Gōeidō Gōtarō

豪 栄 道 豪 太郎
Gōeidō Gōtarō

Personal data
real name	Sawai Gotaro
Born	April 6, 1986
place of birth	Osaka Prefecture, Japan
size	1.83 m
Weight	160 kg
Career
Heya	Sakaigawa
rank	Ōzeki
Career record	544-385-26 435-334-26 (Makuuchi)
debut	January 2005
Highest rank	Ōzeki (September 2014)
Tournament victories	1 (Makuuchi) 2 (Makushita) 1 (Sandanme) 1 (Jonokuchi)
Status: Aki-Basho 2016.

Gōeidō Gōtarō ( Japanese 豪 栄 道 豪 太郎 ; * April 6, 1986 in Osaka Prefecture ), actually Sawai Gōtarō ( 澤 井 豪 太郎 ), is a former sumo wrestler of the Japanese Makuuchi division.

Beginning of the sumo career

Sawai was admitted to the Sakaigawa-beya stable in 2004 at the age of 18. In his first professional sumo tournament in March 2005, he was undefeated and won the yusho in the Jonokuchi division straight away . He defeated, among other things, Kageyama, the later Sekiwake Tochiōzan . In the next tournament he was unbeaten for six days, but then lost to Teruyama on the last day. Already in July 2005 he fought in the fourth highest division ( Sandanme ). There, too, he won the yusho with a perfect 7-0 record. Among other things, he met the later Maegashira Sokokurai in this tournament . Because of the Sandanme yusho, Sawai immediately made it to the Makushita division. On his debut, he finished 4-3. In the following basho he secured his first makushita yusho (7-0). After four more tournaments (in the upper Makushita ranks) with a total of mixed performances he finally succeeded in September 2006 his second 7-0 yusho and thus the promotion to the second highest division ( Jūryō ). With four tournament wins in his first ten tournaments, Sawai became one of the greatest Japanese hopefuls in sumo.

Career as a sekitori

He fought from now on under the ring name Gōeidō. On his Jūryō debut, he stood after eleven days with four wins and seven losses, but still reached Kachi-koshi . In March 2007 he achieved an 11-4, which brought him a big step closer to promotion to the Makuuchi division. In the following tournament, however, a make-koshi threw him back a little. However, he ended his fifth tournament in Jūryō with a strong 12-3 record. In the playoff for the tournament victory he had to admit defeat to the later Komusubi Iwakiyama, but the promotion to the makuuchi was still made. In his makuuchi debut in September 2007, Gōeidō immediately scored an 11-4. On the last days of the tournament he was set against the San'yaku -Rikishi Komusubi Ama , Ōzeki Chiyotaikai and Yokozuna Hakuhō and lost these three fights. In the end he was awarded the Kantō-shō for his performance . Gōeidō immediately established himself in the middle maegashira ranks. The Aki Basho 2008 he finished with 10-5, won against the later yokozuna Kakuryū (then Maegashira 5 ) and Ama (then Sekiwake ) and already received his second Kantō-shō. In the following tournament he made his debut with the rank of komusubi , but lost ten times in the first twelve days. With wins on days 13, 14 and 15, he was still able to finish the basho with 5-10. Even his Sekiwake debut in May 2009, Gōeidō could not complete successfully (6-9). In January 2010 he won his first Kinboshi after defeating yokozuna Asashōryū , but received a new make-koshi overall. Gōeidō missed the 2010 Nagoya Basho due to an injury. Therefore he was even demoted to the Jūryō division. However, he reported back impressively with a 12-3 and achieved immediate promotion back to the makuuchi. As a maegashira , another 12-3 followed in the next three tournaments as well as an 11-4 record twice. Thus Gōeidō regained the komusubi rank, but lost it again immediately. After four more tournaments as a maegashira , he was again promoted to the Sekiwake rank. The decisive factor was a strong 12-3 in March 2012, which was also rewarded with the Kanto-sho. From May 2012, Gōeidō established himself long-term as a Sekiwake , although he only had seven wins in July 2012 and May 2013.

