Tochinowaka Michihiro

Tochinowaka Michihiro - 栃乃若 導大 (born April 6, 1988) is a former Korean professional sumo wrestler from Amagasaki, Hyogo. He made his debut in January 2007 and wrestled for Kasugano stable. He reached the makuuchi division in May 2011. His highest rank was maegashira 1 and he retired in January 2015.

## **Early Life**

Dae Won Lee was born in April 6, 1988, in Amagasaki, Hyogo, to his father who was a Zainichi Korean (ethnic Koreans with Japanese citizenship/residence), and mother, who was a Korean immigrant.

Lee has always been a big kid and his first experience with sumo was in the second grade where he participated in a tournament and achieved second place. Even though he won second place, Lee was not satisfied and continued to practice in hopes of reaching first place. Lee also had experience with judo. After graduating from elementary school, he was already 1.80 meters tall and weighed around 120 kilograms. After graduation from elementary school, Lee got in touch with the director of the sumo club at Hotoku Gakuen High School which is known for its strong sumo program. As a result, he attended Hotoku Gakuen Junior High School and later Hotoku Gakuen High School. During his third year of high school, he achieved the status of national high school yokozuna. After this he got in touch with Kasugano Oyakata and joined his stable after high school graduation.

## **Career**

### **Early Career**

He entered professional sumo as a wrestler for Kasugano stable in the 2007 January tournament. After posting a strong 5-2 record in his first official tournament, he achieved a perfect 7-0 record to face fellow up and coming wrestler Yamamotoyama to whom he lost the playoff bout for the jonidan championship or yusho. Promoted to sandanme in the following tournament, he posted a 6-1 record and a 5-1 record in the following tournament, garnering him promotion to makushita.

He continued fulfilling the expectations of a former high school yokozuna with four consecutive kachi-koshi or winning records. However, upon reaching upper makushita his progress slowed and he finally posted a make-koshi or losing record of 2-5, his first such record in nine tournaments in sumo. In the next tournament he only achieved a 3-4, marking the only time so far in his sumo career that he has had consecutive losing records. It was during this period of struggle that he changed to his current shikona or ring name of Tochinowaka, which is the former ring name of his stable coach, Tochinowaka Kiyotaka. His ring name up to this time had been his simple one character Korean family name of 李 or Lee. This had apparently been somewhat of a challenge for the yobidashi who are required to announce every wrestler's name in a drawn out singsong style of voice and very rarely, if ever, had to call out a ring name consisting of just one syllable.

His fortunes after his name change did not change right away, and after several tournaments alternating between winning and losing records, with an early withdrawal in the March 2009 tournament, he finally achieved two consecutive winning records in upper makushita to grant him promotion to sekitori level, the second highest juryo division.

### **Juryo Career**

In contrast to his previous struggles, Tochinowaka soared through juryo in just three tournaments. In his first tournament he posted a solid 8-7 record after winning his last four matches. The following tournament, he produced a strong 11-4 record and was a main contender for the juryo yusho, however, he lost the playoff to Kaisei. The next tournament, Tochinowaka produced an even better 12-3 record, but also lost the playoff to fellow Korean Kasugao. This earned him a promotion to the top makuuchi division for the March 2011 tournament.

### **Makuuchi Career**

His promotion to the top makuuchi division in March 2011 was ill-timed as this tournament was cancelled, the first such cancellation in the history of sumo, due to the bout fixing scandal of that year. Though there was no tournament and no official banzuke, he and fellow makuuchi promotee Kaisei did receive compensation as top division wrestlers for the period of that tournament. He only managed a 7-8 record in the following May "technical examination tournament" but in March 2012 he reached his highest rank to date, maegashira 1. In his first tournament facing all the top ranked men he managed to defeat ozeki Kisenosato on the opening day, but his only other win over a san'yaku wrestler was sekiwake Aminishiki, and he finished on 5–10. Ranked at maegashira 4 in the May 2012 tournament he had a much easier schedule, facing only fellow maegashira, but he performed well below expectations posting only a 2–13 record. He was demoted from the top division after winning only five bouts at maegashira 14 in July.

