Dejima Takeharu

出 島 武 春
Dejima Takeharu

Personal data
real name	Dejima Takeharu
Born	March 21, 1974
place of birth	Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture
size	1.80 m
Weight	162 kg
Career
Heya	Musashigawa
Career record	595–495–98 546–478–98 (Makuuchi)
debut	March 1996
Highest rank	Ōzeki (September 1999)
Tournament victories	1 each in Makuuchi, Juryo and Makushita
resignation	July 2009

Dejima Takeharu ( Japanese 出 島 武 春 ; born March 21, 1974 in Kanazawa , Ishikawa Prefecture ) is a former Japanese sumo wrestler .

Dejima, who did not use an accepted wrestling name, but competed under his real personal name, came from university sports. He fought before his professional career for the Chūō University in Tokyo . In 1996 he switched to the professional camp and joined the Musashigawa-Beya wrestling stable. His early career was marked by a rapid rise through the ranks: in September 1996 Dejima reached the Jūryō Division, in March 1997 the Makuuchi .

In November of that year he was promoted to Sekiwake - and suffered a serious ankle injury in his first tournament in the new rank , so that he could not take part in the next tournaments and fell far behind again. Then he rose a little more slowly. In 1999 he had fought his way up to sekiwake again. In July of that year he won the tournament in Nagoya in an elimination match against Akebono . He also moved up to the Ōzeki .

At this point Dejima was at the zenith of his career. The results of his twelve tournaments in the second-highest rank were not enough to secure him a permanent place at the top of the division, and so Dejima was demoted to simple maegashira again in November 2001 and could not work his way back to the top of the ranking list . A temporary return to the sanyaku ranks in 2003 was inconsequential. Since his first serious injury, Dejima has been the victim of various leg injuries several times.

Dejima's technique was straightforward. He mostly limited himself to trying to push his opponents out of the ring ( Oshi Sumo ). Most recently he brought on 162 kg combat weight at 1.80 m height.

As long as Dejima, no rikishi has fought after losing this rank. A successful recapture of this title was, however, rather unlikely in view of Dejima's decline in strength and his advanced age in the league comparison.

In July 2009 at the tournament in Nagoya Dejima declared his retirement from active sport after his relegation to the Jūryō division was imminent as Maegashira 13 at the score of 2-9.

Web links

Commons : Dejima Takeharu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Info page of the Japanese Sumo Association

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Dejima is the family name, Takeharu the first name.