Jōkōryū Takayuki

Early life and sumo background

He participated in amateur sumo while in high school in Saitama prefecture, and in his third year there, won the junior sumo championship in the free weight category. He later entered Nihon University and in his second year, in 2008, he achieved the status of student yokozuna in the national student sumo tournament. This success would have allowed him to enter professional sumo at a higher rank (known as makushita tsukedashi) but he chose to give priority to graduating, and passed up this chance.

Early career

Upon graduating he joined Kitanoumi stable, adopting the shikona of Sakumayama to distinguish himself from an active wrestler who already had the name Sakuma. Before even entering the ring he was making a name for himself because of his diligence, skill, and strength in practice. He was allowed to practice regularly with higher ranked wrestlers almost from the beginning because of this. He won his first tournament championship or yūshō in the jonokuchi division with a perfect record and a playoff win against stablemate and fellow rising star Sasanoyama. In the following September tournament he won all his regular matches, but lost a playoff match for the jonidan championship. Playoffs are not calculated in professional sumo records, therefore his consecutive record was left intact. He continued his streak in the November tournament, with a perfect record and a playoff win. In the first tournament of 2012, he continued undefeated and on the 11th day of the tournament, reached 27 consecutive wins from his entry into sumo, surpassing the previous record set by former komusubi Itai in 1979. In his next match, on the 13th day, he finally lost to an overarm throw, by Senshō. Nevertheless, on the final day of the tournament he came through a four-way playoff to win the championship. This was his fourth consecutive playoff, a record. His calmness in the ring, and unaffected humbleness about his success at this stage was noted by commentators.

Though he logged two losses for the first time in his first upper makushita tournament in March 2012, his five wins was enough to earn him promotion to jūryō in the following May tournament. The six tournaments it took him to reach sekitori status from maezumo is level with Itai and Tosayutaka for the fastest ever. On the occasion of his promotion, he changed his ring name to Jōkōryū. It was also announced that he would be moving to the re–established Kise stable, which was founded by the former Higonoumi but forced to merge with Kitanoumi stable in 2010.

Makuuchi career

Jōkōryū's first tournament as a sekitori was a success, with him securing his kachi-koshi or majority of wins on the final day with a win over Oiwato. After a 10–5 score in July, he won promotion to the makuuchi division by clinching the jūryō championship in September with a playoff win over Ikioi. His makuuchi debut in November 2012 was just nine tournaments after his professional debut, beating the previous record of eleven held by Kotoōshū and Aran. He found the going more tough in the top division and recorded his first ever make-koshi, finishing on 6–9 and suffering immediate demotion back to jūryō. However he made a quick return to makuuchi after finishing runner–up in January to Takanoiwa on 11–4. He has since largely alternated between winning and losing tournaments, and fell to jūryō again in January 2013. For the remainder of 2013 he managed to stay in the top division, but was again relegated to the second division in January of the following year, but bounced back in one tournament just as he had in the previous year. In the following two tournaments of March and May 2014 he logged two consecutive winning tournaments in the top division, a feat he couldn't accomplish in the previous year. In the July 2014 tournament he had his best finish in the top division at 10-5, which earned him promotion to the san'yaku ranks for the first time at komusubi for September. He could manage only four wins in his san'yaku debut and dropped back to the maegashira ranks. In January 2015 he suffered an injury to his right knee in a bout against Endō but continued to fight and picked up his first kinboshi or gold star for the defeat of a yokozuna, upsetting Harumafuji on Day 7. Jōkōryū dedicated the win to his son, as it was his birthday.

Injuries and demotions

Jōkōryū withdrew on Day 12 of the January 2015 tournament and with only five wins against ten losses in each of his next two tournaments, he was relegated back to jūryō. His 8-7 record in September was his first majority of wins at any tournament in 2015. Although he returned to the top division in January 2016 he was not fully healed and he was forced to withdraw after only two wins because of ligament damage to the same knee that he had injured a year earlier. After two consecutive losing scores in the jūryō division he was demoted to makushita for the July 2016 tournament. After undergoing surgery he was forced to miss both the July and September tournaments, and fell to sandanme 23. He predictably won the division on his comeback in November, going unbeaten in all seven bouts before beating Asahiryū in a play-off. He was promoted to the makushita division for the January 2017 tournament, where he turned in a make-koshi record of 3–4.

Fighting style

Jōkōryū's favoured kimarite or techniques are migi yotsu (a left hand outside, right hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi), yorikiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw).