Takatoriki Tadashige

Takatoriki Tadashige - 貴闘力 忠茂 (born September 28, 1967) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kobe, Hyogo. He made his debut in March 1983 and wrestled for Futagoyama stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 1990 and has 14 special prizes, 9 kinboshi and 1 top division championship. His highest rank was sekiwake and he retired in September 2002.

## **Early Life**

Kamakari was born in Hakata ward in Fukuoka, but later moved to Kobe, Hyogo. As a young boy Kamakari idolized Takanohana Kenshi and even stayed with the former ozeki and his family in Tokyo for a while. He joined Takanohana's Fujishima stable in March 1983 after leaving junior high school, where he had also done judo.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

Kamakari produced a 6-1 record in his first tournament, but missed out on the jonokuchi yusho after losing to Kotonokawa in a playoff. He was promoted to sandanme in November 1984 and makushita in January 1986. Initially he could not establish himself in makushita and it was not until May 1987 when he became a makushita regular. After five consecutive winning records he was promoted to juryo in may 1989.

### **Juryo Career**

Upon promotion to juryo, he changed his shikona from his surname to "Takatoriki" (貴闘力). He struggled in his sekitori debut and lost his first 6 matches. He finished with a 6-9 record and was demoted back down to makushita. He won immediate promotion back to juryo after winning the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record. He was promoted to makuuchi in September 1990.

### **Makuuchi Career**

Takatoriki reached the top makuuchi division in September 1990, along with future yokozuna Akebono and Wakanohana III. He won eleven bouts and the Fighting spirit prize in his top division debut, and in his next tournament he defeated his first yokozuna, Onokuni. He had a very successful year in 1991, becoming the only man in the top division to achieve a winning record in every tournament that year. On the third day of the May 1991 tournament, he defeated yokozuna Chiyonofuji, who announced his retirement that night. In July 1991 he was promoted to sekiwake, the highest rank he was to achieve. He won fourteen sansho, or special prizes in his career, the fourth best ever. He earned seven kinboshi from Akebono, a record against one yokozuna (Takamiyama also earned seven from Wajima). He was runner-up in the tournaments of March 1994 (losing in a three-way playoff that also involved Akebono and stablemate Takanonami) and September 1996.

Towards the end of his career, in March 2000 at the age of 32, he won his only top division yusho, or tournament title. This win was considered a great upset as two poor performances had sent him down to maegashira 14 in the rankings, and Takatoriki faced demotion from makuuchi altogether. He won his first twelve matches, and though he was then defeated by yokozuna Akebono and Musashimaru, he clinched the championship by beating Miyabiyama to finish on 13–2. After his final bout, confirming his tournament win, Takatoriki was visibly shaken. He was awarded his tenth Fighting Spirit Prize (two ahead of his nearest rival, stablemate Akinoshima) and third Outstanding Performance Award, and was promoted to a san'yaku rank for the final time for the May 2000 tournament. In total he spent 15 tournaments at sekiwake and 11 at komusubi.

Takatoriki fell into the juryo division in 2001 and announced his retirement in September 2002. He did not miss a single bout during his 19-year career, finishing with 754 wins and 703 losses. His 1456 consecutive career matches place him third on the all-time list, after Aobajo and Fujizakura.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

Having married the third daughter of Taiho (and changed his legal name from Kamakari to Naya), Takatoriki took over the running of the former yokozuna's stable in February 2003. It was renamed Otake stable. It was the home of the Russian top division wrestler Roho until he was banned from sumo in September 2008 for testing positive for marijuana.

Along with five other oyakata (Magaki, Onomatsu, Otowayama, Tokiwayama and Futagoyama), he was forced to leave the Nishonoseki ichimon or group of stables in January 2010 after declaring his support for his former stablemate Takanohana's unsanctioned bid to be elected to the board of directors of the Sumo Association.

### **Expulsion and Post Sumo Career**

In June 2010 he admitted that he had been gambling illegally on baseball, after an investigation by the Sumo Association and Tokyo police prompted by articles in the tabloid weekly Shukan Shincho. It subsequently emerged that he had been borrowing large amounts of money from ozeki Kotomitsuki to pay gambling debts. He was reportedly gambling on a much larger scale than others implicated in the scandal, betting tens of millions of yen, and knew that a bookmaker used in the gambling had links to a crime syndicate.

He was expelled from the Sumo Association at a special meeting on July 4, and apologised for his actions at a press conference.  He received no severance pay. Otake stable was spared having to close and was taken over by another coach at the stable, the former Dairyu. Takatoriki's status as Taiho's adopted son was voided and he divorced Taiho's daughter.

He announced in September 2010 that he was opening up a yakiniku restaurant in Koto, Tokyo called "Drago Yokozuna Street" (焼肉ドラゴ).

In March 2011 prosecutors announced that Otake, as well as Kotomitsuki and 25 others involved in the scandal, would be spared indictment over gambling due to lack of implicating evidence.

In 2017 Takatoriki spoke out against the controversial plan to bring casinos to Japan. He said he had become addicted to casino gambling after a foreign sumo tour and would visit foreign casinos more than ten times a year, losing nearly five million dollars.

In 2020 Takatoriki started his own YouTube channel, which has frequently criticized the Japan Sumo Association. As of April 2021, the channel has 181,000 subscribers.

