Ishiura Shikanosuke

Ishiura Shikanosuke - 石浦鹿介 (born January 10, 1990) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tottori City, Tottori. He made his debut in January 2013 and wrestled for Miyagino stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 2016 and has 1 special prize. His highest rank was maegashira 5 and he retired in July 2023.

Early Life[]

Ishiura was born the eldest son of the director of Tottori Johoku High School's prestigious sumo club. His mother was a school nurse. Ishiura began wrestling since his early life. Ishiura was also a fan of baseball and swimming and at one point dreamt of playing for the Hanshin Tigers.

He still wrestled at Tottori Tatsunishi Junior High School and would often practice with his father's high school sumo club. He later attended Tottori Johoku High School and his dad was his coach. He was teammates with future stablemate, Daikiho. In high school, he won the Inter-High School Championships which was met with surprise from his father as he did not have a remarkable track record in junior high school. He became a regular in team competitions and he also won the championship for lightweight class of the All Japan Junior Weight Sumo Championship.

Screen Shot 2020-09-20 at 1.18 — Ishiura poses with the Sydney Opera House in the background.

After high school, Ishiura attended Nihon University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and was a member of the university's sumo club. In his first year, he won the East Japan Student Individual Weight Championship and in his second year, he achieved third place in the All Japan University Towada Tournament. However, Ishiura suffered from intestinal diseases and his weight dropped from 100 kg to 70 kg.

He nearly gave up sumo and moved to Australia to study at an English language college in 2012. While there he won the Australian Open and Lightweight Sumo titles and while staying in Sydney was cast as an adversary for Wolverine in a new X-Men movie, but he withdrew from the role and decided to return to Japan and try professional sumo after being inspired by the success of some of his friends from his amateur days. At 23 he was at the upper end of the age limit to enter professional sumo and knew this was his last chance.

Career[]

Early Career[]

IshiuraJonokuchi — Ishiura after winning the jonokuchi yusho (c. 2013)

Ishiura joined the Miyagino stable and entered professional sumo in 2013 at the relatively advanced age of 23. He made an immediate impact, winning the jonokuchi division in March and the jonidan division in May with unblemished 7-0 records and earning a third straight promotion with six wins at sandanme in July. As he worked his way up the ranks he served as a tsukebito or personal attendant to yokozuna Hakuho.

He spent the next several tournaments in makushita and rose all the way to makushita 2 in May, 2014. However he scored a 2-5 (his first career losing record, or make-koshi) and was demoted. He would bounce back and earned promotion to juryo with a 6–1 record in January, 2015.

Juryo Career[]

He was the first new sekitori from Tottori Prefecture since Kotozakura 52 years earlier. In juryo Ishiura proved to be a consistent, but not a spectacular performer. He never achieved double-digit victories, but also rarely posted losing records. In his first two tournaments, he scored a 9-6 and an 8-7 record, but the following tournament he posted a 6-9 record. He would bounce back with a couple 7-8 and 8-7 records in the following tournaments. In September, 2016, Ishiura posted a 9-6 record at juryo 6 and achieved a promotion to makuuchi.

Makuuchi Career[]

Ishiura made his makuuchi debut in November, 2016 debuting at East Maegashira 15. After losing on the first day of the tournament to Chiyotairyu, Ishiura won the next ten days straight putting him on the leader board for a while. However, on day 12 Ishiura suffered his second loss to Ikioi and then continued to lose for the rest of the tournament finishing off with a 10–5 record which was enough to win him his first special prize, for Fighting Spirit. In his debut tournament he was able to get ten straight victories, double digit wins, and his first special prize. His ten wins equaled the performance of Shodai in January 2016 and was otherwise the best by a top-division debutante since Ichinojo's thirteen wins in September 2014.

Ishiura sansho — Hakuho congratulates Ishiura after an impressive makuuchi debut (c. 2016)

In the January 2017 tournament Ishiura at Maegashira 9 (his highest rank to date) was only able to secure a 6–9 record. The March 2017 tournament saw him at maegashira 11, and he had mixed results. On the final day his record was 7–7, however he was unable to get the win against Takarafuji and end the tournament with a losing record of 7–8. He won only three bouts at maegashira 10 in the September 2017 tournament and was demoted back to the juryo division, but an 8–7 record at the rank of West Juryo 1 in November 2017 was sufficient to return him to makuuchi.

Ishiura remained in the top division for the next five tournaments, but after four straight losing records was demoted to juryo again after the September 2018 tournament. After a two tournament stint in juryo he returned to the top division in March 2019. He dropped to juryo in July, but is ranked in makuuchi for September 2019. This was the first tournament that he and his stablemates Hakuho and Enho were all fit and in makuuchi together, allowing them all to take part in the yokozuna dohyo-iri ceremony.

