Mokonami Sakae

Mokonami Sakae - 猛虎浪 栄 (born April 5, 1984) is a former Mongolian professional sumo wrestler from Zavkhan. He made his debut in March 2001 and wrestled for Tatsunami stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 2009. His highest rank was maegashira 6 and he retired in May 2011.

## **Early Life**

Ganbold Bazarsad was born in Zavkhan Province, but was raised in Ulaanbaatar. It has been reported that he lived in the same apartment complex as later makuuchi contemporary Shotenro, though they never met in person. During his school years, he was focused on basketball and only participated in Mongolian wrestling occasionally as recreation. But after seeing the well-known Mongolian sumo wrestler Kyokutenho in action, he was inspired to try out sumo. He came to Japan in 2000 with an invitation to try out for Tatsunami stable through a connection with Kyokutenho's contemporary Kyokushuzan, and entered sumo in March, 2001, the same tournament as the later Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho.

## **Career**

### **Early Life**

The ring name he took combined "Moko" (猛虎, "fierce tiger", which is homophonous with the old Sino-Japanese name for Mongolia, 蒙古) with the "nami" of Tatsunami stable. There is a now a movement among Mongolians residing in Japan to discontinue using the country name Moko as they consider the name derogatory. This was acknowledged by Mokonami, but he continued using this shikona for the remainder of his career.

Mokonami had trouble gaining weight at first and struggled in the ranks of the sandanme fourth division. As his weight finally began to rise, however, his sumo improved, and he was promoted to the third division, makushita in January 2005. He proceeded to win a majority of bouts in 5 consecutive tournaments, and with a 5-2 record in his last makushita tournament, he finally became a sekitori by gaining promotion to juryo in January 2006.

### **Juryo Career**

Being a fan of the Hanshin Tigers, and recognizing that his coach is an old friend of the well-known Tiger player Katsuhito Yamada (as well as the fact that the second Chinese character in his ring name is "tiger") Mokonami commemorated his juryo debut with a new kesho-mawashi, approved by the Tigers' owners, that closely resembled the Tigers' logo.

Mokonami proceeded to get a majority of wins in his first three tournaments after his juryo debut. His performance in the March 2006 tournament would have granted him entry into the top division in the following May tournament had not Jumonji, the maegashira #9 wrestler, narrowly managed to avoid relegation to juryo by achieving a fourth win on the last day of the tournament. Perhaps succumbing to the pressure, Mokonami only managed a 5-10 record at the juryo top slot that he had earned for the May tournament. His fall continued, as he chalked up losing tournaments in for the remainder of 2006. He dropped back to makushita in 2007. Though he managed a 5-2 record in the January tournament at makushita #4, the successful records of a number of other wrestlers near his rank kept him from juryo promotion in the following tournament. His 4-3 performance in the March tournament of 2007 was enough to grant him entry into juryo again. After bouncing between winning and losing tournaments through the rest of 2007 and most of 2008 he managed to find some traction, and in four consecutive tournaments from November 2008 tournament to May 2009, he won a majority of his bouts. His May 2009 rank, again at the top spot of juryo was almost a mirror image of his previous performance at this rank, as he pulled off a dominating 11-4 win which would catapult him into his top makuuchi division debut at the comparatively high rank of maegashira #7.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Possibly challenged by debuting at such a high rank, Mokonami's first two tournaments in the top division were losing performances. However, in the November 2009 tournament, he finally achieved a positive record of 9-6 at the 13th maegashira slot, staving off any fears of demotion from makuuchi. After clinching his kachi-koshi on the final day of the July 2010 tournament, he reached a new highest rank of maegashira 6 in September. He scored only five wins there, but managed a majority of wins in what was to be his final tournament in January 2011.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After an investigation by the Sumo Association into allegations of bout-rigging prompted by the discovery of text-messages on a mobile phone belonging to former maegashira Kasuganishiki, Mokonami was one of 23 wrestlers and coaches found guilty of involvement. He was ordered to retire, and submitted his letter of resignation on April 4th, 2011.

His danpatu-shiki, or retirement ceremony, was held on May 22, 2011. After this he was invited by Antonio Inoki of the IGF professional wrestling organization try out professional wrestling in August, but he decided to only observe and not participate. After this he started a business and currently travels periodically between Japan and Mongolia.

## **Personal Life**

* On December 21st, 2009, it was announced that Mokonami had been granted Japanese citizenship. This allowed his stable to take on another Mongolian wrestler, Ryuonami, bypassing the Japan Sumo Association's limit of one foreign wrestler per stable, although this loophole has since been closed. Mokonami's legal name is now Sakae Ishikawa.
* His hobbies are watching movies, bowling, and billiards.
* Mokonami is married, with a daughter born in 2006.

## **Fighting Style**

Mokonami's favorite techniques as listed by the Sumo Association were hidari-yotsu (a right hand outside, left hand inside grip on the opponent's mawashi), yori (force out) and tsuppari (a series of rapid thrusts to the chest). After yorikiri, his next most frequently used kimarite were uwatenage (overarm throw) and oshi-dashi (push out).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 341-304/645 (60 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 71-79/150 (10 basho)
* **Juryo:** 144-141/285 (19 basho)
* **Makushita:** 54-30/84 (12 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 42-42/84 (12 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 25-10/35 (5 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)

## **Gallery**

### **JSA Profile Pictures and Signature**

Mokonami Sakae - 2008 (Retrieved from the JSA)Mokonami Sakae - 2006 (Retrieved from the JSA)Mokonami's signature
### **Career Overview**

Mokonami's Juryo promotion party (c. 2006)Mokonami in his first juryo tournament (c. 2006)Mokonami during the dohyo-iriMokonami after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2009)Mokonami defeats Yamamotoyama (c. 2009)Mokonami battles Homasho (c. 2010)Mokonami after being found guilty of match-fixing (c. 2011)

## **Sources**

* Mokonami Sakae Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Mokonami Sakae Rikishi Information