Homarenishiki Yasokichi

Homarenishiki Yasokichi - 誉錦 八十吉 (born February 18, 1995) is a former Canadian professional sumo wrestler from Victoria, British Columbia. He made his debut in March 2015 and wrestled for Nishikido stable. His highest rank was sandanme 46 and he retired in January 2016.

## **Early Life**

Born and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Brodik "Bull" Henderson has always been athletic and he competed in lacrosse, judo and football. He was a standout football player at Belmont Secondary School and earned football scholarships to play at University of British Columbia and Simon Frasier University. He also earned walk-on offers from Big Ten powerhouses such as Nebraska and Penn State.

Brodik happened to discover sumo through the internet and became fascinated with the traditional sport. He began practicing at the age of fifteen in his backyard and had some unconventional exercise routines in his homemade space, manoeuvring 45-gallon, water-filled drums, and grappling with a boxing heavy bag soaked in water to increase its weight.

He participated in the 2014 US Sumo Open, which is the biggest annual amateur sumo tournament in North America. He surprised everyone as he dominated the open-weight division and even defeated the legendary Byamba to win the open-weight division. After this, he travelled to Japan after earning the opportunity to tryout at some professional sumo stables. On February 7th, 2015, Brodik was accepted to Nishikido stable.

## **Career**

Brodik was given the shikona "Homarenishiki" (誉錦) and wrestled his first professional tournament in July 2015. He produced a somewhat lackluster 4-3 record in his highly publicized debut. He bounced back and produced two strong 6-1 records which immediately earned him a promotion to sandanme in January 2016. In his sandanme debut he could only post three wins and he replicated that performance in the following tournament.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Like most Western sumo wrestlers, Homarenishiki was highly popular, but because of this he was subjected to many hazing and bullying from his stablemates (mostly stemming from jealousy). Hazing is a regular occurrence in sumo, however, in Homarenishiki's case, Nishikido oyakata was not around, as he was visiting his wife who was hospitalized at the time, which led to limited supervision on the stable. Because of this, he was the target of racially targeted bullying which caused him to quit the sport. This was not the first time this happened as Nathan Strange of England also quit under similar circumstances. Brodik returned to Canada after his retirement.

## **Personal Life**

* Brodik is a Christian. His brothers Kolton and Kodiak also practiced sumo.
* According to his Facebook account, he is a graduate of Belmont Secondary School and Camosun College.

## **Fighting Style**

Homarenishiki was an oshi-sumo wrestler who prefers pushing and thrusting techniques to fighting on the mawashi. His most common kimarite used was a straightforward oshidashi, or push out. He is also fond of employing oshitaoshi (frontal push down) and tsukidashi (thrust out).

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 22-13-14/35 (8 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 6-8-7/14 (3 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 12-2-7/14 (3 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 4-3/7 (1 basho)

## **Shikona History**

* Homarenishiki Yasokichi (2015.03 - 2016.07)

## **Gallery**

Homarenishiki gets measured upon joining professional sumo (c. 2015)Homarenishiki during his time in Maezumo (c. 2015)Homarenishiki defeats his opponent (c. 2015)Homarenishiki prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2015)Homarenishiki loses the Jonidan Yusho match (c. 2015)Homarenishiki graduates from sumo school (c. 2016)
## **Sources**

* Homarenishiki Yasokichi Rikishi Information
* NY Daily News Article on Homarenishiki
* CTV News Article on Homarenishiki
* Tachiai Article on Homarenishiki's Retirement