He managed to fight back after two tournaments and was again promoted to makuuchi in January 2013. However, the following March tournament, he dropped out from injury after losing his first seven bouts. He again fell back to juryo and was again repromoted after two tournaments. Since then he alternated winning and losing tournaments, moving him up and down the maegashira ranks with regularity.

## **Retirement from Sumo**

After the November 2014 tournament, with only a 3-12 record at a low maegashira rank, he faced demotion to juryo. Following the winter tour he told his stablemaster Kasugano Oyakata that he wished to retire. Kasugano was surprised and talked with him for four hours in an effort to change his mind, but in the end submitted the official retirement papers to the Sumo Association on December 15, 2014. Tochinowaka's name appeared on the January 2015 banzuke despite his retirement. In interviews Tochinowaka revealed that he had been contemplating retirement for two years and had consulted his parents. He did not give any physical injuries as a reason for his retirement but indicated that he suffered from a lack of mental toughness. His retirement ceremony was held on January 25, 2015 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Hotel.

After retirement, he entered the healthcare industry and joined the Hakuju Bioscience Research Institute where he handles healthcare equipment and health-related foods. He also provides health guidance and works as the manager of the Hakuju Plaza.

## **Personal Life**

* His father is Zainichi Korean and his mother is a Korean immigrant. Tochinowaka was born and raised in Japan, enabling Kasugano stable to accept him despite already having a foreigner, Georgian Tochinoshin.
* His ring name from 2007 to 2009 had been his simple one character Korean family name of 李 or Lee. This had apparently been somewhat of a challenge for the yobidashi who are required to announce every wrestler's name in a drawn out singsong style of voice and very rarely, if ever, had to call out a ring name consisting of just one syllable.
* According to Tochinowaka's sumo database profile, his shusshin, or birthplace, is listed as Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, even though in actuality, his birthplace was Amagasaki, Hyogo.
* Tochinowaka's hobby is listening to music.

## **Fighting Style**

Tochinowaka was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who preferred techniques involving grabbing the opponent's mawashi. His favourite grip was hidari-yotsu, with his right hand outside and left hand inside his opponent's arms. Nearly half his career victories to date were achieved with just two kimarite or techniques, yorikiri (force out) and oshidashi (push out), the two most common in sumo.

## **Record**

### **Division Results**

* **Total:** 267-244-11/510 (47 basho)
* **Makuuchi:** 106-156-8/261 (18 basho)
* **Juryo:** 69-36/105 (7 basho)
* **Makushita:** 69-47-3/116 (17 basho)
* **Sandanme:** 11-3/14 (2 basho)
* **Jonidan:** 7-0/7 (1 basho)
* **Jonokuchi:** 5-2/7 (1 basho)

## **Shikona History**

* Ri Dewon (2007.01 - 2009.09)
* Tochinowaka Michihiro (2009.11 - 2015.01)

## **Gallery**

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

Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2015 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2014 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2013 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2012 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka Michihiro - 2011 (Retrieved from the JSA)Tochinowaka's tegata
### **Career Overview**

Tochinowaka commits to Kasugano stable (c. 2006)Tochinowaka vs Yamamotoyama in Maezumo (c. 2007)Tochinowaka during his time in Maezumo (c. 2007)Tochinowaka receives training advice from Tochinonada (c. 2007)Tochinowaka during his time in the unsalaried ranks (c. 2009)Tochinowaka after promotion to Juryo (c. 2010)Tochinowaka defeats Masunoyama (c. 2011)Tochinowaka after promotion to Makuuchi (c. 2011)Tochinowaka defeats Ozeki Kotoshogiku (c. 2011)Tochinowaka battles Ozeki Baruto (c. 2012)Tochinowaka throws and defeats Endo (c. 2013)Tochinowaka prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2014)Tochinowaka throws and defeats Toyohibiki (c. 2014)Tochinowaka announces his retirement (c. 2014)Tochinowaka's retirement ceremony (c. 2015)

## **Source**

* Tochinowaka Michihiro Japanese Wikipedia Article
* Tochinowaka Michihiro Rikishi Information