Gagamaru Masaru

Gagamaru Masaru - 臥牙丸勝 (born February 23, 1987) is a former Georgian professional sumo wrestler from Tbilissi. He made his debut in November 2005 and wrestled for Kise stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 2010 and has two special prizes as well as one kinboshi. His highest rank was komusubi and he retired in November 2020.

Early Life[]

Jugheli was born in Tbilisi, he originally trained in judo and sambo, winning national junior championships in both sports by the age of 16. Invited to train by the Georgian junior sumo team, he accompanied them to the 2005 World Junior Sumo Championships in Osaka. (Also on the team was the future Tochinoshin). He came third in the individual and second in the team competition. Staying in Japan after the tournament, he joined Kise stable and made his first professional appearance in November 2005.

Career[]

Early Career[]

Gagamaru rose quickly through the bottom divisions and took the jonokuchi championship. He would spend one tournament in jonidan and three in sandanme before earning a spot in makushita in 2006. Gagamaru found makushita to be a little challenging and was even demoted back to sandanme for the November 2007 tournament. He stayed in the mid-low makushita ranks for around two years

He had made plans to return home to visit his family, but his father was killed in a car accident. He was determined to honor his father's memory (and emulate his fellow Georgian wrestlers) by reaching sekitori status. He achieved two consecutive 6-1 record and was promoted to makushita 3 for the March 2009 tournament. However he posted a 3-4 record in this tournament. He would bounce back with a 4-3 and in the September 2009 tournament he took the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record (he defeated Brazilian rikishi Kaisei in a playoff). This earned him a promotion to juryo and he paid tribute to his father at a press conference.

Juryo Career[]

Gagamaru came through with a kachi-koshi 8–7 score in his debut juryo tournament and won the yusho in the following tournament in January 2010 with a 12–3 record. In May he scored 10–5 from the juryo 1 rank, ensuring promotion to makuuchi.

However he made his debut in the top division in July out of a newly enlarged Kitanoumi stable after his old stable was closed due to his stablemaster's Kise Oyakata involvement in a scandal involving selling tournament tickets to alleged yakuza members.

Makuuchi Career[]

Ranked at maegashira 12 he could only manage a 5–10 record, losing his last four bouts, but he remained in the division for the following tournament in September 2010 and produced a winning score of 10–5. In the November tournament in Kyushu he recovered from a 1–5 start to score 9–6, which earned him promotion to a new high of maegashira 6.

Gagamaru sansho — Gagamaru after winning his first special prize (c. 2011)

The January 2011 tournament was not a good one for Gagamaru. Having struggled to a 2–4 record after six days he went out drinking with fellow Georgian wrestler Kokkai and the pair allegedly got into a fight at an Indian restaurant in Tokyo's Sumida ward, causing damage to the property. Both were reprimanded by the Sumo Association for staying out late during a tournament. Gagamaru finished with a poor 5–10 record, resulting in demotion to maegashira 14. In the May Technical Examination Tournament he recovered from 4–7 down to win four in a row and get a winning record. In September 2011 after an opening day loss he then won ten in a row, including an emphatic victory over Baruto in his first ever meeting with an ozeki. He finished on 11–4 and was awarded his first special prize, for Fighting Spirit. He was promoted to maegashira 3 for the November 2011 tournament, but facing all the top wrestlers for the first time could only win two matches. However he turned things around in the January 2012 tournament, producing his best score to date of 12–3, sharing runner-up honours with yokozuna Hakuho and two wins behind tournament winner Baruto. He received his second Fighting Spirit prize for this performance. For the March tournament Gagamaru was promoted to komusubi, becoming the first member of Kitanoumi stable to reach the san'yaku ranks since it was established in 1985. He lost his first six matches, but performed better in the second week of the tournament, finishing with a respectable 6–9. As of the May 2012 tournament he once again represented Kise stable after it was permitted to re–open. Ranked at maegashira 2 in May he did defeat ozeki Harumafuji but otherwise had an unremarkable tournament, finishing on 5–10.

Since this time, he has only had one breakout performance, an 11–4 record at maegashira 11 in May 2013. Though he was a fixture in the mid to lower top division ranks for a while, he was relegated to the second division after three losing records in 2014.

