Takakeishō Mitsunobu

Takakeishō 貴景勝
Personal information
Born	Takanobu Satō (1996-08-05) August 5, 1996 Ashiya, Hyōgo Prefecture
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	170 kg (370 lb)
Career
Stable	Takanohana (until 1 October 2018) Chiganoura
Current rank	see below
Debut	November, 2014
Highest rank	Komusubi (January, 2018)
Championships	1 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita) 1 (Jonidan) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes	1 Fighting Spirit 2 Outstanding Performance
Gold Stars	3 Harumafuji 2 Kisenosato 1
* Up to date as of Sept 23, 2018.

Takakeishō Mitsunobu (貴景勝 光信, born August 5, 1996 as Takanobu Satō) is a professional sumo wrestler from the Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. He made his debut in November, 2014 and has won championships in the jonokuchi, jonidan, makushita and jūryō divisions. He reached the top makuuchi division in January 2017. He wrestles for Chiganoura stable. His highest rank has been komusubi. He has three special prizes and three gold stars for defeating a yokozuna.

Early life and sumo experience

In early primary school Satō was active in full-contact karate and was runner up for the championship in a national competition. However, in his third year he began participating in sumo at a local dojo. After primary school, he entered a junior high school known for its sumo program. In his third year there he won a national championship and took the title of junior high school yokozuna or grand champion. He then moved to eastern Japan and entered the private high school Saitama Sakae, which had an athletics course. In his time there he had two successive championships in the free weight category of both the Kantō regional high school sumo tournament as well as the national junior sumo tournament. In total he took 10 national titles in his high school years. In his third year, he was also champion in the free weight category of a world junior sumo tournament held in Taiwan.^[1]

Career

Satō was quite eager to join the pro sumo world, so after high school, he decided to forego going to university and competing in national sumo tournaments (which would have given him a chance to later gain makushita tsukedashi status) and quickly joined Takanohana stable.^[2] Though it is common practice for wrestlers to take on a ring name upon entering this particular stable, he chose to keep his ring name as Satō. Because of his strong desire to join the ranks of pro sumo as quickly as possible, he participated in maezumo (preliminary sumo tryouts) in September 2014 whilst still a high school student, a very rare occurrence. His coach, the former yokozuna Takanohana made an arrangement with Sato's high school that he would continue to attend school when not participating in official tournaments. Later news reports however stated that he had dropped out of high school.

Satō officially entered the sumo ring in November 2014, and in his debut took the lowest division or jonokuchi championship with a perfect 7-0 record.^[3] He added on another championship, again with a perfect 7-0 record in his next tournament in the next highest division jonidan. In the following March tournament in Osaka, competing in the sandanme division, he finally lost his first bout on the third day of the tournament, ending his successive win record at 15 bouts. In the following tournament, in the makushita division, he had a perfect 6-0 record up until his last bout, but he lost this one to the future Takaryū, who took the championship. This happened again two tournaments later, where he chalked up another six wins in his first six bouts, only to lose to veteran Azumaryū. This was still a good enough record to compete in an eight-man playoff. He defeated two opponents to make it to the final round, but then lost the last round for the championship to future sekitori Chiyoshōma.^[4] In the following November tournament after winning three bouts in a row, he lost his next four and got his first make-koshi or losing tournament. He would bounce back two tournaments later, in March of the following year, winning all of his bouts and defeating former sekitori Ōiwato in his final bout to clinch his first makushita championship. This was a decisive championship that would, in the next tournament, propel him into the salaried ranks of jūryō.

In his first jūryō tournament he became only the sixth wrestler in history, and the first ever in his teens to win eight consecutive bouts (a kachi-koshi) in his debut. He however went on to lose four bouts and ended with an 11-4 record for that tournament. He spent the next few tournaments rising steadily up the ranks of jūryō recording only one make-koshi, his second up to that point. This culminated in his fourth tournament in jūryō where he chalked up a 12-3 record in the ultra-competitive upper ranks of this division and earned his first championship as a salaried wrestler. In January, he was promoted to the top flight makuuchi division. On this occasion he chose to change his ring name to Takakeishō. The first character in his shikona comes from the first character in the shikona of his stablemaster Takanohana, and the second two characters are taken from the given name of the Japanese historical figure Kagekatsu Uesugi.^[5]

In Takakeishō's top division debut he only managed a 7-8 record.^[4] However, he followed up with eleven wins against four losses in the March 2017 tournament and was awarded his first special prize, for Fighting Spirit. Another 11-4 record in May saw him promoted to maegashira 1, but he struggled at his new rank and recorded only five wins in July. Ranked at maegashira 5 in September 2017, he earned his first kinboshi or victory over a yokozuna by defeating Harumafuji,^[6] who went on to win the tournament. Takakeishō was awarded the Outstanding Performance Prize on the final day. In November he again recorded eleven wins, earning two further kinboshi with victories over Harumafuji and Kisenosato and receiving a second consecutive prize for Outstanding Performance.^[7]

In January 2018 Takakeisho made his sanyaku debut at komusubi, the first member of Takanohana stable to reach this rank since his stablemaster established the stable in February 2004.^[8] He fell short with a 5–10 record, and withdrew from the following tournament in March due to injury with only three wins. He returned to the komusubi rank in September 2018 and secured a winning record. Shortly after this tournament his stable was dissolved and he moved to Chiganoura stable.

Fighting style

Takakeishō specializes in pushing and thrusting techniques (tsuki/oshi). He regularly wins by oshi-dashi (push out) and hataki-komi (slap down).

Career record

See also

• List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers
• List of active gold star earners
• List of komusubi

References

External links

• Takakeishō Mitsunobu's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage