Ikioi Shōta

Early life and sumo background

From his preschool years Toguchi was enrolled at a local sumo dōjō, coincidentally the future Gōeidō was also enrolled there at this time. In 1996 as a primary school fourth grader, he came in runner up at a national children's sumo tournament. After junior high school, he attempted to enter Hōtoku Gakuen high school which had a strong sumo team, but when he failed he decided to take a break from sumo and worked at his parents' sushi restaurant for three years while continuing to stay in shape.

Career

Acceding to his mother's wishes, at eighteen he joined Isenoumi stable and first entered the ring in March 2005. He took the shikona or ring name of Ikioi from his first pro tournament. In his second tournament in July 2005 in the jonidan division he achieved a perfect record, but lost his second bout in a three-way playoff for the championship to the future Daidō. In September 2006 while competing in the makushita division he was punched in the face in the dressing room after a bout with forty-year-old Kotokanyu, who apparently objected to being slapped around the face (a legitimate tactic known as harite) by someone over twenty years his junior. Kotokanyu was told to retire immediately afterwards. Over the next five years, Ikioi managed to work his way slowly up the ranks until he was finally awarded promotion to the salaried jūryō division after a 5-2 record at makushita 3 in September 2011. In contrast to his slow progress previously, Ikioi found unprecedented success in the jūryō second division. He had only one loss in the first thirteen days of his jūryō debut, and even though he lost his last two bouts he still managed to win the tournament. His 10-5 record in the following January 2012 tournament earned him promotion to the makuuchi top division.

Ikioi was the first wrestler to have only Chinese character in his ring name to enter the top division since Yokozuna Akebono twenty-two years before. He posted only posted a 5-10 record in his makuuchi debut in March and was immediately relegated back to jūryō. He repeated the same pattern in the following two tournaments, posting a strong winning record in upper jūryō to again enter makuuchi only to get a 7-8 losing record to again be relegated to the lower division. His September 2012 division effort at jūryō 1 was where he managed to turn things around, achieving an 11-4 record and a chance at the championship which he lost to Jōkōryū in a playoff. This performance saw him promoted to maegashira 10. He achieved his first kachi-koshi or winning record in the top division at the third attempt in November 2012, and was promoted to maegashira 5 for the January 2013 tournament. In this basho he defeated his first ever san'yaku opponent, Tochiōzan, and came through with another winning record.

Ikioi is now a makuuchi regular, and in the May 2014 tournament recorded an 11-4 at maegashira 5 and received his second special prize for Fighting Spirit. He made his sanyaku debut at komusubi rank in the November 2014 tournament. However, he scored only six wins, and struggled badly when facing the top ranked wrestlers again, scoring only 1-14 at maegashira 2 in January and 2-13 at maegashira 3 in July. When dropped to maegashira 12 in September he returned to form, and after eleven days he was in second place with a 10-1 record. He then lost his next three but recovered to beat Amuuru on the final day to end with an 11-4 record and a Fighting Spirit prize. In November he produced his best performance in the top division, winning twelve matches and finishing in a three-way tie for second place. He also earned his fourth Fighting Spirit prize.

In January 2016 Ikioi was ranked at komusubi again but recorded only five wins and was relegated to maegashira 4. He performed much better in March, posting a 10-5 record: only a loss to Kotoyuki on the final day prevented him from taking a fifth Fighting Spirit prize. With both komusubi and both sekiwake having losing records in that tournament, Ikioi was promoted to sekiwake for the first time for the following May 2016 basho. He became the first sekiwake from Isenoumi stable since Tosanoumi was promoted in 1997. He lost the rank after scoring only 4–11, but he earned a first kinboshi or gold star for a yokozuna upset in the July tournament in Nagoya, defeating Hakuhō on the ninth day.

Fighting style

Ikioi favours a migiyotsu (right hand inside, left hand outside grip on his opponent′s mawashi). His favourite winning kimarite is a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. He also regularly employs oshidashi, or push out, and sukuinage, or scoop throw.