In training at his stable before the January 2020 tournament he came to blows with a junior ranked wrestler, Hokaho, after a series of heated bouts and the pair had to be separated by Hakuho. The incident was reported to the Sumo Association by Miyagino Oyakata, and Ishiura was docked 20 percent of one month's salary. He missed the start of the September 2020 tournament due to a right ankle injury suffered on Day 14 of the July tournament, but returned from Day 8. He was forced to sit out the January 2021 tournament after his stablemate Hakuho tested positive for COVID-19, and sat out in September 2021 because of another COVID-19 outbreak.

Retirement from Sumo[]

Ishiura pulled out of the March 2022 tournament after he suffered a pinched nerve in his Day 3 bout with Kotonowaka, but returned on Day 11. He withdrew again at the start of the May 2022 basho due to cervical spine injuries which would require about three weeks of treatment. The same injury forced him to withdraw from the following tournament in July after being demoted to juryo. On June 1, 2023, Ishiura finally announced his retirement after a year without competing. At his retirement conference, Ishiura explained his surgeon told him he would not be able to wrestle anymore if he underwent surgery. However he was also told there was a risk that he would become paralysed if he continued to wrestle without surgery. In order to be able to spend more time with his children, Ishiura decided to retire, a decision he had been considering since the summer of 2022. Ishiura decided to remain in the Japan Sumo Association as an elder under the name Magaki, succeeding former maegashira Chikubayama who agreed to give him the name Magaki despite the fact that he had 3 years of employment left as a san'yo (consultant).

Ishiura's retirement ceremony will be held on 1 June 2024 at the Ryogoku Kokugikan.

Controversy[]

Hokaho - Ishiura: Altercation[]

In training at his stable before the January 2020 tournament he came to blows with a junior ranked wrestler, Hokaho, after a series of heated bouts and the pair had to be separated by Hakuho. The incident was reported to the Sumo Association by Miyagino Oyakata, and Ishiura was docked 20 percent of one month's salary. As a result, in the January 2020 tournament, Hakuho replaced him with Terutsuyoshi as the dew sweeper, or tsuyuharai.

Personal Life[]

Ishiura announced in May 2017 that he had married a nursery school teacher in April after a four year relationship. The wedding ceremony was held in October 2017 with his stablemate Hakuho among the 500 guests. Their first child was born in May 2018.
Ishiura is known for his fashion and style. He is a big fan of Rimowa, which is a German high-quality luggage manufacturer. His favorite fashion brands are Stüssy and Supreme.
Ishiura's favorite type of music is reggae.
Ishiura considers Ura as his main rival in sumo.
Ishiura was born left-handed, and his father tried to convert him into becoming right-handed. However, he rebelled and decided to stick to using his left hand.
Ishiura poses with his sponsor, McLaren Automotive (c. 2017)

Ishiura is known for his athleticism and strength. Ishiura can squat 300 kg and bench press 200 kg. In high school, he could complete a 50m run in a little over 6 seconds. His standing long jump record is 3 meters which was the number one in his school. According to his father's book. Ishiura's grip strength is 70 kg on the right and 90 kg on his left. His current strength trainer is Ryogaku Wada, who was a former MMA fighter.
He is sponsored by McLaren Automotive, and on his 27th birthday he arrived at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in a sports car that they provided for him. Ishiura is also sponsored by the Daiwa Securities Group.
He has also been known for his contributions on social media, posting video clips on Twitter of his fellow wrestlers playing arcade games and competing in sprint races.
Ishiura likes to eat Pacific saury prepared in the Kabayaki style, which is a fish is split down the back (or belly), gutted and boned, butterflied, cut into square fillets, skewered, and dipped in a sweet soy sauce-based sauce before being cooked on a grill or griddle. Ishiura is also a fan of natto, rice, miso soup, mackerel and steak. Ishiura tries to drink as little alcohol as he can, because he thinks it will have bad effects on his muscles.
Ishiura served as a tsukebito or personal attendant to yokozuna Hakuho, and when he reached the makuuchi division, he would also take part in his dohyo-iri.
During his entire career he wrestled under his real name and did not adopt a formal shikona or ring-name. Ishiura is of unusually small stature for a sumo wrestler: when he made his makuuchi debut at 116 kg (256 lb) he was officially 18 kg (40 lb) lighter than any other competitor in the division, although he outweighs Terutsuyoshi and his stablemate Enho who have made the top division subsequently.

Fighting Style[]

Ishiura favours a right hand inside, left hand outside grip on his opponent's mawashi or belt. His favourite kimarite or winning technique is shitatenage, the underarm throw. In November 2019, Ishiura won a victory in the Fukuoka Tournament ('Basho') over Nishikigi on Day Eight using what is likely the rarest winning technique in sumo. The mitokorozeme (三所攻め) or 'three places attack' is a kimarite that had not been seen in the top division since Mainoumi used it in 1993.