Kotoshōgiku Kazuhiro

琴 奨 菊 和 弘
Kotoshōgiku Kazuhiro

Personal data
real name	Kikutsugi Kazuhiro
Born	January 30, 1984
place of birth	Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
size	1.79 m
Weight	180 kg
Career
Heya	Sadogatake
rank	Sekiwake
Career record	643–464–26 534–415–26 (Makuuchi)
debut	January 2002
Highest rank	Ōzeki (November 2011)
Tournament victories	1 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō)
Status: Haru-Basho 2017.

Kotoshōgiku Kazuhiro ( Japanese 琴 奨 菊 和 弘 ; born January 30, 1984 in Fukuoka Prefecture as Kikutsugi Kazuhiro ( 菊 次 一 弘 )) is a sumo wrestler in the Japanese Makuuchi division.

Beginning of the sumo career

Kikutsugi joined the Sadogatake-beya stable in 2001. In March 2002 he played his first tournament under the ring name Kotokikutsugi and convinced with a 6-1 record. Only the later tournament winner Kajiwara (today: Toyonoshima) he had to admit defeat. In the next tournament Kotokikutsugi was undefeated and met again in the playoff for the Jonidan -Yusho on Kajiwara and lost the fight. With two convincing tournaments in the Sandanme division with a 5-2 and a 6-1, he was promoted to the third highest division ( Makushita ) after only four tournaments in professional sumo . Kotokikutsugi made his debut there with a strong 6-1, but in January 2003 the first make-koshi of his career followed (3-4). He spent the remainder of the year in Makushita, showing only average performance, and got two more make-koshi in September and November 2003. At the beginning of 2004 he took the ring name Kotoshōgiku and by a 6-1 at the Hatsu Basho he made the jump into the upper Makushita ranks. A 4-3 balance in March was followed by a 5-2 in May 2004, which was then enough for promotion to the Jūryō division.

Career as a sekitori

In Jūryō Kotoshōgiku achieved consistently good results over three consecutive tournaments. After a 10-5 in July, a 9-6 in September and another 10-5 in November 2004, he had made it to the Makuuchi division. His makuuchi debut (5-10) went wrong and so he had to go back to the Jūryō division. There he then achieved his only tournament victory so far. The Jūryō-Yusho with a balance of 13-2 also enabled him to return to makuuchi immediately. In his second tournament in the top division in May 2005, he was 2-5 after seven days, but was then able to win all remaining fights and finish the basho with 10-5. He then established himself very quickly in the maegashira ranks. In November 2006 he reached another 10-5 in the rank of Maegashira 2 East . He defeated, among other things, the later yokozuna Ama (then Maegashira 1 ) and the later Ōzeki Kisenosato (then Komusubi ) and was awarded a Sanshō for the first time.

In March 2007, Kotoshōgiku was promoted to the rank of Sekiwake for the first time , but could not hold it at first. From November 2007 to July 2008 he was in San'yaku throughout , but after that he kept sliding down into the maegashira ranks. It was not until January 2011 that it was consistently convincing in the Sekiwake rank. He finished the Hatsu Basho with an 11-4, which earned him his first Jun-Yusho and another Ginō-shō. He defeated zeki Baruto and Harumafuji , among others .

Promotion to Ōzeki

In May 2011, Kotoshōgiku achieved a 10-5 followed by an 11-4 in July and a 12-3 in September. As a sekiwake , he had won 33 consecutive tournaments and was finally promoted to Ōzeki . Both in Nagoya and at the Aki Basho 2011 he was able to defeat Yokozuna Hakuhō .

On his Ōzeki debut, Kotoshōgiku remained undefeated for nine days and ended up with an 11-4. Since his promotion, however, he has rarely seen double-digit results. In November 2012 and also in January 2014 he was Kadoban-Ōzeki . In both cases this circumstance was due to injuries that had meant that he had to end the tournaments prematurely and in both cases he was able to defend his Ōzeki rank. In July 2014, he was given Kadoban status again due to a 5-10 in the previous Natsu Basho. Again he was able to successfully defend his rank, even fighting for the tournament victory in Nagoya. Had he not lost to Sekiwake Gōeidō on the last day , there would have been a playoff between Kotoshōgiku and Hakuhō for the tournament victory. In November 2014, Kotoshōgiku cut with 6-9, but secured his rank again with a 9-6 in January. He finished the 2015 Natsu Basho again with 6-9. In July he was Kadoban-Ōzeki for the fifth time in his career , but most recently achieved a close Kachi-koshi after 12 days despite a 5-7 record.

