Amakaze Koichi

Amakaze Koichi - 天風浩一 (born July 7, 1991) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kotohira, Kagawa. He made his debut in March 2007 and currently wrestles for Oshiogawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 2016. His highest rank as of 2025 is maegashira 13.

Early Life[]

Born the youngest of three boys in the town of Kotohira, Kawanari had been active in judo since before his elementary days due to his older brother's influence. He attended Kotohira Elementary School and was a member of the school's judo club. He won the judo championship in his fourth year of elementary school during the Kagawa Prefectural Games.^[1]

He later attended Kawanoe Kita Junior High School in Shikokuchuo, Ehime. During his junior high school years he won the judo competition in the Ehime prefecture's 90kg class and in his second year, he won the Shikoku junior high school competition. This achievement earned him the attention from several sumo scouts, including former ozeki Kotokaze who went on to recruit him into Oguruma stable.^[2]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Kawanari made his debut on March 2007 at the age of 15. He was the first wrestler from Kagawa Prefecture since the retirement of Gokenzan in November 2006. In his first tournament he produced a 4-3 record which was good enough for promotion to the jonidan division. He would spend his next five tournaments in the jonidan division before earning himself a promotion to the sandanme division in May 2008. He spent the next year in sandanme, before earning promotion to the makushita division in May 2009.^[3]

He would spend the next couple of years in makushita, even reaching the top of makushita, and was at the brink of sekitori status in March 2013, but he could only manage a 1-6 record in this tournament. He had this opportunity again in November 2013, but he only managed a 3-4 record and would have to sit out the next tournament due to an injury. After making attempts to lose weight his results began to improve and he earned promotion to the juryo division after the January 2015 tournament.^[3]

Juryo Career[]

G20150318010003090 view — Amakaze battles Hidenoumi in juryo (c. 2015)

To celebrate his promotion to sekitori status he changed his shikona from his real name to Amakaze. He chose the shikona himself, with "kaze" (wind) being a suffix used by all wrestlers at Oguruma stable, and "Ama" taken from Amanogawa (the Milky Way), because his birthday of July 7 co-incides with the start of Tanabata (Star Festival) celebrations. The same kanji is also used for a river near his parents' home in Kotohira. He commented on his new name, "It means looking up to the heavens, it's good" but his stablemaster joked that he should take care not to become an "Ama-chan", or one who takes things lightly.^[4]

In Amakaze's first juryo tournament, he produced a strong 10-5 record which earned him a promotion to juryo 5. However after a string of bad tournaments he found himself at the bottom of juryo. In the March 2016 tournament, Amakaze produced a 9-6 record, but then the following tournament he produced a losing record of 7-8. This caused him to fall down to juryo 11 in July 2016. He bounced back and produced a strong 13-2 record and took the juryo championship as well. In addition, this earned him an immediate promotion to the makuuchi division for the September 2016 tournament.^[3]

Makuuchi Career[]

Amakaze's promotion to makuuchi led him to joining his veteran stablemates Takekaze and Yoshikaze. Working his way up the ranks Amakaze had served as a tsukebito, or personal attendant to Takekaze. Ranked at maegashira 13 in his makuuchi debut in September 2016, he managed only five wins against ten losses and was demoted straight back to juryo. For the next eight tournaments he held his own in juryo but was unable to return back to the top division.^[3]

Later Career[]

In March 2018, Amakaze finished with a poor 3–12 record which saw him demoted to makushita in May 2018. He injured his knee in his first bout in the July 2018 tournament and subsequently withdrew from the tournament. He did not compete again until March 2019, by which time he had fallen to the second lowest jonidan division. In this tournament he fought another former makuuchi wrestler Terunofuji. Amakaze gradually worked his way back up to the makushita division as of 2020. Following the closure of his stable, he moved to Oshiogawa stable in February 2022.^[3]

Personal Life[]

Amakaze is known for his sense of fun and love of food, and enjoys posting photos of himself and fellow wrestlers at leisure on social media. In 2015 a video of himself, Takatenshu and Kaiho attempting a 40-yard dash while on a tour in Wakayama went viral.^[5]
Amakaze's favorite food is Kumamoto confectionary "Tsukimura".^[6]

Fighting Style[]

Amakaze was one of the heaviest wrestlers in sumo at 208 kg, and likes to use his weight to his best advantage by grabbing his opponent's mawashi and forcing them out by yorikiri. His preferred grip is hidari-yotsu, a right arm outside, left arm inside position.^[7] Roughly half of his winning bouts are with the yorikiri technique. He also regularly uses oshidashi or push out, which accounts for a third of his wins.^[8]