Bushūyama Takashi

武州山 隆士
Bushūyama Takashi
Personal information
Born Takashi Yamauchi
May 21, 1976 (1976-05-21) (age 35)
Aomori, Aomori Prefecture
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight 170 kg (370 lb; 27 st)
Career
Heya Fujishima
Current rank see below
Debut January, 1999
Highest rank Maegashira 3 (November, 2009)
Yūshō 2 (Jūryō)
* Career information is correct as of Nov 2011.

Bushūyama Takashi (武州山 隆士?, born May 21, 1976) is a Japanese sumo wrestler from Aomori, Aomori Prefecture. He made his professional debut in January 1999. At the age of 32, he was promoted to the top makuuchi division in the November 2008 tournament. His highest rank has been maegashira 3.

Contents

Career

Bushuyama was a member of the sumo club at Daito Bunka University, and reached the round of 16 in the 1998 All Japan Sumo Championship.[1] As his club did not have many members, they regularly trained at Musashigawa stable, and this was the heya he joined upon entering the professional ranks. He made his debut in the same tournament as Asashōryū. He was given special dispensation to begin his career in the third highest makushita division because of his achievements in amateur sumo, but in 2001 fell to the jonidan division because of an elbow injury. He reached the second highest jūryō division in September 2003, the first member of his university to attain sekitori status.

In 2005 he fell back to makushita, and did not return to jūryō until January 2007. He won the jūryō division championship for the first time in July 2008, with a 12-3 record. He followed up with a 10-5 score in September. In November 2008, he was finally promoted to the top division. It had taken him 59 tournaments to win promotion to the top division from his debut, which at the time was the longest of any former collegiate champion (this dubious honor is now held by Tsurugidake). At 32 years and five months he was also the fourth oldest wrestler to make his top division debut since the end of World War II.[2]

Bushuyama scored eight wins in his top division debut and was promoted to maegashira 6 for the January 2009 tournament. However, a very disappointing 2-13 record there meant he was demoted back to the jūryō division for the March 2009 tournament. He scored 8-7 there, enough for an immediate top division return. He recovered from 1-5 down in May to score 9-6 at maegashira 15. In the September tournament he produced his best top division score to date of 10-5, narrowly failing to win a special prize after being beaten on the final day. He was promoted to his highest rank to date of maegashira 3 for November 2009. He defeated ozeki Kotomitsuki in this tournament, but recorded a make-koshi score of 6-9. In January 2010 he produced a poor 2-13 record, the same score from the same rank as the previous Hatsu basho in 2009. However on this occasion he remained in the top division for the following tournament, albeit at the very lowest rank of Maegashira 16 West. He lost his top division status after scoring only 4-11 in March, but won his second jūryō championship with an 11-4 record in May and secured an immediate return to makuuchi. In the July tournament he secured his majority of wins on the final day, but he was demoted to juryo again after the November 2010 tournament.

He is a contemporary of Wakanosato and Takamisakari, both also from Aomori.

Fighting style

Bushuyama favours yotsu-sumo or a grappling style, preferring a hidari-yotsu or right hand outside, left hand inside grip on his opponents mawashi. His most common winning technique is yori-kiri (force-out) followed by oshi dashi (push out) and yori-taoshi (force out and down).

Record since year of top division entry

 

Bushūyama Takashi


year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo
March
Haru basho, Osaka
May
Natsu basho, Tokyo
July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya
September
Aki basho, Tokyo
November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2008 West Makushita #2
4–3
 
East Makushita #1
4–3
 
East Jūryō #14
9–6
 
East Jūryō #8
12–3
Champion

 
East Jūryō #1
10–5
 
East Maegashira #10
8–7
 
2009 East Maegashira #6
2–13
 
East Jūryō #1
8–7
 
West Maegashira #15
9–6
 
East Maegashira #6
5–10
 
West Maegashira #10
10–5
 
West Maegashira #3
6–9
 
2010 East Maegashira #6
2–13
 
West Maegashira #16
4–11
 
West Jūryō #5
11–4
Champion

 
East Maegashira #15
8–7
 
West Maegashira #9
6–9
 
West Maegashira #12
3–12
 
2011 East Jūryō #4
8–7
 
East Jūryō #2
Tournament Cancelled
0–0–0
East Jūryō #2
5–10
 
West Jūryō #2
7–8
 
East Jūryō #4
8–7
 
East Jūryō #2
5–10
 
2012 East Jūryō #7

 
x x x x x
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions

Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: =Kinboshi(s) P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: MakuuchiJūryōMakushitaSandanmeJonidanJonokuchi

Makuuchi ranks: YokozunaŌzekiSekiwakeKomusubiMaegashira

See also

References

External links