Iwakiyama Ryūta

岩 木 山 竜 太
Iwakiyama Ryūta

Personal data
real name	Tsushima Ryūta
Born	March 2, 1976
place of birth	Iwaki, Aomori Prefecture
size	1.84 m
Weight	171 kg
Career
Heya	Sakaigawa
debut	July 2000
Highest rank	Komusubi (November 2003)
Tournament victories	1 each in Juryo and Sandanme
resignation	September 2010

Iwakiyama Ryūta ( Japanese 岩 木 山 竜 太 ; born March 2, 1976 in Iwaki (today: Hirosaki ), Aomori as Tsushima Ryūta ( 對 馬 竜 太 )) is a former Japanese sumo wrestler .

Iwakiyama was a successful wrestler when he was still a student. After high school, however, he decided to study at university and thus against accepting one of the offers from interested wrestling stables . He pursued the sport further in the amateur field and planned to concentrate his activities on the activity as a coach. After graduating, he took a job at a high school in Aomori. However, the accidental death of a close friend made him fundamentally rethink his life plans: he accepted the invitation of Nakadachi-beya (renamed Sakaigawa-beya in 2003) and began his professional career as a career changer in the Makushita division in July 2000 .

At that time he was already 24 years old. Iwakiyama is the oldest wrestler of all active members of the Makuuchi Division at the start of his career . As his wrestling name ( Shikona ) Iwakiyama chose the name of the mountain Iwakisan near Hirosaki . First Iwakiyama was relegated and in March 2001 found himself in the Sandanme division, but achieved the turnaround with a 7-0 tournament win. In March 2002 he was sekitori , that is, he reached the Jūryō division. Already in November of that year he reached the top division after another tournament victory in May 2002. Promotions to the komusubi rank remained only brief interludes, but Iwakiyama was able to establish himself relatively stable in the upper maegashira ranks.

In September 2010 he announced his resignation.

Iwakiyama was one of the heaviest wrestlers in the Makuuchi Division. As is often the case with very heavy fighters, he was also prone to injury.

Web links

• 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 . So Iwakiyama is the family name, Ryūta the first name.