Wakanohana Masaru

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若乃花 勝
Wakanohana Masaru

Personal information
Birth name	Masaru Hanada
Date of birth	January 20, 1971 (1971-01-20) (age 37)
Place of birth	Suginami, Tokyo
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	134 kg (300 lb/21.1 st)
Career*
Heya	Fujishima -> Futagoyama
Record	573-286-124
Debut	March, 1988
Highest rank	Yokozuna (November, 1998)
Retired	March, 2000
Yusho	5 (Makuuchi) 1 (Juryo) 1 (Sandanme) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes	Outstanding Performance (3) Technique (6)
Gold stars	2 (Asahifuji)
* Career information is correct as of August 2007.

Masaru Hanada (花田 勝, Hanada Masaru^?, born January 20, 1971) is a former sumo wrestler . As an active wrestler he was known as Wakanohana III Masaru (若乃花 勝), and he achieved sumo's highest rank of yokozuna. He belongs to a very famous sumo family. He is the elder son of the former ozeki Takanohana I who was the Futagoyama stablemaster until his death in 2005.^[1] He is also the nephew of Wakanohana I, a famous yokozuna of the 1950s.

Contents 1 Sumo career 2 After sumo 3 Relationship with Takanohana 4 Top division record 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Sumo career

He entered sumo in March 1988, at the same time as his younger brother Takanohana Koji, and also Akebono Taro and Kaio Hiroyuki. In the early part of his career he wrestled under the name Wakahanada, being given his uncle's fighting name a few tournaments prior to his promotion to ozeki. Wakanohana literally means Young Flower in Japanese.^[2]

He entered the top division for the first time in September 1990, alongside Akebono and Takatoriki. He first reached a sanyaku rank in November 1991 when he was promoted to komusubi. He was a noted for his wide range of techniques, winning the Ginosho prize on six occasions. Lacking his brother's weight and strength, he took longer than Takanohana to rise up the ranks, still being a maegashira wrestler as late as January 1993, the tournament that Takanohana earned promotion to ozeki. However in the following tournament he won his first top division championship with a 14-1 record. After a 10-5 in May 1993 and runner-up honours in July, he joined his brother at ozeki rank. His second tournament title came in November 1995, when he defeated Takanohana (by then a yokozuna) in a playoff. This was to be the only time he fought his brother in a competitive match. He was injured in the next tournament however, and the same thing happened after his third title in January 1997. On that occasion he missed two tournaments and only just preserved his ozeki status with a bare majority of wins upon his return in July 1997.

Wakanohana finally earned promotion to yokozuna in 1998 after winning two consecutive championships in March and May of that year. However his time at sumo's highest rank was brief and injury plagued, and he was unable to add to his tally of championship wins. The best result he had as a yokozuna was in January 1999 when he came into the final day the tournament leader on 13-1. However he was defeated by Chiyotaikai and, in the subsequent playoff between them for the championship, he lost a rematch after the first bout was judged too close to call.^[3] He was unable to complete the next three tournaments due to injury, and then an ill-timed leg injury in September 1999 ensured that he became only the second yokozuna ever to finish a 15-day tournament with more losses than wins (the other yokozuna to suffer this fate was Onokuni). He immediately submitted his resignation to the Japan Sumo Association but had it turned down, and so resolved to wrestle on. After sitting out the next two tournaments he returned in March 2000 but, by his own admission, his injury had failed to heal properly. After losing three of his first five bouts he announced his retirement from sumo.^[4]

[edit] After sumo

After a brief spell as a member (or elder) of the Japan Sumo Association, he eventually left sumo completely and has worked as an entertainer in Japan,^[5] as well as trying to enter the professional world of American Football.^[6] Wakanohana now owns and operates a chain of chanko nabe (literally "meal pot", the staple food of sumo wrestlers) restaurants in Japan called "Chanko Dining Waka"^[7]

It was announced in October 2007 he was divorcing his wife Mieko, who he married in June 1994 and with whom he had four children.^[8]

[edit] Relationship with Takanohana

At the time of the death of their father, a bitter rift between Wakanohana and Takanohana was widely reported in the Japanese media. Upon his father's death, Takanohana was very critical of both his brother and his mother: his attacks on his brother (Wakanohana) relating to the struggle between them to control their father's funeral rites; the attacks on his mother condemning her for her extramarital affair (which led to her divorce from Futagoyama, and had only been rumored up to that point). There has been some suggestion that all of this relates to who will control their father's estate.^[9]

[edit] Top division record

Wakanohana Masaru ^[10]

	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1990	x	x	x	x	West Maegashira #10 8–7	West Maegashira #5 6–9
1991	East Maegashira #10 7–8	East Maegashira #12 9–6	East Maegashira #7 8–7	West Maegashira #2 7–8	West Maegashira #3 11–4 TO★	East Komusubi 7–8
1992	West Maegashira #1 10–5 T★	West Komusubi 0–10–5	West Maegashira #7 11–4 T	East Maegashira #1 4–9–2	East Maegashira #9 8–7	West Maegashira #4 9–6
1993	East Maegashira #3 10–5 T	East Komusubi 14–1 TO	West Sekiwake 10–5 O	East Sekiwake 13–2 T	West Ōzeki 9–6	West Ōzeki 12–3
1994	East Ōzeki 11–4	West Ōzeki 3–4–8	Sat out due to injury	West Ōzeki 14–1	West Ōzeki 12–3	West Ōzeki 8–7
1995	East Ōzeki 12–3	West Ōzeki 12–3	West Ōzeki 9–6	West Ōzeki 11–4	West Ōzeki 10–5	West Ōzeki 12–3
1996	East Ōzeki 0–4–11	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 10–5	West Ōzeki 11–4	West Ōzeki 11–4
1997	East Ōzeki 14–1	East Ōzeki 3–1–11	Sat out due to injury	East Ōzeki 8–7	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Ōzeki 10–5
1998	East Ōzeki 10–5	East Ōzeki 14–1	East Ōzeki 12–3	East Yokozuna 10–5	West Yokozuna 12–3	West Yokozuna 9–6
1999	West Yokozuna 13–2	East Yokozuna 5–5–5	West Yokozuna 3–5–7	Sat out due to injury	West Yokozuna 7–8	Sat out due to injury
2000	Sat out due to injury	West Yokozuna 2–4–retired	x	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

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament winners
• List of yokozuna

[edit] External links

• Japan Sumo Association profile
• Masaru Hanada speaks (in japanese)

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