Kyokutaisei Takuya

Kyokutaisei Takuya - 旭大星託也 (born October 18, 1989) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Asahikawa, Hokkaido. He made his debut in January 2008 and wrestled for Oshima stable. He reached the makuuchi division in May 2018 and has 1 special prize. His highest rank was maegashira 8 and he retired in January 2025.

Early Life[]

Screen Shot 2020-11-24 at 5.42.13 PM — Ogushi celebrates his admittance to professional sumo by dining with local sponsors and Oshima Oyakata. (footage from the *Tu Seras Sumo* documentary)

Takaya Ogushi was born on October 18, 1989, in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. Ogushi was originally a judo practitioner and was coached by his father up until the second grade. After that, he joined a local judo club for the remaining of his elementary school years.^[1]

In 2002, he enrolled at Asahikawa Shiritsu Keihoku Junior High School, but the school did not have a judo club, so he ended up joining the baseball team. He continued practicing judo at a local judo club. During his second year of junior high school, a scout from Oshima stable offered him the opportunity to join his stable, but Ogushi rejected it.^[1]

He later attended Asahikawa University High School and was an active member of their judo club. He received many recruiting offers by many universities, but rejected them because he had no interest in studying after high school. In his third year of high school, Ogushi received an offer to join Oshima stable, this time by Oshima Oyakata (former ozeki Asahikuni). This time he was also strongly encouraged by his father and sponsors from his hometown of Asahikawa. This time he accepted the offer and moved to Tokyo to embark on his sumo journey.^[1]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Screen Shot 2020-11-25 at 10.48.40 AM — Kyokutaisei during his time in jonidan (c. 2008)

He was light entering sumo at 83 kg so to add weight he would eat as much and as often as he could even waking up in the middle of the night for snacks to add on the calories. Because of him being so light his oyakata would tell him to imitate Ama later known as Harumafuji who also was a light wrestler. Early on he disliked sumo citing homesickness and the hard life style, he even ran away in the middle of the night to live with one of his friends to get away from sumo. This did not last long though as he was talked into going back to the stable in time for the next tournament.^[2]

He made his professional debut in January 2008 alongside Homarefuji, Akiseyama, and Keitenkai. In his jonokuchi debut he wrestled under the shikona "Kyokutaisei" (旭大星) and posted a surprisingly 6-1 record. Kyokutaisei continued his impressive run and produced a 5-2 record in his jonidan debut. However, after his impressive run Kyokutaisei began to slow down and he did not earn promotion to the sandanme division until the September 2009 tournament. Kyokutaisei remained in sandanme for a year before earning promotion to the makushita division for the September 2010 tournament.^[3]

Kyokutaisei struggled in his makushita debut and produced a poor 1-6 record. He would not become established in the makushita division until January 2012. After becoming a makushita regular, Kyokutaisei began to gradually climb the ranks of makushita. He produced a 6-1 at the rank of makushita 11 in March 2014 and was boosted to makushita 3 for the following May 2014 tournament. In this tournament Kyokutaisei faced off against two juryo wrestlers (Kotoyuki and Yoshiazuma) and defeated them both. He finished with a 5-2 record and secured promotion to the salaried juryo division for the July 2014 tournament.^[3]

Juryo Career[]

Kyokutaisei performed decently in his juryo debut and finished with a 7-8 record. Nevertheless, he was demoted to the bottom of juryo for the following September 2014 tournament and struggled in that tournament. He finished with a poor 5-10 record and was demoted back down to makushita in November 2014 after only two tournaments in juryo.^[3]

MTW2018012901020000377131 — Kyokutaisei prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2018)

After four straight winning records in makushita, Kyokutaisei earned promotion back to the juryo division for the September 2015 tournament. In his first tournament back he produced his first kachi-koshi, or winning record, as a sekitori with a 9-6 record. However, he followed up with three straight losing records and was demoted back down to makushita in May 2016.^[3]

