Oginohana Akikazu

Career

He had not shown much interest in sumo while at high school and was instead a member of the baseball team. However, while recuperating from a baseball injury he was persuaded to drop out of school and join Dewanoumi stable where his father, the former sekiwake Oginohana Masaaki, worked as a coach. Initially fighting under his family name of Koiwai, he made his professional debut in July 1983. He adopted his father's shikona or fighting name in March 1987. In the same tournament his younger brother joined the stable and began using the family name as a shikona instead (he later became Oginishiki). As he rose up the ranks Oginohana's strong and supple physique, and the power of his right arm overarm throw, were much admired. He bore a physical resemblance to former yokozuna Wakanohana II, and like him was popular with female sumo fans. He won the makushita division yusho or championship in May 1988 and reached sekitori level upon promotion to the juryo division in July 1989. He took the juryo division championship with a 13-2 record in November 1989 and was promoted to the top makuuchi division for the following tournament in January 1990.

Both Oginohana and his friend and stablemate, Ryukozan, came through with winning records in their makuuchi debuts, but Ryukozan collapsed and died of a heart attack during a training session a few weeks later. Oginohana seemed to lose a good deal of his fighting spirit after this incident. His expected rise to the sanyaku ranks never materialized, and he never won a sansho or special prize. Twice he was in a position when he would have been awarded the Fighting Spirit Prize if he had won on the final day of the tournament, but on both occasions he lost (to Terao on his top division debut in January 1990 and Takahanada in March 1991). He fell to juryo on a couple of occasions, and ended up winning the juryo yusho four times, second only to Masurao's five. His last appearance in the top division was in March 1996, and he retired in July 1998 when he lost thirteen bouts and was certain to be demoted to the makushita division. His top division record was 169 wins to 216 losses with 5 absences, a winning percentage of .439, and his highest rank was maegashira 2, achieved in May 1990.

Retirement from sumo

Oginohana remained in the sumo world as a coach at Dewanoumi stable and an elder of the Japan Sumo Association. For two years after his retirement he had jun-tosiyori status and used his old fighting name (a practice since abolished), but in 2000 he became Takasaki Oyakata, succeeding his father who had reached the mandatory retirement age for coaches of 65 years old. In February 2014 he became the head coach of Dewanoumi stable, succeeding ex sekiwake Washuyama who was also nearing retirement age. He is also a judge of tournament bouts and has deputized for chief judges Kasugano and Fujishima. In January 2016 he was elected to the Sumo Association's board of directors.

Oginohana was one of seven wrestlers born in the 1967–1968 school year to reach the top division, the others being Ryukozan, Daishōhō, Takatoriki, Mainoumi, Kenkō and Terunoumi, but he is the only one of those seven still involved in sumo, with Mainoumi choosing to leave upon his retirement, Takatoriki being expelled, and the other four all being deceased. In addition, none of those seven became yokozuna or ozeki, and in Japan they are compared unfavourably with their contemporaries from professional baseball where "Kuwata–Kiyohara Generation" is regarded as a golden age.

Fighting style

Oginohana was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who preferred grappling techniques to pushing and thrusting. His favoured grip on the mawashi was hidari yotsu, a right hand outside, left hand inside position. His speciality was uwatenage, or overarm throw.