Takagenji Satoshi

He was born in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, as a younger brother of a identical twin to a Filipino mother and a Japanese father. He would grow up in Sakai, Ibaraki Prefecture. He was in many sports as a youth such as karate and kickboxing but was particular good at basketball. In junior high he was ranked third nationally in basketball and was scouted by many top high school basketball programs. Among his rivals was future NBA player Rui Hachimura.[1] Upon his father's request he took up sumo after being introduced to Yokozuna Takanohana in the third grade. After junior high he chose to join Takanohana stable along with his brother stating, "I won't make any money in basketball and I would like to continue using my body." The stable already had a set of twins (Takageppo and Takatoshi) making Takanohana stable the first in sumo history to have two sets of twins simultaneously. However both of the other twins had retired by the end of 2014.

Takagenji made his professional debut alongside his brother in March 2013. He steadily rose up the ranks before hitting his first wall upon his promotion to makushita two years later in March 2015. He could manage only three wins at the rank and was immediately demoted back down to sandanme. He proceeded to bounce between the two divisions for a little less than a year before a surprise 6-1 runner-up performance in January 2016 would help to firmly establish him in the makushita division. He fought in this division for a little over a year before on the coattails five kachi-koshi or winning records he achieved 4–3 record at makushita 1 and gained promotion to the jūryō division. His first tournament in jūryō did not pan out as his last year had and he fell flat managing only a 4–11 record and being immediately be demoted back down to the makushita division. This wouldn't last long though as two winning records would send him back up to the sekitori ranks. This time his stay in jūryō was the polar opposite of his first with four straight winning records before getting his first make-koshi or losing record. After the January 2018 tournament his brother (then known as Takayoshitoshi) was promoted to jūryō also, making them the first twins to be ranked in jūryō simultaneously.[2] Shortly after this his stable was dissolved and he moved to Chiganoura stable along with his brother. In May 2019 at the rank of Jūryō 2 he got a 13-2 winning record taking home the yūshō or championship and guaranteeing his promotion to the top division.[3]

Takagenji's performances to date suggest that he is an oshi-sumo specialist who favours pushing techniques to fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common kimarite is yorikiri followed by oshidashi and tsukidashi. He was initially a yotsu-sumo or grappling specialist, but began to switch to pushing techniques around 2015 to try to improve his performances after finding himself going back and forth between the makushita and sandamne divisions. His consistency improved and he was eventually promoted to sekitori level in 2017.

He is known for being a diligent trainer, so much so that when he dislocated his knee while practicing on tour in Tokushima in October 2016, he re-inserted the dislocated knee joint so he could finish the training session.

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

• Takagenji Satoshi's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage