Chiyotaikai Ryūji
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Real name | Hiroshima Ryuji | |
| Date of birth | April 29, 1976 | |
| Place of birth | Oita, Japan | |
| Height | 181.0cm (5'11") | |
| Weight | 158.0kg (348lb) | |
| Career* | ||
| Heya | Kokonoe | |
| Rank | Ozeki | |
| Record | 663-407-100 | |
| Debut | November, 1992 | |
| Highest rank | Ozeki (March, 1999) | |
| Yushos | 3 (Makuuchi) 2 (Juryo) 1 (Sandanme) 1 (Jonokuchi) |
|
| Special Prizes | Outstanding Performance (1) Fighting Spirit (1) Technique (3) |
|
| Gold stars | 1 | |
|
* Career information is correct as of March 2007. |
||
Chiyotaikai Ryuji (千代大海 龍二?), born Hiroshima Ryuji (廣嶋龍二) on April 29, 1976 in Chitose, Hokkaidō, is a Japanese sumo wrestler.
After his father's death, Chiyotaikai's family moved to Oita. Chiyotaikai was an enthusiastic player of baseball and soccer as well as a successful budoka, excelling at judo and karate. Unfortunately, he was also a very rough kid who got into fights as a member of a gang of youths. After finishing high school, he worked as a construction worker before he decided to accept an offer by former Yokozuna Chiyonofuji's sumo stable Kokonoe-beya. The story goes that Chiyonofuji refused the new rikishi because of his bleached hair and had him get a new haircut before letting him join.
Chiyotaikai was given his shikona (wrestler name) in honor of his stablemaster and joined professional sumo in 1992 and became a sekitori in 1995 when entering the Juryo division. Another two years went by until he reached Makuuchi, the top division. In May 1998, Chiyotaikai was made Komusubi and has not left the Sanyaku ranks since. In January 1999, he won his first top division championship, defeating Wakanohana in the play-off, and he was made Ozeki in March of that year. Even though he had to bow out from that very first tournament that he fought as an Ozeki after breaking his nose, he has retained his rank to the present day. Only one other wrestler in history (Takanohana Kenshi) has ever managed to keep his ozeki rank longer than Chiyotaikai.
The reverse side of his longevity as an Ozeki is his inability to achieve promotion to Yokozuna. He had performed at a rather mediocre level for some time before his next big success being the near-winner in the January tournament of 2002 and then getting his second championship in Nagoya that same year. An injury ended his streak, and it took him until March 2003 to achieve his third and most recent tournament victory.
Chiyotaikai is somewhat above average in size (1,81 m/158 kg), but he is nonetheless a very agile fighter who prefers quick decisions by oshi-sumo. He is known for his explosive tachiai which is the moment at the start of the match when both fighters have touched their hands to the ground and suddenly spring at each other in attack.
Chiyotaikai has been in danger of demotion from ozeki status a total of nine times, most recently in March 2006. Only fellow ozeki Kaio has been in this unenviable position more often.
