Kyokutenhō Masaru

旭 天鵬 勝
Kyokutenhō Masaru

Personal data
real name	Nyamdschawyn Tsebegnjam
Born	September 13, 1974
place of birth	Nalaich , Mongolia
size	1.92 m
Weight	161 kg
Career
Heya	Oshima
Career record	927-944-22 697-773-15 (Makuuchi)
debut	March 1992
Highest rank	Sekiwake
Tournament victories	1 (makuuchi)
resignation	July 2015

Kyokutenhō Masaru ( Japanese 旭 天鵬 勝 ; born September 13, 1974 in Nalaich , Mongolia as Njamdschawyn Tsebegnjam ( Mongolian Нямжавын Цэвэгням )) is a former Mongolian sumo wrestler . Since 2005 he has also been a Japanese citizen.

In the early 1990s he started his sumo career in Japan and in 1998 he reached the highest division for the first time. In 2012 he won the Natsu basho, at 37 years of age he was older than any other sumōtori when he won his first tournament.

Career

Kyokutenhō belonged to the first group of Mongolian wrestlers who established themselves in Japanese sumo. He joined the Ōshima stable and first took part in the league in March 1992. In January 1996 he remained in the third division ( Makushita ) without defeat, but lost the playoff for the tournament victory against the later Komusubi Kaihō Ryōji. Nevertheless, Kyokutenhō rose to this performance in the second division ( Jūryō ). After a poor performance in the September 1996 tournament, he had to return to the Makushita, but managed to get promoted again.

After constant performance, Kyokutenhō reached the first division ( Makuuchi ) for the first time in January 1998 . However, he had to accept two relegations to the Jūryō, only from the May tournament in 1999 he established himself in the makuuchi. In January 2002 he was promoted to komusubi after solid performance, but did not hold this title permanently. His highest rank to date was in July 2003 when he was promoted to Sekiwake . However, since he could not achieve kachi-koshi , he immediately lost this position. The same happened to him after two further ascents to Sekiwake in November 2003 and May 2004.

Kyokutenhō suffered a brief career break when he caused a car accident in Tokyo in 2007, in which a person was injured. Since Sumōtori is not allowed to sit behind the wheel himself, he was excluded from the May tournament. He then descended into the Jūryō, but managed the immediate return to the Makuuchi.

His best result so far succeeded Kyokutenhō at the September tournament 2007, when he was with a record of 13-2 runner-up behind the yokozuna Hakuhō . In March 2009, Kyokutenhō was again Komusubi after a three-year hiatus. He was the first Sumotori since the 1980s, if, after a descent into juryo back into the sanyaku managed -Ränge. Again, the promotion did not last; he was komusubi for the last time in July 2009. In the following years he established himself in the middle maegashira ranks.

Surprisingly, Kyokutenhō achieved the greatest success of his career at the 2012 Natsu Basho, the May tournament. He started the tournament moderately with 2-3, but didn't give up a fight after that. As Maegashira 7 he was assigned relatively weak opponents, only in the last two days he had to compete against the Ōzeki Kotoōshū and the Sekiwake Gōeidō . In the playoff against Tochiōzan , Kyokutenhō finally decided the tournament in his favor. At the age of 37, he became the oldest sumōtori to date in his first yūshō (tournament victory) and one of the oldest tournament winners of modern sumo at all.

Despite his Yūshō, Kyokutenhō was not promoted back to komusubi. Most recently in 1961, Sadanoyama Shinmatsu, a tournament winner that did not rise to the sanyaku ranks. At the July tournament, Kyokutenhō suffered a clear make-koshi with 2-13.

Kyokutenhō finished the 2015 Nayoga tournament with a make-koshi of 3-12. Since he would have been relegated with this result in the next tournament, he decided to step down.

Private

Kyokutenhō is married to a Japanese woman and has one daughter. His younger brother Fudoyama was also active as a sumotori between January 2000 and January 2008. However, this seldom got beyond the Sandanme division and achieved the best placement in July 2005 in 38th place in the eastern group of the Makushita division.

In June 2005 Kyokutenhō took under the name Ōta Masaru ( 太 田 勝 ) the Japanese citizenship and thus has the opportunity to continue his career in the Japanese Sumo Association after his wrestling career .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ newsonjapan.com, July 27, 2015 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ japantimes.co.jp, July 27, 2015

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 . Thus Kyokutenhō is the family name, Masaru the first name.