Takarafuji Daisuke

Takarafuji Daisuke
宝富士 大輔
Personal information
Born	Daisuke Sugiyama (1987-02-18) February 18, 1987 Nakadomari, Aomori, Japan
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Weight	162 kg (357 lb)
Career
Stable	Isegahama
Current rank	see below
Debut	January, 2009
Highest rank	Maegashira 1 (Jan, 2015)
Championships	1 (Sandanme)
Gold Stars	1 (Kakuryū)
* Up to date as of Apr 27, 2015.

Takarafuji Daisuke (宝富士 大輔) (born February 18, 1987 as Daisuke Sugiyama) is a sumo wrestler from Nakadomari, Aomori, Japan. He is a sandanme division champion. The highest rank he has reached is maegashira 1.

Early life and sumo background

From the third grade of elementary school, Sugiyama began practicing at a sumo dōjō near his home and began participating in national amateur sumo tournaments in junior high school. This exposure soon had him being scouted by several sumo stables. He chose to first finish high school and went on to university. He graduated from Kinki University in Osaka.

Career

Takarafuji at the Kyushu tournament in November 2011

Upon his graduation, the former yokozuna Asahifuji, who had previously attended the same high school and university as Sugiyama, invited him to join Isegahama stable of which Asahifuji was head coach. Sugiyama's professional sumo career began in January 2009. He took the ring name of Takarafuji from the beginning, following the practice at Isegahama of wrestlers taking a ring name at the beginning rather than waiting for a promotion opportunity as most stables do. He advanced quickly through the lower ranks. He narrowly lost the jonokuchi championship in his debut, losing in a playoff. He then posted an impressive 6-1 in his jonidan division debut in the next tournament. In the following July 2009 tournament, he won the sandanme division championship with a perfect record and a playoff win. His progress slowed only slightly on entering the tougher makushita division. Through to July 2010 he posted only one losing tournament, and was promoted to the jūryō second division in September 2010. His promotion from makushita 2 to jūryō 12 was higher than normal due to seven other wrestlers being suspended for gambling on baseball. Regardless of being put at a higher rank than his record had yet warranted, he excelled, posting four consecutive winning records and advancing to the top-tier makuuchi division in July 2011 at maegashira 10.

His debut in the division would turn out to be the same tournament that his stablemate, ōzeki Harumafuji would win the championship. This auspicious debut did little for his record, and an unimpressive 4-11 record had him demoted. For four tournaments, he alternated between losing records in makuuchi that bounced him down to jūryō where he would post an impressive enough record to achieve top-tier promotion again. Though he only posted a 6-9 record at maegashira 14 in the March 2012 tournament, unimpressive performances by many wrestlers in nearby ranks allowed him to stay in the makuuchi division at the bottom maegashira 16 rank for the May 2012 tournament. In this tournament he would finally post his first winning record, being in the championship race until late in the tournament before several consecutive losses knocked him out of the running. Since this time, he has been a managed to stay in the top division for the better part of three years, posting roughly alternating winning and losing tournaments, and was only demoted to jūryō once in November 2012 before bouncing right back into the top division. He earned his first kinboshi or gold star for defeating yokozuna Kakuryū in the January 2015 tournament, but he missed out on a first special prize and promotion to the sanyaku ranks after he failed to win on the final day and ended with a make-koshi 7-8 record.

Fighting style

Takarafuji is a yotsu–sumo wrestler who prefers a hidari–yotsu, or right hand outside and left hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi. His most common winning kimarite are the two most popular techniques in sumo, yorikiri or force out, and oshidashi or push out.

Personal

On his promotion to the top division, his passing resemblance to the celebrity Matsuko Deluxe was noted by the Japanese media.

Career record

See also

• List of active gold star earners
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Takarafuji Daisuke's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage