Akua Shoma

Akua Shoma - 天空海 翔馬 (born November 6, 1990) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Oarai, Ibaraki. He made his debut in November 2010 and currently wrestles for Tatsunami stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 2020. His highest rank as of 2023 is maegashira 10.

## **Early Life**

Yuki Takahata was born into a family that operated a car dealership. His father won a national wrestling competition in junior high school. Takahata attended Ibaraki Prefectural Nakaminato Daiichi High School and belonged in the judo club.

After high school graduation, Takahata enrolled into the Mito Industry Technical Institute. While attending Mito Industry Technical Institute, Takahata saw future yokozuna Kisenosato and was inspired to give professional sumo a try. He joined Tatsunami stable in November 2010, but was at first reluctant to do so. Initially Takahata wanted to become an automobile mechanic and was already working on passing his automobile mechanic national examination. Then the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hit, and his hometown of Oarai was heavily damaged. Oarai suffered from the tsunami, and the aftershocks of the earthquake continued to damage his hometown. Takahata decided to postpone his sumo career and help remove debris from his hometown, but his father convinced him that he should continue with his sumo career.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Takahata began his career using the shikona Toyononami and he breezed through the jonokuchi and jonidan divisions. Toyononami spent around two years in sandanme gradually going up the ranks, until march 2013, where he achieved a 6-1 score at the rank of sandanme 12, which was good enough for a promotion to the makushita division.

In March 2014, he changed his shikona to Akua which was derived from the aquarium Aqua World, located in his hometown of Oarai, Ibaraki. After his shikona change he achieved 5 consecutive winning scores and reached a career high of makushita 8. He became a contender in the upper level of makushita and on March 2016 day 10 he faced off against juryo wrestler Asabenkei which he lost. He still achieved a 4-3 record and was promoted to makushita 2. A 5-2 kachi-koshi could guarantee a promotion to the juryo division. Akua lost his first four matches including a match against juryo wrestler Ura and ended with a 1-6 record. Akua would spend the next two years in the upper levels of makushita. On November 2017, Akua achieved a 5-2 record at the rank of makushita 4 and beat juryo wrestler Yago on the last day. He celebrated with a big smack to the belly after defeating Yago by susoharai.

### **Juryo Career**

Akua was the first wrestler promoted to juryo from Ibaraki prefecture since Takayasu in November 2010. His stablemates and wrestler Endo hoped he would compete in the makuuchi division soon. In his very first tournament he lost on the first four days, and ended up with a lackluster 4-11 record. He got demoted to the makushita division and it only took him three tournaments to bounce back to the juryo division. Akua was lucky this time, because his rank was makushita 5 and he only achieved a 4-3 score, but almost every single makushita wrestler higher than him achieved a make-koshi. This meant that there was a juryo slot leftover for him, even though his rank was makushita 5.

    In his return he lost again on the first four days and withdrew on the 12th day. He ended with a 3-9-3 record and was demoted back down to makushita. He would spend the next six tournaments in makushita. After achieving three winning records in a row including two consecutive 6-1 records, he was re-promoted to the juryo division.

He achieved his first winning-record with an 8-7 record. The next tournament he improved with a 9-6 record. However the following tournament, at a career high juryo 6 rank, Akua suffered a disastrous 4-11 record. This got him demoted to the rank of juryo 13, the brink of juryo. He would bounce back with a career best 10-5 record which also qualified him for a six man playoff. He beat Mongolian wrestler Mitoryu in the first round. In the second round he had to face against stablemate Meisei which he lost.

### **Makuuchi Career**

In the September 2020 tournament, Akua produced another 10-5 record at the rank of juryo 6. This earned him a lucky promotion to the top division for the November 2020 tournament at the age of 30. He posted a satisfactory 9-6 record in his makuuchi debut, but followed with a 5-10 record which resulted in a fall back down to juryo in March 2021. He returned to makuuchi in the following May tournament, but only managed a 5-10 record and was demoted back down to juryo. He was promoted back to makuuchi in November 2021 and reached a career-best maegashira 10 in January 2022.

## **Personal Life**

* Akua is known for his friendly personality. On February 2018, Akua posted on his twitter account a picture of him and a stablemate posing on the steps of Suga Shrine located in Yotsuya, Tokyo. They were mimicking a scene from anime film, "Your Name". The post went viral and received over 100,000 retweets and 200,000 likes.
* Akua is close friends with stablemate and former juryo wrestler Rikishin. In September 2018, Rikishin (who retired in 2017) gave Akua his bright green mawashi which he never used before in his career. When putting on his new belt, Akua told reporters that he, "wants to stay strong and continue to win."
* Ever since the spring jungyo tournament of 2017, Akua has been in charge of comic sumo displays (初っ切り, shokkiri) on regional tours and exhibition tournaments. His partner in the performances is Takakento of the Tokiwayama stable. He stopped performing shokkiri upon reaching sekitori status in January 2018.
* Akua contracted the COVID-19 virus on December 10th, 2020, after there was an outbreak in his stable. He became the third sekitori after Hakuyozan and Fujiazuma to contract the virus.
* He has twice been involved in car accidents while a passenger travelling to the Ryogoku Kokugikan, being rear-ended on the fifth day of the November 2020 tournament and suffering whiplash, and being hit by an uninsured car while leaving a toll booth on the expressway during the March 2021 tournament, resulting in a sprain of his cervical spine.

## **Fighting Style**

Akua is a oshi-sumo specialist and prefers to thrusting and slap down attacks rather than fighting on the mawashi. Most of Akua's wins come from oshidashi and hatakikomi. However, due to his judo background, if necessary Akua can still do yotsu-sumo. His third most common technique is yorikiri. And he regularly employs the rare kakenage (hooking inner thigh throw) which accounts for over 5% of his victories (the average is only 0.13%). In the September 2021 tournament, he employed kakenage four times.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 375-362-3/736 (77 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 36-54/90 (6 basho)
* **Juryo:** 138-159-3/296 (20 basho)
* **Makushita:** 145-114/259 (37 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 41-29/70 (10 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 9-5/14 (2 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 6-1/7 (1 basho)

## **Shikona History**

* Toyononami Yuki (2010.11 - 2014.01)
* Akua Shoma (2014.03 - )

## **Gallery**

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

Akua Shoma - 2023 (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Akua Shoma - 2022 (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Akua Shoma - 2018 (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Akua Shoma - 2018 (Retrieved from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai)Akua's Tegata
### **Career Overview**

Akua joins professional sumo (c. 2010)Akua performs comedy sumo with Takakento (c. 2017)Akua pushes out Toyonoshima in Makushita (c. 2017)Akua after promotion to Juryo (c. 2017)Akua defeats Osunaarashi (c. 2018)Akua throws and defeats Wakamotoharu (c. 2019)Akua after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2020)Akua defeats Kotoeko (c. 2020)Akua defeats Hidenoumi with his signature kakenage (c. 2021)Akua defeats Oho (c. 2022)Akua prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2023)Akua throws and defeats Enho (c. 2023)
## **Sources**

* Akua Shoma Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Akua Shoma Rikishi Information