Hatsu basho 2016 and first yusho

In January 2016 there was a trend reversal in Kotoshōgiku's career. After he had already shown himself to be much better than previous tournaments in September 2015, and for the first time in over a year he had more than 10 victories, and in November he had no doubts about a Kachi, especially thanks to good performances in the first week of the tournament. koshi admitted, he also got off to a very good start in the New Year's tournament in Tokyo in January. After a sovereign first seven days, with victories against Sekitori of lower rank, on the eighth day he went unbeaten in his first fight against another Ōzeki, his long-term rival Kisenosato . With this fight, their 59th, both set the record for the most encounters between two sumo wrestlers in the top division. Kotoshōgiku managed to defeat Kisenosato and was in the course even after 12 days, including beating the three Mongolian yokozuna on three consecutive days, without defeat and now the sole leader. He lost his only fight of the tournament against Toyonoshima and won the Hatsu Basho in 2016 with a record of 14-1 after two more wins.

Kotoshōgiku ended a ten-year dry spell of Japanese sumo wrestlers and became the first native Japanese since Tochiazuma to win a tournament.

After he finished the Kyushu Basho in 2016 with a 5-10 Make-koshi, Kotoshōgiku went to the Hatsu Basho as Kadoban-Ōzeki in January 2017 . After another 5-10 make-koshi, the descent to sekiwake took place. In the following Haru-Basho, in March 2017, a 10-5 kachi-koshi would have been necessary in order to ascend directly to the Ōzeki again. With the lost fight against Ōzeki Terunofuji on the 14th day of the tournament, Kotoshōgiku suffered his 6th defeat. This blocked this possibility for him.

It is questionable whether he will manage to return to the rank of Ōzeki again. During the time when Kotoshōgiku held the rank of Ōzeki, he only achieved the necessary 32 or more victories in three consecutive tournaments called a sekitori twice within a series of 5 competitions - from the Aki Basho 2015 to the Natsu Basho 2016 must fight for the ascent to Ōzeki.

Combat Statistics

year	Hatsu (January)	Haru (March)	Natsu (May)	Nagoya (July)	Aki (September)	Kyushu (November)
2002	Maezumo	Jonokuchi 32 East 6-1	Jonidan 61 East 7-0 D	Sandanme 59 West 5-2	Sandanme 29 West 6-1	Makushita 46 East 6-1
2003	Makushita 20 East 3-4	Makushita 30 East 4-3	Makushita 24 West 4-3	Makushita 19 East 5-2	Makushita 10 West 3-4	Makushita 17 West 3-4
2004	Makushita 22 East 6-1	Makushita 6 West 4-3	Makushita 5 West 5-2	Juryo 13 East 10-5	Juryo 5 West 9-6	Juryo 3 West 10-5
2005	Maegashira 16 East 5-10	Juryo 4 East 13-2 Y	Maegashira 14 East 10-5	Maegashira 9 East 8-7	Maegashira 6 East 7-8	Maegashira 7 East 6-9
2006	Maegashira 10 W 8-7	Maegashira 8 East 9-6	Maegashira 3 East 9-6	Maegashira 1 East 3-12	Maegashira 7 West 10-5	Maegashira 2 East 10-5
2007	Maegashira 1 East 9-6	Sekiwake 1 West 7-8	Komusubi 1 West 7-8	Maegashira 1 East 5-10	Maegashira 3 West 10-5	Komusubi 1 West 9-6
2008	Komusubi 1 East 9-4-2	Sekiwake 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 West 6-9	Maegashira 1 East 6-9	Maegashira 3 East 9-6
2009	Maegashira 1 East 6-9	Maegashira 2 East 6-9	Maegashira 6 East 10-5	Komusubi 1 West 8-7	Sekiwake 1 West 6-9	Maegashira 2 East 10-5
2010	Komusubi 1 East 6-9	Maegashira 3 West 10-5	Komusubi 1 East 9-6	Sekiwake 1 West 5-10	Maegashira 3 East 9-6	Maegashira 1 West 9-6
2011	Sekiwake 1 West 11-4 y	called off	Sekiwake 1 East 10-5	Sekiwake 1 East 11-4	Sekiwake 1 East 12-3 yrs	Ozeki 2 West 11-4
2012	Ozeki 1 West 8-7	Ozeki 3 West 9-6	Ozeki 2 West 10-5	Ozeki 1 West 10-5	Ozeki 2 East 2-2-11	Ozeki 2 East 8-7
2013	Ozeki 2 West 8-7	Ozeki 2 West 8-7	Ozeki 2 East 11-4	Ozeki 1 West 9-6	Ozeki 2 East 10-5	Ozeki 1 West 1-2-12
2014	Ozeki 2 East 9-6	Ozeki 1 West 8-7	Ozeki 1 West 5-10	Ozeki 1 West 12-3 y	Ozeki 1 East 9-6	Ozeki 1 East 6-9
2015	Ozeki 1 West 9-6	Ozeki 1 West 8-7	Ozeki 1 West 6-9	Ozeki 2 East 8-7	Ozeki 2 West 11-4	Ozeki 2 East 8-6-1
2016	Ozeki 2 East 14-1	Ozeki 1 East 8-7	Ozeki 2 East 10-5

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kotoshogiku ends Japan's decade-long wait for Emperor's Cup winner . japantimes.co.jp

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