After one tournament in makushita, Kyokutaisei earned promotion back to the juryo division for the July 2016 tournament. For the following tournaments, Kyokutaisei produced a variety of records which brought him up and down in the juryo rankings. In January 2018, Kyokutaisei was ranked at juryo 1 west and produced an 8-7 record. However he was only promoted to juryo 1 east for the following March 2018 tournament. He produced another 8-7 record and secured promotion to the top makuuchi division for the May 2018 tournament.^[3]

Makuuchi Career[]

Kyokutaisei2021 — Kyokutaisei prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2021)

His first makuuchi division honbasho was the Natsu tournament in May 2018 which he debuted at maegashira 15. He was the first top division wrestler from Hokkaido since the demotion of Kitakachidoki exactly 20 years earlier, in May 1998, and the first Hokkaido native to win promotion to makuuchi since Tatsuhikari in January 1992.^[4] In his debut tournament he went 10–5 and was awarded the fighting spirit prize for his efforts, this is his first sansho (special prize). He was promoted to his highest rank to date of maegashira 8 for the July 2018 tournament, where he scored a make-koshi 6–9. He withdrew from a tournament for the first time in his career in September, after injuring his knees in his Day 3 bout against Daieisho. He returned to the tournament on Day 9, but withdrew again on Day 11 after aggravating the injury.^[5]

Later Career[]

He was demoted to the juryo division in November 2018 and did not manage to return to makuuchi until almost two years later in September 2020. He withdrew on Day 5 of the September tournament with an Achilles' tendon injury.^[6] This result demoted Kyokutaisei all the way down to juryo 8 for the November 2020 tournament. Kyokutaisei was forced to sit out of the January 2021 after a wrestler in his stable tested positive for COVID-19.^[7] He withdrew from both the July and September 2021 tournaments due to a left knee injury.^[8]

He withdrew from both the January and March 2022 tournaments partway through after suffering injuries. After having surgery on his knee and sitting out three straight tournaments from May to September 2022, Kyokutaisei finally returned to competitive action in the November 2022 tournament, having fallen to jonokuchi 5 in the rankings. On Day 8 he defeated Takabaho to move to 4–0, his first kachi-koshi since March 2021, when he was ranked in juryo.^[9] During this tournament he also recorded a fifth win in a row, but missed out on the championship after being defeated on Day 11 by Takerufuji.^[3]

Having begun his career at Oshima stable, he was once again a member of Oshima after February 2022 when his stablemaster renamed it from Tomozuna stable.^[10]

Kyokutaisei returned to makushita by July 2023, but was unable to make any meaningful progress towards returning to sekitori status as he was still hampered by his left knee injury.^[3]

Retirement from Sumo[]

Impeded by his left knee injury, Kyokutaisei retired in December 2024, without staying with the association as an elder. A few days after announcing his retirement, he told the Nikkan Sports newspaper of his intention to run an aburasoba restaurant, wishing first to train in a restaurant to which he is indebted to the owner.^[11]

He held his danpatsu-shiki, or retirement ceremony, on June 1, 2025, at a hotel in Tokyo, attended by around 400 guests, including Asakayama Oyakata (former ozeki Kaio) and Terunofuji Oyakata.^[12]

Personal Life[]

He was the star of a French documentary, Tu Seras Sumo, or A Normal Life: Chronicle of a Sumo Wrestler, released in 2013, which covered the first nine months of his sumo career in 2008.^[13]
Kyokutaisei registered his marriage to Yoshie Kobayashi on 18 September 2017. The reception was held on 9 June 2018, about 450 guests attended with Hakuho giving a speech.^[14]
Kyokutaisei has five siblings: one older sister, three younger sisters, and one half-brother).^[15]
Kyokutaisei's favorite food is gyudon.^[16]

Fighting Style[]

Kyokutaisei is unusual in that he prefers a maemitsu grip on his opponent's mawashi or belt – grabbing the front part directly below the stomach area. He is also fond of employing dashinage techniques, which involve throwing the opponent in a pulling motion.^[17] His most common winning kimarite is oshidashi, or push out.^[18]