Gagamaru returned to the top division at the March 2015 tournament with excellent results. At the following tournament in May he won the first gold star of his career by beating yokozuna Harumafuji on the 10th day. He slipped back into the second division after a run of poor performances in early 2016 but was immediately promoted back to the top ranks after a winning record in July. He lost his top division status once again after the January 2017 tournament, and despite a brief re-appearance in makuuchi July 2017, he remained in the juryo division.

Later Career[]

201803150000254-w500 0 — Gagamaru prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2018)

He would remain in juryo for another 7 tournaments. A 6–9 record in September 2018 left him in danger of demotion to makushita for the first time since he became a sekitori in November 2009, and Gagamaru told reporters he would consult his stablemaster before deciding whether to continue wrestling. In the banzuke for November 2018 Gagamaru's rank was confirmed as makushita 1.

He earned immediate promotion back to juryo for January 2019 with a 5–2 record. He spent the rest of 2019 in juryo but pulled out of the November tournament on Day 13 with only one win, ensuring demotion to makushita again. This absence ended his streak of 1050 matches from his professional debut. He withdrew from the January 2020 tournament. He did not enter the tournaments in March or July 2020 due to knee injuries.

Retirement from Sumo[]

He withdrew from the January 2020 tournament after losing his first two matches, and did not take part in any further tournaments in 2020, his rank falling to jonidan 46. He announced his retirement on Day 10 of the November 2020 tournament. At a press conference he gave chronic knee problems as the reason for his retirement, and said his most memorable matches were his kinboshi win over Harumafuji, and his 2011 win over ozeki Baruto. Having been in Japan for 15 years, he plans to continue to live in the country.

Gagamaru's danpatsu-shiki (retirement ceremony) was held in Tokyo on 30 July 2022.

Controversy[]

Gagamaru - Kokkai: Altercation[]

In the January 2011 tournament, Gagamaru went out drinking with fellow Georgian wrestler Kokkai and the pair allegedly got into a fight at an Indian restaurant in Tokyo's Sumida ward, causing damage to the property. They broke the glass door which separated the kitchen and the restaurant and they left big hole in the ceiling. Kokkai said that he was trying to comfort Gagamaru who was depressed about the loss of his father. However Kokkai accidentally hit Gagamaru's hand with his glass and he immediately stood up and took offense to that. Both were reprimanded by the Sumo Association for staying out late during a tournament and causing damage. The wrestlers reached a settlement with the restaurant.

Personal Life[]

The shikona Gagamaru was derived by the Kise stablemaster, the former Higonoumi, from Jugheli's nickname "Gaga". Since then he has, inevitably, been dubbed "Lady Gaga Maru." Speaking to reporters after the 9th day of the September 2011 tournament, he quipped, "Let me tell you I was called Gaga since the time I was born. The real Gaga is me."
On the day of his retirement ceremony in July 2022, Gagamaru announced that he had married a Japanese woman in her thirties whom he had been dating since 2015. He also announced that he had been losing weight, dropping from 220 kg (490 lb) in March 2021 to 130 kg (290 lb) in July 2022. He said he had lost 70 kg during a three-month span in 2021.
Nakazawa Dairy Co., Ltd. presented Gagamaru with a kesho-mawashi, because they have a product called "Georgia Yogurt".
Gagamaru's favorite food is ramen, especially Kumamoto Ramen (Gagamaru's stablemaster is also Kumamoto). Gagamaru is also a big fan ice scream and would eat around 2-3 kg of ice cream when he was still an unsalaried sumo wrestler. He is also a big fan of natto (fermented sticky soybeans) and he thinks its a good accommodation with rice.
Gagamaru's father was a police officer who died in a car accident in October 2006. His mother who ran a vineyard suffered from visceral internal disease a little after Gagamaru's father's death. She passed away in 2018.
In May 2009, Gagamaru along with other Georgian natives Tochinoshin and Kokkai were drafted into the Georgia military due to the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. They returned back to Japan after one month.

Fighting Style[]

Gagamaru is an oshi-sumo specialist who mainly employs pushing and thrusting techniques. His most common winning kimarite is oshi-dashi or push out. Peaking at 212 kg in November 2013, he is one of the heaviest men in sumo. He dislikes attention being paid to his weight however, and has missed several official weigh-ins over the course of his career.