Yoshiazuma Hiroshi

Yoshiazuma Hiroshi
芳東 洋
Personal information
Born	Hiroshi Ishihara (1977-05-26) May 26, 1977 Kashima, Kumamoto, Japan
Height	1.98 m (6 ft 6 in)
Weight	170 kg (370 lb)
Career
Stable	Tamanoi
Current rank	see below
Debut	January, 1996
Highest rank	Maegashira 12 (September, 2011)
* Up to date as of Apr 27, 2015.

Yoshiazuma Hiroshi (born 26 May 1977 as Hiroshi Ishihara) is a professional sumo wrestler from Kashima, Kumamoto, Japan. He made his professional debut in January 1996 and reached the top division in September 2011. His highest rank has been maegashira 12. The 15 years it took him to reach the top division is the third slowest progress ever, in the history of professional sumo wrestling.

Early life and sumo background

In his early years Ishihara was more interested in soccer, and was a member of the kendō team in middle school. He started sumo in high school, and in his third year contributed to his team taking the championship in a national tournament. He chose to join Tamanoi stable when he graduated high school.

Career

Upon joining professional sumo in March 1996, he took the ring name of Yoshiazuma, taking the first character from a benefactor's name and the second character following the convention of taking the character of azuma from the current and previous stable owners, former Tochiazuma II, and Tochiazuma I. Yoshiazuma's career started out very successfully and in only his second tournament he almost took the jonidan division championship, losing a three man playoff to Akiyama. He actually beat Akiyama in the second round, but lost to him in the fourth and final round. His career after this was lackluster however, and for the next fifteen years he would struggle in the unsalaried ranks, through a series of setbacks, ever so slowly working his way up through the ranks. He finally achieved promotion to the salaried ranks of jūryō in January 2011. His 6-9 performance in this tournament should have led to his relegation after only one tournament, but he benefited from the match-fixing scandal of 2011 where many wrestlers were forced to retire. After the cancelled tournament in March, he was raised to jūryō 13 for the May tournament, to help fill in slots left open by purged wrestlers. This opportunity seemed to spark Yoshiazuma, and after four tournaments, three of which were winning tournaments, he was promoted to the top division for the November 2012 tournament. This feat took him 15 years, the third slowest rise to the top division in the history of sumo. However, he only lasted this one tournament, being relegated after a 3-12 record. He was in the second division for the next nine tournaments and was relegated to makushita for the following July tournament.

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Yoshiazuma Hiroshi's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage