Shimotori Norio

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霜鳳典雄
Shimotori Norio
Personal information

Birth name	Norio Shimotori
Date of birth	March 18, 1978 (1978-03-18) (age 30)
Place of birth	Niigata, Japan
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	143 kg (320 lb)
Career*
Heya	Tokitsukaze
Current rank	Jūryō 10
Record	335-301-51
Debut	May 2000
Highest rank	Komusubi (March 2004)
Special Prizes	Fighting Spirit (1)
Gold stars	1 (Musashimaru)
* Career information is correct as of May 2008.

Shimotori Norio (born March 18, 1978 as Norio Shimotori) is a sumo wrestler from Arai, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. His highest rank has been komusubi.

1 Career
2 Top division record
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Career

Unusually in the sumo world, his family name, Shimotori, is the name he uses as his fighting name. For a short interim, he changed his fighting name to the the similar sounding Shimoōtori, but has since returned again to using his family name. He competed in amateur sumo at Tokyo University of Agriculture. He made his professional debut in May 2000 in the makushita division, almost a year later than intended due to injuries from a traffic accident. He reached sekitori status in May 2001 upon promotion to the second highest jūryō division, and he entered the top makuuchi division in March 2002. In July 2002 he earned a kinboshi or gold star for defeating Musashimaru in his first ever bout against a yokozuna, easily the best win of his career. He was also awarded the Fighting Spirit prize in this tournament. He made his top rank debut in March 2004 at komusubi but managed only a 6-9 score and has not managed to return to the top sanyaku ranks since then.

Recently Shimotori has struggled to maintain his position in the top division, spending most of 2006 in jūryō. He returned to the top division in March 2007, but his stay was short-lived as he was unable to compete at all in the May 2007 tournament due to a herniated disk suffered during training in April. In November 2007 he produced a 10-5 score at the rank of Jūryō 4 which was enough to earn promotion back to the top division for the January 2008 tournament. A recurrence of his injury in winning his opening bout forced him to withdraw from the rest of this tournament. Back in the jūryō division for March 2008, he could win only seven bouts.

[edit] Top division record

Shimotori Norio^[1]
	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2002	x	East Maegashira #12 6–9	West Maegashira #14 10–5	West Maegashira #8 9–6 F★	East Maegashira #2 5–10	West Maegashira #5 7–8
2003	West Maegashira #7 9–6	East Maegashira #3 3–7–5	West Maegashira #11 4–11	(Jūryō)	West Maegashira #12 8–7	West Maegashira #9 8–7
2004	East Maegashira #7 11–4	West Komusubi 6–9	East Maegashira #3 7–8	East Maegashira #4 9–6	East Maegashira #1 5–10	East Maegashira #5 4–11
2005	West Maegashira #9 8–7	East Maegashira #8 2–10–3	East Maegashira #17 5–10	(Jūryō)	West Maegashira #17 8–7	Sat out due to injury
2006	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	West Maegashira #17 7–8	(Jūryō)
2007	(Jūryō)	East Maegashira #15 9–6	Sat out due to injury	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)
2008	West Maegashira #14 1–1–13	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	x	x	x
Record given as win-loss-absent Championship Retired Demoted from makuuchi Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira