Hanakaze Daisaku

Hanakaze Daisaku (華吹 大作) is a professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo. He made his debut in March, 1986 and wrestles for Tatsunami stable. Despite never rising higher than the fourth division (sandanme), he has set several records for longevity in the sport.

Career

Daisaku Yamaguchi joined sumo out of junior high school, in the era of the yokozuna Futahaguro and Hokutoumi, one year before his future stablemaster, the 7th Tatsunami elder, former komusubi, Asahiyutaka.^[1]

In the beginning of his career, he had three losing tournaments in a row, missed his fourth tournament, and dropped off the banzuke by the end of 1986. He returned to active sumo in March 1987, exactly on year after his initial debut. Since this time he has not missed a single tournament in over 31 years, although he has occasionally missed matches within tournaments due to injury. It would be July 1987 before he would receive his first kachi-koshi (majority of wins) tournament. He got his first 6-1 record in November 1988, a feat he has achieved 9 times in his career. He has never had an undefeated 7-0 tournament. Conversely, in tournaments he was active in, he has only ever had a winless 0-7 tournament twice in his career. His highest rank achieved is sandanme 18 in November 2003, which was incidentally one of his winless tournaments. He battled for thirteen years with the shikona of Tatsuyamaguchi before changing it to the current Hanakaze in July 1999.^[2]

Though Hanakaze has never reached the top, salaried ranks, he has a number of notable longevity records. Upon the retirement of Tochitenkō in May 2011 he became the oldest active wrestler in sumo, and also simultaneously tied with Hokutōryū for longest active career as they both joined sumo in March 1986. In 2016, both Hanakaze and Hokutōryū simultaneously became the longest serving sumo wrestlers ever, passing the largely uninterrupted, nearly 30-year career set by the legendary Miyagino Nishikinosuke (active 1766-1796, a contemporary of Tanikaze, historically accepted as the sport's first documented yokozuna). After Hokutōryū retired following the March 2017 tournament, Hanakaze solely holds the record for longest career ever in the centuries long history of sumo; a career currently approaching 33 years. He is also the only remaining active wrestler who began his career in the Showa era, which ended in January 1989.^[1] He reached another milestone in the following May tournament, when he passed already retired Ichinoya to become the oldest wrestler since the beginning of the Showa era, which began in 1926.

Other records he holds are most tournaments ever in the history of sumo (not as difficult a feat as fewer tournaments were held in earlier times) and the record for most consecutive tournaments, beginning in March 1987 to now.^[2] As of July 2018 he has fought 1331 bouts, with 630 wins against 701 losses, plus 13 injury absences. As he fights only seven matches per tournament, as opposed to sekitori ranked wrestlers who fight all 15 days, he does not hold any record for most bouts contested or most consecutive bouts.

Fighting style

Hanakaze’s most common winning kimarite are uwatenage (overarm throw) hatakikomi (slap down) and yorikiri (force out).^[3]

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

External links

• Profile at Tatsunami stable