Jokoryu Takayuki

Jokoryu Takayuki - 常幸龍貴之 (born August 7, 1988) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kita, Tokyo. He made his debut in May 2011 and last wrestled for Kise stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 2012 and has 1 kinboshi. His highest rank was komusubi and he retired in September 2022.

Early Life[]

Takayuki Sakuma was born on August 7, 1988, in Kita, Tokyo. He started sumo at the Harigaya Sumo Club in Bunkyo, Tokyo from his second year of elementary school and continued until he graduated from junior high school. However, the young Sakuma admired not the wrestlers but the announcers. "Until the second year of junior high school, I was small and couldn't win much. Instead, I often played the drums borrowed from the neighborhood association at home," he recalled in an article, indicating he planned to quit sumo after junior high. However, as he grew bigger, he started to win more and decided to continue sumo.^[1]^[2]

Sakuma attended Saitama Sakae High School, known for its prestigious sumo club, and in his third year won the junior sumo championship in the free weight category. After high school, he entered Nihon University and in his second year, in 2008, he achieved the status of student yokozuna in the national student sumo tournament. This success would have allowed him to enter professional sumo at a higher rank (known as makushita tsukedashi) but he chose to give priority to graduating, and passed up this chance. However, later he felt like dropping out due to the death of his father. He felt it was necessary to support his family, but his mother persuaded him back into graduating. He was scouted by Kise Oyakata (former maegashira Higonoumi) who was a coach at Kitanoumi stable.^[2]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Upon graduating he joined Kitanoumi stable, adopting the shikona of Sakumayama Takayuki (佐久間山貴之) to distinguish himself from an active wrestler who already had the surname Sakuma. Before even entering the ring he was making a name for himself because of his diligence, skill, and strength in practice. He was allowed to practice regularly with higher ranked wrestlers almost from the beginning because of this. He won his first tournament championship or yusho in the jonokuchi division with a perfect record and a playoff win against stablemate and fellow rising star Sasanoyama. In the following September tournament he won all his regular matches, but lost a playoff match for the jonidan championship against Watanabe. Playoffs are not calculated in professional sumo records, therefore his consecutive record was left intact. He continued his streak in the November tournament, with a perfect record and a playoff win.^[3]

G20120123002486980 view — Jokoryu battles Chiyootori in the makushita playoff (c. 2012)

In the first tournament of 2012, he continued undefeated and on the 11th day of the tournament, reached 27 consecutive wins from his entry into sumo, surpassing the previous record set by former komusubi Itai in 1979.^[4] In his next match, on the 13th day, he finally lost to an overarm throw, by Sensho. Nevertheless, on the final day of the tournament he came through a four-way playoff to win the championship. This was his fourth consecutive playoff, a record. His calmness in the ring, and unaffected humbleness about his success at this stage was noted by commentators.^[5]

Though he logged two losses for the first time in his first upper makushita tournament in March 2012, his five wins was enough to earn him promotion to juryo in the following May tournament. The six tournaments it took him to reach sekitori status from maezumo is level with Itai and Tosayutaka for the fastest ever. On the occasion of his promotion, he changed his shikona surname to Jokoryu. It was also announced that he would be moving to the re–established Kise stable, which was founded by the former Higonoumi but forced to merge with Kitanoumi stable in 2010.^[6]

Juryo Career[]

Jokoryu's first tournament as a sekitori was a success, with him securing his kachi-koshi or majority of wins on the final day with a win over Oiwato. After a 10–5 score in July, he won promotion to the makuuchi division by clinching the juryo championship in September with a playoff win over Ikioi. His makuuchi debut in November 2012 was just nine tournaments after his professional debut, beating the previous record of eleven held by Kotooshu and Aran.^[7]

Makuuchi Career[]

Jokoryu kinboshi — Jokoryu defeats yokozuna Harumafuji for his first career kinboshi (c. 2015)

He found the going more tough in the top division and recorded his first ever make-koshi, finishing on 6–9 and suffering immediate demotion back to juryo. However he made a quick return to makuuchi after finishing runner–up in January to Takanoiwa on 11–4. Afterwards he largely alternated between winning and losing tournaments, and fell to juryo again in January 2013.^[3]

For the remainder of 2013 Jokoryu managed to stay in the top division, but was again relegated to the second division in January of the following year, but bounced back in one tournament just as he had in the previous year. In the following two tournaments of March and May 2014 he logged two consecutive winning tournaments in the top division, a feat he could not accomplish in the previous year. In the July 2014 tournament he had his best finish in the top division at 10–5, which earned him promotion to the san'yaku ranks for the first time at komusubi for September. He could manage only four wins in his san'yaku debut and dropped back to the maegashira ranks. In January 2015 he suffered an injury to his right knee in a bout against Endo but continued to fight and picked up his first kinboshi or gold star for the defeat of a yokozuna, upsetting Harumafuji on Day 7. Jokoryu dedicated the win to his son, as it was his birthday.^[8]

Later Career[]

Jokoryu withdrew on Day 12 of the January 2015 tournament and with only five wins against ten losses in each of his next two tournaments, he was relegated back to juryo. His 8–7 record in September was his first majority of wins at any tournament in 2015. Although he returned to the top division in January 2016 he was not fully healed and he was forced to withdraw after only two wins because of ligament damage to the same knee that he had injured a year earlier.^[9] After two consecutive losing scores in the juryo division he was demoted to makushita for the July 2016 tournament. After undergoing surgery he was forced to miss both the July and September tournaments, and fell to sandanme 23.^[10]

Spo1807220015-p1 — Jokoryu celebrates after guaranteeing a promotion back to juryo (c. 2021)

He predictably won the division on his comeback in November, going unbeaten in all seven bouts before beating Asahiryu in a play-off. He was promoted to the makushita division for the January 2017 tournament, where he turned in a make-koshi record of 3–4. He returned to juryo for the September 2018 tournament after an absence of 13 tournaments. He is the first former sanyaku ranked wrestler to make a return to juryo from the sandanme division.^[11] (This feat was matched by Terunofuji and Chiyootori in November 2019.) He was forced to withdraw with a foot injury on Day 14 of the January 2019 tournament, and with only five wins he was demoted back to the makushita division.^[3]

In September 2020, Jokoryu produced a 4-3 at makushita 1 and was promoted back to juryo for the November 2020 tournament. In his re-promotion to juryo, he scored a 9-6 record losing on the final day, but followed with a 5-10 record in January after losing his last seven matches. He bounced back with a strong 10-5 record in March. However, he followed with a disastrous 3-12 record in the May tournament and was demoted back down to makushita in July 2021.^[3]

Retirement from Sumo[]

After six consecutive losing records in the makushita division, Jokoryu announced his retirement after his sixth loss in the September 2022 tournament.^[12] Jokoryu's danpatsu-shiki (retirement ceremony) was held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan on 23 February 2023. About 160 people took turn to cut the chonmage. A this occasion, he declared he aimed to become a high school teacher through a correspondence course at Nihon University, with the goal to develop amateur sumo in the future.^[13]

Personal Life[]

Jokoryu married on August 7, 2013,^[14] and his first son was born in 2014, and his second son was born in 2018.^[15]
Jokoryu's favorite food is stewed beef tendon. He dislikes celery.^[5]
Jokoryu's hobbies are listening to music and watching professional wrestling.^[5]

Fighting Style[]

Jokoryu's favored kimarite or techniques are migi-yotsu (a left hand outside, right hand inside grip on his opponent's mawashi),^[16] yorikiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw).^[17]