Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Mitakeumi Hisashi

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University
  
Debut
  
March 2015

Championships
  
1 (Jūryō)

Weight
  
153 kg

Current rank
  
see below

Highest rank
  
Komusubi (Nov 2016)

Height
  
1.78 m

Mitakeumi Hisashi sumodbsumogamesdepics12210jpg

Born
  
Ōmichi Hisashi December 25, 1992 (age 24)Agematsu, Nagano, Japan (
1992-12-25
)

Special Prizes
  
Fighting Spririt (1)Technique (1)

Similar
  
Kakuryū Rikisaburō, Shōhōzan Yūya, Harumafuji Kōhei, Takayasu Akira, Kisenosato Yutaka

Mitakeumi Hisashi (御嶽海 久司) (born December 25, 1992 as Omichi Hisashi is a sumo wrestler from Agematsu, Nagano, Japan. He is in the Dewanoumi stable. He is a pusher thruster-type wrestler. A former amateur champion at Toyo University, he made his professional debut in March 2015, reaching the top makuuchi division in November of the same year. He has two special prizes for Fighting Spirit and Technique, and two gold stars for defeating a yokozuna. His highest rank is komusubi. His father is Japanese, and his mother is Filipino.

Contents

Early life and sumo background

Ōmichi Hisashi began in sumo at Agematsu Elementary school as a first grader at a sumo tournament in Ōkuwa where he lost to an opponent smaller than himself. This loss lit a fire in his soul, which led to him formally beginning in sumo by joining the Kiso Sumo Club for boys. By the end of elementary school he rose to second place in the All Japan Elementary School Sumo Championship Tournament. While attending Kiso Fukushima Middle School he was in the Top 8 amongst his peers nationally. At Kiso Aomine High School he was third in the National Polity Club. He then went on to Law School at Toyo University.

At Toyo University he became a powerful pusher thruster and earned 15 titles in sumo. In his fourth year at university in November he became a university yokozuna, then went on to become an amateur yokozuna in December. Attaining the rank of amateur yokozuna earned him the right to start as a professional at the rank of makushita 10. He had initially not intended to enter the professional ranks, but instead to work for the Wakayama Prefectural government. However he was convinced by the former Oginohana, the 11th generation stable master at Dewanoumi stable to help revive the fortunes of his stable, and so joined the stable on February 12, 2015. He became the first new student of the stablemaster, who had just taken over from his predecessor (former sekiwake Washūyama).

Career

He entered the dohyō for the first time in the March 2015 tournament and was given the name Mitakeumi. His name is taken from a mountain near his hometown of Agematsu named Mount Ontake (御嶽山. 御 can be read as “On” or “Mi”). The “Umi” part of his name comes from his stable, Dewanoumi. Although Mitakeumi suffered his first loss as a profressional sumo wrestler to Daishōhō in his second bout of the tournament, this helped relieve tension, and he was able to finish with a strong 6-1 winning record. This propelled him to the rank of east makushita #3 in the next tournament where he got another 6-1 record and advanced to the second highest (jūryō) division of sumo in the July tournament. He became only the 11th wrestler promoted to jūryō after only two tournaments.

He became the first wrestler to enter the top (makuuchi) division from Nagano prefecture since Ōwashi retired from sumo in January 1978 (this period of 37 years was the current longest amongst all the prefectures). It had also been 47 years since a wrestler from Nagano reached the rank of jūryō (Ōnobori).

In his first jūryō tournament Mitakeumi earned the championship with an 11-4 record at the July 2015 tournament. It had been 66 years since the May 1949 tournament that a wrestler from Nagano had won the jūryō tournament. On day 10 of the tournament he suffered a loss as well as a sharp blow to the mouth from Jōkōryū requiring 15 stitches to his upper lip, however he was able to return the following day and earn a victory.

Mitakeumi fought for the first time in the makuuchi division while in jūryō on Day 14 of the September 2015 tournament. He finished with a 12-3 record at the rank of jūryō #5 at this tournament and was promoted to the makuuchi division for the November tournament in Kyushu, where he earned an 8-7 winning record. He had the flu during the January 2016 tournament, which contributed to his first losing record in the top division, however he followed this tournament with two strong performances of 10-5 and 11-4, taking his first special prize, the fighting spirit prize, in May 2016. He made his san'yaku debut at komusubi in the November 2016 tournament. The new rank though proved to be a challenge as he had to face everyone above him in the first week losing 7 of the first 8 days. In the end he only managed to get 6 wins and went 6-9 in the end. 2016 proved overall to be a good year for Mitakeumi having three tournaments with double digit wins, winning his first prize, and making it to komusubi, and he was the 53rd winner of the annual "best makuuchi newcomer" award sponsored by ChuSpo.

Mitakeumi began the Hatsu tournament in January 2017 with a win over ōzeki Gōeidō, and on Day 2 he earned his first kinboshi (a yokozuna upset by a wrestler from the maegashira ranks) when he defeated Harumafuji. He also defeated yokozuna Kakuryū on Day 4. He finished with 11 wins and was awarded a Technique prize for his performance in this tournament.

Fighting style

Mitakeumi prefers pushing and thrusting moves as opposed to fighting on the opponent's mawashi or belt. His most common winning techniques are oshidashi, the push out, yorikiri, the force out and hatakikomi the slap down.

References

Mitakeumi Hisashi Wikipedia