (栃司) and posted five consecutive winning records which earned him a promotion to juryo by his sixth professional tournaments.

### **Juryo Career**

Tochitsukasa made his juryo debut in January 1982, but he produced a losing record and was demoted back down to makushita. He returned back to sekitori status in January 1983 and posted four consecutive winning records which consisted of 8-7 and 9-6 records. He was promoted to makuuchi in September 1983.

### **Makuuchi Career**

He reached the top makuuchi division in September 1983, and in 1984 he earned his first special prize for Fighting Spirit, and defeated Takanosato in his first ever bout against a yokozuna to earn his first of his three kinboshi. He spent most of 1985 in the second juryo division, but in 1986 made the san'yaku ranks at komusubi. In November 1987 he scored 10–5 at the rank of maegashira 6, defeating two ozeki and winning the Technique Prize. This earned him promotion to his highest rank of sekiwake for the following tournament in January 1988. However, by the end of the year he was in juryo again due to injury problems. He won the juryo yusho on two occasions in 1989 and won promotion back to the top division. After missing the September 1990 tournament he fell to juryo again and made only one more appearance in makuuchi before retiring in May 1992 at the age of 34.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

He became an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name Irumagawa Oyakata, and established Irumagawa stable in 1993. His wrestlers Yotsukasa and Otsukasa both reached the top division in 1999, and they were followed by Masatsukasa in 2008 and Sagatsukasa in 2010.

Irumagawa also works as a judge of tournament bouts. In 2011, a makushita ranked wrestler in his stable, Enatsukasa, admitted to fixing matches. As a result, Irumagawa was demoted one rank in the Japan Sumo Association hierarchy.

He is due to reach the retirement age for elders of 65 in April 2023, and in preparation for this he handed over control of his stable to former komusubi Kakizoe in February 2023, with the stable henceforth being known as Ikazuchi stable.

## **Personal Life**

* Tochitsukasa's eldest son, Ryota Goto, belonged in the sumo club at Saitama Sakae High School and wrestled mainly in the lightweight class.
* In July 2020, it was revealed that Irumagawa underwent an antigen test for COVID-19, after their was an outbreak in his daughter's workplace. His results were negative.
* He had a crowd-pleasing quirk of always staying in a squat position for much longer than normal and rocking back and forth before returning to his corner during the shikiri, or warm-up phase of a match.

## **Fighting Style**

A powerful and versatile wrestler, Tochitsukasa preferred tsuki/oshi or pushing and thrusting techniques rather than fighting on the mawashi. His favourite kimarite were oshidashi (push out) and tsuki otoshi (thrust over). However he also regularly won by yorikiri (force out), and was also capable of pulling off throws, both overarm (uwatenage) and underarm (shitatenage).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 465-448-27/910 (68 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 206-249-25/453 (32 basho)
* **Juryo:** 215-173-2/387 (26 basho)
* **Makushita:** 44-26/70 (10 basho)

### **Championships**

* 2 **Juryo** Championships
	+ 1st (January 1989)
	+ 2nd (July 1989)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (1), Technique Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** (3): (1) Chiyonofuji, (1) Hokutoumi, (1) Takanosato

## **Shikona History**

* Tochitsukasa Tetsuo (1981.03 - 1992.05)

## **Gallery**

Tochitsukasa with one of his sansho prizes (c. 1984)Tochitsukasa (c. 1987)Tochitsukasa (c. 1989)Tochitsukasa poses with his kesho-mawashi (c. 1991)Tochitsukasa after retirement as Irumagawa Oyakata (c. 2020)Tochitsukasa's tegata
## **Sources**

* Tochitsukasa Tetsuo Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Tochitsukasa Tetsuo Rikishi Information