The ancient Japanese sport of sumo is celebrating a new hero, after Takerufuji became the first wrestler for more than a century to win a top-division tournament on his debut.
There were wild celebrations at the Edion Arena Osaka on Sunday after he ended the 15-day contest with an unassailable record of 13 wins and two defeats.
The 24-year-old from the northern prefecture of Aomori shoved his opponent Gonoyama out of the dohyo ring to secure the Emperor’s Cup, despite injuring his ankle the previous day, when he had to be taken out of the arena in a wheelchair after losing his bout.
On Sunday, a shellshocked Takerufuji, whose real name is Mikiya Ishioka, revealed that his stablemaster had encouraged him to pull out of the tournament to spare his injured ankle.
“But I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life if I pulled out,” the 143kg (315lb) wrestler said in a ringside interview. “If you ever ask me to do it again, there’s no way I would be able to.
“I did it through sheer willpower alone. I didn’t really know what was going on.”
Takerufuji is the first wrestler since Ryogoku in 1914 to win his maiden 15-day competition in the elite makuuchi division.
He also secured his first Emperor’s Cup faster than any competitor since sumo adopted the current tournament schedule in 1958, having only made his official debut in September 2022.
His achievement is even more remarkable given that his rank, maegashira No 17, is the lowest among all 42 wrestlers in the division, which includes the grand champion rank of yokozuna.
Most of the top-ranked wrestlers suffered multiple early losses in Osaka, while the only current grand champion, Terunofuji, pulled out after the first week with a back injury.
Grand sumo’s six annual tournaments each last 15 days and are held three times in Tokyo and once each in Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. Wrestlers move up and down the rankings – or hold on to their current position – depending on their record over the course of each tournament.
Takerufuji’s feat was a welcome piece of good news for Japan’s national sport, which was recently rocked by allegations that a senior wrestler had violently abused a junior stablemate.
The sport, whose history stretches back 1,500 years, has been hit by similar scandals, promoting calls for its governing body to stamp out the culture of violence and introduce more modern coaching and management methods.
In 2007, a 17-year-old junior wrestler died after being beaten by three senior wrestlers with a baseball bat.
