| 寶智山 幸観 Hōchiyama Kōkan |
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|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Yukimi Munakata January 18, 1982 Aomori |
| Height | 1.89 m (6 ft 2 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 143 kg (320 lb; 22.5 st) |
| Career | |
| Heya | Sakaigawa, formerly Nakadachi |
| Current rank | see here |
| Debut | March, 2000 |
| Highest rank | Maegashira 14 (September 2006) |
| Yūshō | 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Jonokuchi) |
| * Career information is correct as of Nov 2011. | |
Hōchiyama Kōkan (born January 18, 1982 as Yukimi Munakata) is a sumo wrestler from Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. He joined professional sumo in 2000. His highest rank has been maegashira 14, achieved in 2006. After illness saw him demoted to the third makushita division in 2008, he returned to the second highest jūryō division in 2010 and the top makuuchi division in September 2011.
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He was born in the city of Hirosaki (as was Wakanosato). Hōchiyama was a member of Kizukuri High School sumo club (also attended by Mainoumi) and he made his professional debut in March 2000. He joined the Nakadachi stable set up by former komusubi Ryogoku, which was subsequently renamed Sakaigawa stable.
Hōchiyama took the jonokuchi championship with a perfect 7-0 record in his first tournament as a rikishi and he earned promotion to sandanme in November 2000 with another 7-0 score. However he found his opponents in the third makushita division much more difficult to deal with and his progress slowed. He narrowly missed out on promotion to the second highest jūryō division a number of times, recording 3-4 marks at makushita 1 in July 2004 and November 2005. After 24 tournaments in the third division he finally achieved promotion in January 2006 when a 4-3 score at makushita 4 was enough to reach jūryō. He became the second member of his stable to reach sekitori status, following Iwakiyama, and the first to do it progressing through all the professional sumo divisions, Iwakiyama having made his debut in makushita.
Hōchiyama reached the top makuuchi division in only in three tournaments, after winning the jūryō championship in July 2006 with a 13-2 record. He could only manage five wins in his top division debut in September 2006 and was demoted back to jūryō. He reappeared in makuuchi in May 2007 but after two more make-koshi or losing scores he fell back to the second division once again in September of that year. He just missed out on immediate promotion back to the top division after recording seven wins against eight losses at the rank of jūryō 1. However, restricted by diabetes, a disastrous performance of 2-13 at the rank of jūryō 6 in the March 2008 tournament (which was his sixth consecutive losing score) saw him demoted to the third division for May.
After more than two years in makushita, he finally returned to the sekitori ranks in July 2010 after scoring 5-2 at the rank of makushita 1 West in May. He came through with a winning record of 8-7, securing his kachi-koshi on the final day after four straight losses. He was one of seven rikishi from Sakaigawa stable ranked in jūryō in September 2010, the others being Iwakiyama, Goeido, Toyohibiki, Sadanoumi, Sadanofuji and Shironoryu. After a solid 9-6 at Juryo 5 in July 2011, he was promoted back to the top division for September after a 23 tournament absence - the fourth longest ever.
Hōchiyama's favourite techniques are listed by the Sumo Association as migi-yotsu (a left hand outside, right hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi), yori (grappling) and tsuki (thrusting). The majority of his wins have been by either yori-kiri (force out) or oshi-dashi (push out).[1]
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | West Makushita #4 4–3 |
East Jūryō #14 8–7 |
West Jūryō #11 10–5–PPP |
East Jūryō #6 13–2 Champion |
West Maegashira #14 5–10 |
West Jūryō #3 7–8 |
| 2007 | East Jūryō #4 8–7 |
West Jūryō #1 8–7 |
West Maegashira #14 6–9 |
West Maegashira #16 6–9 |
East Jūryō #1 7–8 |
East Jūryō #2 6–9 |
| 2008 | East Jūryō #5 7–8 |
West Jūryō #6 2–13 |
West Makushita #4 2–5 |
West Makushita #14 4–3 |
West Makushita #10 4–3 |
East Makushita #5 3–4 |
| 2009 | West Makushita #10 3–4 |
West Makushita #14 4–3 |
West Makushita #8 3–4 |
East Makushita #12 4–3 |
West Makushita #8 5–2 |
East Makushita #4 3–4 |
| 2010 | West Makushita #5 4–3 |
East Makushita #3 4–3 |
West Makushita #1 5–2 |
West Jūryō #11 8–7 |
East Jūryō #3 6–9 |
West Jūryō #6 6–9 |
| 2011 | East Jūryō #10 7–8 |
Jūryō Tournament Cancelled 0–0–0 |
West Jūryō #10 7–8 |
East Jūryō #5 9–6 |
East Maegashira #17 5–10 |
West Jūryō #5 9–6 |
| 2012 | West Jūryō #1 – |
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) |
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