Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi

Fujiazuma Kazuyoshi - 富士東和佳 (born April 19, 1987) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Adachi, Tokyo. He made his debut in March 2003 and currently wrestles for Tamanoi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 2011. His highest rank as of 2025 is maegashira 4.

Early Life[]

Kazuyoshi Shibuya went to primary school and junior high school in the Adachi, Tokyo. He began practicing sumo in his fifth year of elementary school and in his sixth year came in a second at the National Elementary School Sumo Tournament. He had been visiting Tamanoi stable regularly for practice since elementary school as his sumo club had an ongoing relationship with the stable, and this was the stable he ultimately chose to join after graduating junior high school.^[1]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Shibuya made his debut in March 2003, alongside future maegashira Sadanoumi. Shibuya rose up steadily through thrower divisions. He breezed through the jonidan and jonokuchi divisions without scoring a losing record, or make-koshi. In sandanme he continued to impress and reached the top of sandanme in September 2004, however he suffered his first losing record in that tournament. After that he posted mostly winning records, or kachi-koshi, and was promoted to makushita for the July 2005 tournament.^[2]

Shibuya2008 — Shibuya during his time in makushita (c. 2008)

In his makushita debut, he continued to achieve winning records and was promoted to makushita 14 in March 2006 at the age of 18. However, the upper makushita levels proved to be a little too competitive and Shibuya could not seem to break through to the juryo level. He would suffer pain from a neck injury and fell back down into the sandanme division in November 2007.^[2]

After two tournaments in sandanme he bounced back to makushita and rose to makushita 8 in the November 2008 tournament. He was given the shikona "Fujiazuma" (富士東) in May 2009 after another stablemate with the same shikona (same pronunciation, different characters) retired in January of the same year. After the shikona change he remained in upper makushita levels and after a 5-2 record at the rank of makushita 5 in November 2010, he earned promotion to juryo for the January 2011 tournament.^[2]

Juryo Career[]

His rise through juryo and onto the top-tier makuuchi division was surprisingly smooth compared to his struggles in lower divisions, undoubtedly helped by the forced retiring of several juryo and lower makuuchi wrestlers due to an unprecedented match-fixing scandal. In these circumstances, a relatively average record of 9–6 at juryo 8 in May 2011 would allow him promotion to the makuuchi division in July of that year.^[2]

Makuuchi Career[]

A member of Tamanoi stable, he is the first top division wrestler produced by Tamanoi's head coach, the former ozeki Tochiazuma Daisuke. This first makuuchi tournament would be a very successful 10–5 record which would allow him to rise higher through the ranks, but his following four efforts were all losing tournaments which saw him slide back to maegashira 15. A very disappointing 3–12 score in the May 2012 tournament saw him demoted back to the juryo division, but upon his return to the top division he put together a string of five consecutive 8–7 records which eventually saw him promoted to his highest rank to date of maegashira 4.^[2]

Screen Shot 2020-09-13 at 4.48.42 PM — Fujiazuma returns to juryo after three years (c. 2020)

He sat out the March 2014 tournament, recuperating after a detached retina operation.^[3] This led to his demotion back to juryo for the following May 2014 tournament where he only managed a 7–8 record. He won the juryo division championship in March 2015 and was promoted back to makuuchi, but his return to the top division lasted only one tournament as he could only score 3–12. This was his last makuuchi appearance.^[2]

Later Career[]

Fujiazuma would remain in juryo for another eight tournaments and after five straight losing records he was demoted down to the unsalaried makushita division for the September 2016 tournament. After two tournaments in makushita he would get promoted again for the March 2017 tournament, however he would only last there for one tournament after suffering a 6-9 record.^[2]

Fujiazuma would remain in makushita for another three years in mostly upper level makushita and would frequently wrestle against juryo ranked wrestlers. After three consecutive kachi-koshi, including a 5-2 at makushita 3, he was promoted back to juryo for the July 2020 tournament. He maintained his position in juryo for the September 2020 tournament, but was prevented from entering it due to a COVID-19 outbreak at his stable.^[4] Fujiazuma was one of the 19 wrestlers who tested positive.^[5] On September 30th, It was announced that all 28 Tamanoi stable wrestlers who were forced to quarantine and miss the September tournament will not suffer any fall in rank for the next tournament. After missing out in the September 2020 tournament, Fujiazuma was clearly fatigued and suffered a disastrous 0-15 record.^[6]

He had to withdraw from Day 11 of the July 2022 tournament after another COVID outbreak at Tamanoi stable. Fujiazuma dropped back to Sandanme in November 2022, competing in the division for the first time in nearly 15 years.^[2]

Personal Life[]

Fujiazuma's favorite foods include white rice and yakiniku.^[7]
When participating in sumo events that involve little kids, they would often describe him as "Totoro" which is a cute round animal from the critically acclaimed animated fantasy film, My Neighbor Totoro.^[7]
All four of Fujiazuma's brothers have volleyball experience. Fuji TV was broadcasting the 2015 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Cup held in Japan and they presented Fujiazuma with a pink kesho-mawashi featuring Babo-chan, who is the sports mascot of volleyball tournaments hosted by Fuji TV.^[8]
His favorite singer is Nicki Minaj.^[9]
Fujiazuma played a sumo wrestler in a movie called Thermae Romae. He also appeared in TV dramas, Folk King (episode 3) and Tot TV (episode 2).^[10]

Fighting Style[]

Peaking at 185 kg (409 lb), Fujiazuma was one of the heaviest wrestlers in makuuchi.^[2] He won most of his bouts by pushing and thrusting; his most common winning kimarite or technique is oshidashi (push out).^[11]