Masunoyama Tomoharu

Masunoyama Tomoharu - 舛乃山大晴 (born November 1, 1990) is a former Filipino-Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sakae, Chiba. He made his debut in July 2006 and wrestled for Tokiwayama stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 2011 and has 1 special prize. His highest rank was maegashira 4 and he retired in May 2021.

Early Life[]

Tomoharu Kato was born in Iloilo City in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and a Japanese father. His family moved to Japan when he was about one month old and settled in Sakae, Chiba.^[1] His parents had always been fans of sumo and from a very young age Kato had aspired to be a sumo wrestler.^[1] He was a member of the sumo club at his primary school, and when his junior high school did not have a sumo club he decided to attend practice at an area high school and other locations so he could continue doing sumo. Kato participated and did very well in children's sumo and also in national amateur sumo tournaments. However, in his third year of junior high school his parents divorced and he moved back with his mother to her native Philippines.^[1] He graduated from junior high school there and in May 2006 returned to Japan. Still interested in sumo, he decided to join Chiganoura stable. The stable already had their foreigner slot filled by the Hungarian Masutoo, but as Masunoyama listed Chiba Prefecture as his place of birth on the banzuke ranking sheets, he is not regarded as a foreigner by the Japan Sumo Association.^[2]

Career[]

Early Career[]

MasunoyamaChiyohakuho — Masunoyama (left) battles Chiyohakuho (c. 2010)

Kato made his professional sumo debut in July 2006 under the shikona "Masunoyama" (舛乃山). Masunoyama had an impressive start and achieved consecutive 6-1 records in his jonokuchi and jonidan division debuts. He continued the strong run and even took the sandanme division championship, or yusho, in March 2008. This guaranteed him a promotion to the makushita division for the May 2008 tournament at the young age of 17.^[3]

Masunoyama struggled in his first stint in makushita and was demoted back down to sandanme in November 2008 after only three tournaments in makushita. He returned to makushita one tournament later and became a mid-level makushita regular. Masunoyama recorded a 6-1 record in the May 2010 tournament and was promoted to makushita 9 for the following July 2010 tournament. In this tournament, Masunoyama posted a 4-3 record and was promoted to makushita 3 for the September 2010 tournament. Masunoyama was on the verge of a juryo promotion and he produced a 5-2 record which secured promotion to the salaried juryo division for the following November 2010 tournament.^[3]

Juryo Career[]

He entered juryo at the same time as Takayasu. Both had the distinction of being half Filipino as well as simultaneously being the first two wrestlers to enter juryo that were born in the Heisei Era.^[4] Masunoyama only managed a 6–9 score in his first juryo tournament but as he had debuted at the relatively high rank of juryo 11, he was spared relegation. In the January 2011 tournament, he won his first five bouts in a row, but on the sixth day in morning practice he injured a ligament in his right leg. He made the decision to continue competing, and managed to beat Kakizoe on that day. However, two days later he aggravated the injury in a bout against Daido and was obliged to miss the next day and take a fusenpai. He then returned for two more days, both wins against veteran wrestlers Tamanoshima and Chiyohakuho before losing again and re-aggravating his injury to miss the final two days. Through all this he still managed an 8–5 record with two absences. Three tournaments later (with one being missed due to the sumo match-fixing scandal), at the rank of juryo 1 he came just short of a championship, but lost in a playoff to Myogiryu who was in his juryo debut. This record allowed Masunoyama to be promoted to the top-tier makuuchi for the following September tournament.^[3]

Makuuchi Career[]

Masunoyama12 — Masunoyama prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2012)

On the fourth day of his makuuchi debut in a bout against Tochinowaka, Masunoyama injured the same ligament in his left leg that he had previously injured in his right leg. He was forced to bow out of the tournament with only a 2–3 record, and was demoted back to juryo. Though advised by his doctor not to enter the next tournament in order to let his injury heal, he insisted on fighting on. However, unable to do much training and hobbled by his injury he had losing records in the following two tournaments.^[3]

He returned to form in the next tournament in March 2012 and posted strong winning records in this and the following tournament. He re-entered makuuchi in July 2012, marking it with an 11–4 win and the Fighting Spirit prize. However he had two losing records to only one winning one for the remainder of the year. In 2013, he had a lackluster performance, recording mostly losing tournaments, but mostly records of 7–8 which kept him from falling too far down the ranks. This continued in 2014, and his unimpressive 4–11 score at maegashira 13 led to his relegation to the juryo division in July.^[3]

Later Career[]

His downward slide continued in 2015 and absence from the dohyo meant he had fallen to the bottom of the makushita division by September. After having surgery on his right knee for a dislocation and meniscus damage, he declared that he would enter the March 2016 tournament after a five basho absence.^[5] He was ranked in the jonidan division for this tournament and came through with a 6–1 record. He was promoted to the sandanme division for May 2016 but withdrew from that tournament after losing his first match. He sat out the July tournament with injury and was therefore demoted to jonokuchi, the lowest division. He is only the second wrestler with top division experience to fall to jonokuchi since the beginning of the Showa era – the other being Ryuho in 2012.^[6]

20200821-00010035-chuspo-000-2-view — Masunoyama prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2020)

Finally back on the active list for the September 2016 tournament, easily took a 7–0 perfect record and the jonokuchi championship and secured a second successive promotion with a 6–1 in jonidan in November. He missed the January and March 2017 tournaments through injury, but entered the May tournament on Day 7 at jonidan 81 and secured a 4–0–3 winning record. In July he won all seven of his matches in the jonidan division, although he was defeated in a playoff for the championship. That month he changed the spelling of his shikona surname from 舛ノ山 to 舛乃山. He was ranked at sandanme 49 in September 2017, his highest rank for two years, but turned in a make-koshi 3–4 record.^[3]

He was promoted back to the makushita division for the March 2018 tournament, his first time in the third highest division since September 2015, only to see him injured again in May, causing him to also miss the July 2018 tournament and sending him back down the rankings.^[3]

Retirement from Sumo[]

He continued to suffer injury problems and absences, falling to jonidan in May 2021. The Sumo Association announced his retirement during the May 2021 tournament. On April 22, 2022, his retirement ceremony, or danpatsu-shiki, was held at a hotel in Tokyo. After retirement, he obtained a qualification for "Certified Care Worker Training" and now works at a senior care facility in Arakawa, