Ikioi Shōta

Ikioi Shōta
勢 翔太
Personal information
Born	Shōta Toguchi (1986-10-11) October 11, 1986 Katano, Osaka, Japan
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 1⁄2 in)
Weight	155 kg (342 lb; 24.4 st)
Career
Stable	Isenoumi
Current rank	see below
Debut	March, 2005
Highest rank	Komusubi (Nov, 2014)
Championships	1 (Jūryō)
Special Prizes	2 (Fighting Spirit)
* Up to date as of Apr 27, 2015.

Ikioi Shōta (勢 翔太) (born 11 October 1986 as Shōta Toguchi) is a professional sumo wrestler from Katano, Osaka, Japan. He began his career in March 2005. He won the jūryō championship in November 2011 in his very first tournament in the division and just two tournaments later made his makuuchi division debut. He was runner up to Jōkōryū in the jūryō division in September 2012. His highest rank has been komusubi.

Early life and sumo background

From his preschool years Toguchi was enrolled at a local sumo dōjō, coincidentally the future Gōeidō was also enrolled there at this time. In 1996 as a primary school fourth grader, he came in runner up at a national children's sumo tournament. After junior high school, he attempted to enter Hōtoku Gakuen high school which had a strong sumo team, but when he failed he decided to take a break from sumo and worked at his parents' sushi restaurant for three years while continuing to stay in shape.

Career

Acceding to his mother's wishes, at eighteen he joined Isenoumi stable and first entered the ring in March 2005. He took the ring name of Ikioi from his first pro tournament. His shikona was unusual for having only one Chinese character. In his second tournament in July 2005 in the jonidan division he achieved a perfect record, but lost his second playoff bout in that tournament to the future Daidō. Over the next five years, he managed to slowly work his way up the ranks, posting mostly winning records, until he was finally awarded promotion to the salaried jūryō division after a 5-2 record at makushita 3 in September 2011. When Ikioi entered jūryō it was the first time a wrestler with only one character for his ring name had reached the salaried ranks since 1997. In contrast to his slow rise through the unsalaried ranks, Ikioi found unprecedented success in the jūryō second division. On his debut bout in November 2011, he had only one loss in the first thirteen days of the tournament, and even though he lost the last two days he still managed to win the tournament with the best record. His 10-5 record in the following January 2012 tournament earned him promotion to the makuuchi top division. This time he was the first wrestler to have only one character in his ring name to enter the top division since Yokozuna Akebono twenty-two years before. In this March tournament however, he only posted a 5-10 record and was immediately relegated back to jūryō. He repeated the same pattern in the following two tournaments, posting a strong winning record in upper jūryō to again enter makuuchi only to get a 7-8 losing record to again be relegated to the lower division. His September 2012 division effort at jūryō 1 was where he managed to turn things around again when he achieved an 11-4 record and a chance at the championship which he lost to Jōkōryū in a playoff. This performance saw him promoted to maegashira 10. He achieved his first kachi-koshi or winning record in the top division at the third attempt in November 2012, and was promoted to his highest rank to date of maegashira 5 for the January 2013 tournament. In this basho he defeated his first ever san'yaku opponent, Tochiōzan, and came through with another winning record. He went on to become a makuuchi regular, and in the May 2014 tournament recorded an 11-4 at maegashira 5 and received his second special prize for Fighting Spirit. He made his sanyaku debut at komusubi rank in the November 2014 tournament.

Fighting style

Ikioi favours a migiyotsu (right hand inside, left hand outside grip on his opponent′s mawashi. His favourite winning kimarite is a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. He also regularly employs oshidashi, or push out, and sukuinage, or scoop throw.

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo tournament second division champions

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ikioi Shota.

• Ikioi Shōta's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage