| 若荒雄 匡也 Wakakōyū Masaya |
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|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Masaya Yakigaya February 24, 1984 Funabashi, Chiba, Japan |
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 166 kg (370 lb; 26.1 st) |
| Career | |
| Heya | Ōnomatsu |
| Current rank | see below |
| Debut | March, 1999 |
| Highest rank | Komusubi (Jan, 2012) |
| Yūshō | 1 (Sandanme) |
| Sanshō | Fighting Spirit (1) |
| * Career information is correct as of Dec 2011. | |
Wakakōyū Masaya (born 24 February 1984 as Masaya Yakigaya) is a professional sumo wrestler from Funabashi, Japan. His highest rank has been komusubi. The last two characters of his ring name are taken from his mentor and coach at Ōnomatsu, the former Masurao. He is only the second wrestler from his stable to reach the top division. He has been runner-up in one tournament and earned one special prize, for Fighting Spirit.
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Two years after his birth in Funabashi, his father was killed in a car accident and he was subsequently raised alone by his mother. Ōnomatsu being very near the home of one of his relatives, he began visiting the stable from a young age. This eventually led to him entering the stable in 1999.
Fighting under his own surname of Yakigaya, he rose steadily through the ranks until reaching sandanme where he started to struggle. He managed to reach makushita in September 2002 but was demoted back to sandanme after one tournament. In 2003, he missed two tournaments, but upon returning earned two impressive records topped off with a perfect 7-0 record to win the sandanme championship in the last tournament of that year. He fought for four years in the makushita ranks with occasional temporary demotions to sandanme before finally achieving a record that enabled his promotion to the second division, jūryō, in January, 2008. To mark his arrival in the elite sekitori ranks he changed his shikona to Wakakōyū.
After a year and half in jūryō with two demotions to makushita he managed a 9-6 record at the jūryō 2 rank and was promoted to the bottom of the makuuchi division in July, 2009. He only managed a 4-11 record and fell back to jūryō. After a one off 6-9 record this tournament, he took in a string of winning records over the next several tournaments to again reach the top division makuuchi in May, 2010.[1] This time he proved himself with a 10-5 record that would have allowed him to fight in the next tournament at a career high maegashira 8. However, at this time, he admitted to having been involved in baseball gambling along with a number of other higher ranked wrestlers and was forced to sit out the tournament and was demoted back to jūryō having never fought at his (then) highest achieved rank.
He bounced back from this setback with two winning tournaments, the second being an impressive 10-5 at jūryō's highest rank. This awarded him another chance to prove himself in makuuchi in the January 2011 tournament. Wakakōyū and Toyohibiki were the last two wrestlers to again reach the top division after being demoted of it in the gambling scandal. After a 8-7 score at maegashira 10 in the May Technical Examination Tournament, he reached the upper maegashira ranks for the first time at #3. He managed to defeat two ozeki (Kotooshu and the shortly to retire Kaio) but finished with a losing score of 5-10. His best performance in the top division came in November 2011 when he finished runner-up to yokozuna Hakuho with a score of 12-3 and was awarded his first sansho or special prize, for Fighting Spirit. It also saw him promoted to the sanyaku ranks for the first time at komusubi for the following tournament in January 2012.
Wakakōyū is an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques to fighting on the mawashi. His most common winning kimarite are oshi-dashi (push out), tsuki dashi (thrust out) and hiki-otoshi (pull down).
| 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 | East Jūryō #14 7–8 |
East Makushita #2 5–2 |
East Jūryō #13 8–7 |
West Jūryō #10 5–10 |
East Makushita #1 5–3 |
West Jūryō #7 6–9 |
| 2009 | West Jūryō #9 7–8 |
East Jūryō #11 11–4 |
West Jūryō #2 9–6 |
East Maegashira #16 4–11 |
West Jūryō #6 6–9 |
West Jūryō #9 9–6 |
| 2010 | East Jūryō #4 8–7 |
West Jūryō #1 9–6 |
East Maegashira #15 10–5 |
East Maegashira #8 Sat out due to injury 0–0–15 |
East Jūryō #6 8–7 |
East Jūryō #1 10–5 |
| 2011 | East Maegashira #14 9–6 |
West Maegashira #10 Tournament Cancelled 0–0–0 |
West Maegashira #10 8–7 |
East Maegashira #3 5–10 |
West Maegashira #6 6–9 |
West Maegashira #9 12–3 F |
| 2012 | West Komusubi – |
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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