### **Professional Wrestling Career**

Takatoriki's first appearance in professional wrestling was originally in 2013, getting attacked by Atsushi Onita in a Real Japan Pro Wrestling show for criticizing him after a match between Onita and Original Tiger Mask. Afterwards, he announced he would be debuting soon in the professional wrestling circuit, and that he would challenge his old sumo enemy and fellow pro wrestler Akebono in the future. On April 16, 2014 Takatoriki debuted for RJPW, teaming up with Minoru Suzuki to defeat Jadogun (Atsushi Onita and Ichiro Yaguchi). He would later appear in 2015 for Legend Pro Wrestling, teaming up with Riki Choshu and Tiger Mask to defeat again Jadogun, now including Hideki Hosaka. After the match, Onita challenged Takatoriki, but he replied that he originally debuted with the intention of only competing for a year and that this was his final match. Although he later retracted his statement and demanded Akebono to wrestle him in his true last match, Tadashige ceased activity in professional wrestling altogether.

## **Personal Life**

* Takatoriki's hobbies are pachinko, horse racing, and listening to music.

### **Family**

Takatoriki has four children. His eldest son Yukio is a professional wrestler who made his debut in 2017. His second son Takamori graduated from Saitama Sakae High School where he was a key member of their sumo team and entered the Chuo University sumo club. He entered professional sumo upon graduation in March 2020 and took the shikona Hozan. His third and fourth sons Konosuke and Kosei were also amateur sumo wrestlers in high school who moved into the professional sport before Takamori. Konosuke joined Otake stable and made his debut in January 2018. He reached the juryo division following the November 2020 tournament and changed his shikona from his own surname, Naya, to Oho. Kosei joined Otake stable in November 2019. His shikona is Mudoho (夢道鵬).

## **Fighting Style**

Takatoriki's fighting style was fierce, and he often relied on initial powerful face slaps (harite) to stun his opponents. He was a tsuki-oshi wrestler, preferring pushing and thrusting to fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common winning technique was oshi-dashi or push out. However, due to his background in judo he was also adept at throws, some extremely rarely seen in the top division. He employed nichonage, the body drop down, on three occasions in makuuchi, and once pulled off the spectacular amiuchi, or fisherman's net casting throw.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 754-703/1456 (118 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 505-500/1005 (67 basho)
* **Juryo:** 96-97/192 (13 basho)
* **Makushita:** 66-46/112 (16 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 52-32/84 (12 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 29-27/56 (8 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 6-1/7 (1 basho)

### **Championships**

* 1 **Makuuchi** Championship (March 2000)
* 1 **Makushita** Championship (July 1989)

### **Achievements**

* **Special Prizes:** Fighting Spirit Prize (10), Outstanding Performance Prize (3), Technique Prize (1)
* **Kinboshi:** 9: (7) Akebono, (1) Asahifuji, (1) Onokuni
* **Record:** **3rd** most consecutive career bouts (1456 consecutive bouts)
* **Record:** Tied for **4th** most special prizes (14 special prizes)
* **Record:** **6th** most consecutive top division bouts (975 consecutive bouts)
* **Record:** Tied for **8th** most tournaments ranked in junior san'yaku (komusubi and sekiwake ranks) (26)
* **Record:** Tied for **10th** most gold stars (9 kinboshi)

## **Shikona History**

* Kamakari Tadashige (1983.03 - 1989.03)
* Takatoriki Tadashige (1989.05 - 2002.09)

## **Gallery**

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

Takatoriki Tadashige - 1997 (Retrieved from the JSA)Takatoriki's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Takatoriki after promotion to Juryo (c. 1989)Takatoriki in Juryo (c. 1989)Takatoriki after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 1990)Takatoriki with one of his many sansho prizes (c. 1991)Takatoriki after promotion to Komusubi (c. 1991)Takatoriki retires Yokozuna Chiyonofuji (c. 1991)Takatoriki after promotion to Sekiwake (c. 1991)Takatoriki (c. 1992)Takatoriki loses the Yusho playoff to Yokozuna Akebono (c. 1994)Takatoriki serves as Takanonami's flag bearer (c. 1996)Takatoriki defeats Yokozuna Akebono (c. 1997)Takatoriki defeats Musashimaru (c. 1998)Takatoriki serves as Yokozuna Takanohana's sword bearer (c. 1999)Takatoriki defeats Miyabiyama to win the Yusho (c. 2000)Takatoriki after winning the Yusho (c. 2000)Takatoriki congratulated by his father-in-law, Taiho Oyakata (c. 2000)Takatoriki wins his first and only Yusho (c. 2000)Takatoriki celebrates his Yusho (c. 2000)Takatoriki's Yusho portrait (c. 2000)Takatoriki battles Terao in his final match (c. 2002)Takatoriki after wrestling his final match (c. 2002)Takatoriki announces his retirement (c. 2002)Takatoriki's retirement ceremony (c. 2003)Takatoriki takes over Taiho stable, Otake stable (c. 2003)Takatoriki after being dismissed for illegal gambling (c. 2010)Takatoriki's professional wrestling career (c. 2014)Takatoriki outside his Yakitori restaurant
## **Sources**

* Takatoriki Tadashige Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Takatoriki Tadashige Rikishi Information