Hakuyozan Ryosuke

Hakuyozan Ryosuke - 白鷹山亨将 (born April 13, 1995) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Shirataka, Yamagata. He made his debut in May 2011 and currently wrestles for Takadagawa stable. He reached the juryo division in May 2018. His highest rank as of 2025 is juryo 3.

Early Life[]

Ryosuke Saito was born on April 13, 1995, in the town of Shirataka in Yamagata Prefecture. Saito had no sumo experience prior to becoming professional. While attending Ayukai Elementary School in Shirataka, he was in the judo club for six years as well as the baseball team.^[1]

In his third year of junior high school, he was over 180 cm and 100 kg. While attending Shirataka Municipal Nishi Junior High School he was a member of the basketball team. He also started participating in shot put. Under the influence of Sadogatake Oyakata (who was from the same area and also participated in shot put) and his father, he participated in the Yamagata Prefectural Junior High School General Athletic Meet. In his third year of junior high school, he won the Yamagata Prefectural Junior High School Athletic Meet shot put competition by setting a new record of 13.38 meters.^[2] He also participated in national junior high school shot put competitions in Japan.^[1]

Saito was going to continue with judo in high school, however his father recommended him to join professional sumo. Saito agreed and joined Takadagawa stable. According to Saito himself, his father wanted him to defeat a wrestler in Sadogatake stable who was Saito's main shot put rival in junior high school.^[3]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Saito was set to make his debut in March 2011, however, his debut was delayed because the March tournament was cancelled in the wake of the sumo match-fixing scandal gripping the world of sumo at the time. He made his debut in May 2011 under the shikona "Hakuyozan" (白鷹山) and did fairly well for a rikishi with no prior sumo experience. He spent one tournament in jonokuchi and two in jonidan before earning a promotion to sandanme in January 2012. In sandanme he achieved two consecutive winning records before pulling out of the May 2012 tournament due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury.^[4] He would sit out three consecutive tournaments which caused him to plummet back down to the lowest jonokuchi division. However he kept up a positive attitude during training and recovered.^[5] He returned in the November 2012 tournament and produced strong results. He was promoted to makushita a year later in the November 2013 tournament.^[6]

20180720-OHT1I50121-T — Hakuyozan battles Takanofuji in makushita (c. 2018)

Hakuyozan rose through the makushita ranks rather steadily as he only suffered one make-koshi in 2014 and was promoted to the rank of makushita 11 for the January 2015 tournament. By then, Hakuyozan already established himself as an upper makushita level regular. In March 2018, Hakuyozan was ranked at the rank of makushita 1 and was in contention for the yusho, until he lost his final match to Higonojo. Nevertheless, this guaranteed him a promotion to juryo for the May 2018 tournament. He was the first sekitori from Yamagata prefecture since March 2008 when Hokutokuni was promoted to juryo.^[6]

Juryo Career[]

In Hakuyozan's juryo debut, he struggled and only won 5 out of his 15 matches. This record demoted him back down to Makushita 1 for the July 2018 tournament. In his return to makushita, Hakuyozan won every single match and took the makushita yusho. He was promoted back to juryo for the September 2018 tournament and produced a double-digit 10-5 record in this tournament. In the following tournaments, he produced two consecutive 8-7 records and was promoted to juryo 3 for the March 2019 tournament. On the ninth day of this tournament, Hakuyozan broke his left ankle in a match against Kyokushuho and would sit out the rest of the tournament. He sat out the following tournament as well and was demoted back down to makushita in July 2019.^[6]

HakuyozanJuryo — Hakuyozan prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2020)

Hakuyozan produced three consecutive winning records and earned promotion back to juryo for the March 2020 tournament. He produced a 9-6 record and was promoted to juryo 6 for the following March 2020 tournament. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was cancelled. There was an outbreak of the virus in his stable and he tested positive for COVID-19.^[7] Due to the COVID-19 exposure and the death of stablemate Shobushi, he struggled and produced 5-10 record in July 2020 and was demoted down to juryo 11 for the September 2020 tournament.^[6]

He won the juryo yusho with a strong 11-4 record in the March 2021 tournament. In July 2021, while ranked at juryo 3, Hakuyozan started out with a perfect 5-0 record, but lost his sixth match to Yutakayama. During this match, he suffered a tear to his anterior cruciate ligament on his left knee and subsequently withdrew from the tournament on the 7th day.^[8] He was demoted back down to makushita in May 2022. Hakuyozan returned to juryo in January 2023 where he remained for five tournaments before falling back down to makushita in November 2023. Nevertheless, he immediately returned to juryo for the January 2024 tournament after only spending one tournament in makushita.^[6]

Personal Life[]

On April 25, 2020, Hakuyozan contracted the novel coronavirus due to an outbreak in his stable. He was the first active sekitori to contract the virus. Although he was asymptomatic, he was hospitalized after a PCR test confirmed that he tested positive.^[7] He was discharged from the hospital on April 30th.^[9]
Hakuyozan suffers from diabetes.^[10]
Hakuyozan's main sumo inspiration is 47th yokozuna, Kashiwado Tsuyoshi.^[11]
Hakuyozan's favorite food is meat and tuna, his hobbies are reading, gaming and watching movies, and his favorite artist is The Blue Hearts.^[12]

Fighting Style[]

Hakuyozan is an oshi-sumo specialist who prefers pushing and thrusting techniques to grabbing the opponent's mawashi. His most common winning kimarite is oshidashi, or push out. However he also frequently wins by yorikiri (frontal push out) which requires grabbing the opponent's mawashi.^[13]