Promotion to Ōzeki

In March 2014 he played his most successful tournament in the sekiwake rank with a 12-3 , defeating yokozuna Harumafuji as well as the Ōzeki Kotoshōgiku and Kisenosato , among others . In May, Gōeidō won his fight against yokozuna Hakuhō, but only finished the basho with an 8-7, which seemed to have buried his hopes for the Ōzeki rank for now. In Nagoya he managed another 12-3 record. He hit both two yokozuna (Hakuhō and Kakuryū) and two Ōzeki (Kisenosato and Kotoshōgiku). Shortly after the Nagoya Basho in 2014, he was named Ōzeki .

In his first tournament as Ōzeki , Gōeidō only reached Kachi-koshi on the last day . In the next tournament he disappointed with a score of 5-10. So he was Kadoban-Ōzeki for the first time in January 2015 . After twelve days, he recorded only five wins there. So he had to win all of the last three fights of the Hatsu Basho to keep his rank, which he actually did. In March and May 2015, Gōeidō also got eight wins each and thus defended his rank. At the following Nagoya Basho he achieved his best result as Ōzeki with a 9-6 . He finished the Aki Basho 2015 with a tight make-koshi (7-8), which is why he had to fight for the second time in the status of Kadoban-Ōzeki in November . In the Aki Basho 2016 he won his first tournament in the Makuuchi division with a 15-0 record.

Combat Statistics

year	Hatsu (January)	Haru (March)	Natsu (May)	Nagoya (July)	Aki (September)	Kyushu (November)
2005	Maezumo	Jonokuchi 31 West 7-0 Y	Jonidan 25 West 6-1	Sandanme 61 W 7-0 Y	Makushita 37 West 4-3	Makushita 32 West 7-0 Y
2006	Makushita 2 West 3-4	Makushita 5 West 3-4	Makushita 9 West 4-3	Makushita 7 West 4-3	Makushita 6 West 7-0 Y	Juryo 11 West 8-7
2007	Juryo 10 West 8-7	Juryo 9 West 11-4	Juryo 3 East 6-9	Juryo 5 West 12-3 D	Maegashira 14 W 11-4	Maegashira 6 West 8-7
2008	Maegashira 3 East 5-10	Maegashira 8 East 8-7	Maegashira 7 West 8-7	Maegashira 4 West 7-8	Maegashira 5 West 10-5	Komusubi 1 East 5-10
2009	Maegashira 3 West 10-5	Komusubi 1 East 9-6	Sekiwake 1 West 6-9	Maegashira 1 West 5-10	Maegashira 5 East 10-5	Komusubi 1 West 7-8
2010	Maegashira 2 East 7-8	Maegashira 3 East 2-4-9	Maegashira 9 West 9-6	Maegashira 4 East 0-0-15	Juryo 1 East 12-3	Maegashira 14 East 12-3
2011	Maegashira 5 East 11-4 y	called off	Maegashira 1 East 11-4	Komusubi 1 East 5-10	Maegashira 5 West 10-5	Maegashira 1 West 7-8
2012	Maegashira 2 West 6-9	Maegashira 6 West 12-3	Sekiwake 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 East 7-7-1	Sekiwake 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 West 11-4 y
2013	Sekiwake 1 East 8-7	Sekiwake 1 East 10-5	Sekiwake 1 East 7-8	Sekiwake 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 West 11-4 y	Sekiwake 1 East 8-7
2014	Sekiwake 1 East 8-7	Sekiwake 1 East 12-3 yrs	Sekiwake 1 East 8-7	Sekiwake 1 East 12-3 yrs	Ozeki 2 West 8-7	Ozeki 2 West 5-10
2015	Ozeki 2 West 8-7	Ozeki 2 West 8-7	Ozeki 2 West 8-6-1	Ozeki 1 West 9-6	Ozeki 2 East 7-8

Oddities

Gōeidō went from May 2012 to July 2014 in 14 consecutive tournaments as a Sekiwake and holds a record.

Gōeidō won a total of 11 sanshō in his career . No other active rikishi won again.

Before being promoted to Ōzeki , Gōeidō received the Shukun-shō three times in a row.

Web links

• Info page of the Japanese Sumo Association
• Profile on Sumo Reference

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