Shōdai Naoya

Early life and sumo background

Shōdai Naoya’s talents were first noticed by the coach of the Uto Boys Sumo Club while he was playing sumo in the park at Uto Elementary School. In 5th grade he competed in the national sumo competition, and while at Kakujō Middle School he was an alternate member of the winning team at the All-Middle School sumo championship. In his final year at Kumamoto agricultural high school he won the youth national sumo championship.

Shōdai went on to university at Tokyo University of Agriculture, where he studied international food information sciences in the international agricultural development department. He became a university yokozuna in his second year, and met the qualifications to join professional sumo at the makushita 15 rank as a tsukedashi, however he gave preference to finishing school and missed the one year time limit to accept this opportunity. In his third year at university he advanced to the All-Japan sumo championship, however he lost to Endō and therefore did not attain the amateur yokozuna title that year. He also did not qualify for tsukedashi in his 4th year at university.

Career

After graduating from university, he joined the Tokitsukaze stable and entered his first tournament in March 2014. Because he missed his opportunity to start in the makushita ranks as a tsukedashi, he began in maezumo in this tournament. He lost on the 5th day to Shiba, however finishing with a 2-1 record allowed him to continue to the professional ranks. In May when ranked in jonokuchi (the beginning level of professional sumo), he faced Shiba on day 5 and beat him for the first time. He went on to finish with a 7-0 record and take the jonokuchi championship. This propelled him into the next highest level of sumo, jonidan, in the July tournament, where he finished with a 6-1 record, and advanced to the next highest level, sandanme in the September tournament. He faced Shiba again on day 9 and lost, however his 6-1 record was good enough to advance him to the next highest level, makushita in the November tournament. He lost his third and fourth matches in this tournament to Higoarashi and Asatenmai, however still finished with a promising 5-2 record which allowed him to advance higher up the makushita ranks. In the January 2015 tournament he was concerned that diarrhea and a bacterial infection would affect his performance, however he was able to win the tournament with a perfect 7-0 record when he beat Ishiura, who was promoted to jūryō, on the last day. In the next three tournaments in makushita he attained winning records and was promoted to jūryō in the September 2015 tournament. He kept his family name, Shōdai, rather than change his name as most sumo wrestlers do. His stable master commented that, “It’s a good name. Not bad at all.”

Later in a press conference, he made comments that were interpreted as pessimistic, and he was dubbed as a “very negative sumo wrestler.” However, he finished his first tournament in jūryō with a strong 11-4 record. In the following tournament he improved his previous performance to 13-2, took the jūryō championship, and was promoted to the highest level of sumo, makuuchi.

In the January tournament he became the 20th wrestler from Kumamoto prefecture to attain the highest rank of sumo since the end of World War II. He also became tied for third fastest wrestler to reach the highest level of sumo since 1958 (excluding tsukedashi) at only 11 tournaments. As opposed to another wrestler, Kagayaki, who also was making his top level debut and earned only a 4-11 record, Shōdai earned an impressive 10-5 record, continued his streak of no losing tournaments, and also took the Fighting Spirit prize. He became number two on the all-time list for fastest attainment of a Special Prize at 12 tournaments since entering sumo, second only to former Yokozuna Wakanohana, who took the Fighting Spirit prize in his 9th tournament in January 1950.

Shōdai's best result in the top division to date came in November 2016 when he scored eleven wins against four losses from the rank of maegashira 3, sharing the Fighting Spirit prize with Ishiura. He defeated ozeki Kisenosato in this tournament and was promoted to a career-high rank of sekiwake for the January tournament. It took him only 17 tournaments from his professional debut to reach sekiwake, which is the second fastest (after Konishiki's 14) since the introduction of the six tournaments a year system in 1958.

Fighting style

Shōdai is a yotsu-sumo wrestler who prefers grappling techniques to pushing his opponents. His favoured grip on the mawashi or belt is migi-yotsu, a left hand outside, right hand inside position. His most common winning kimarite is a straightforward yori-kiri or force out.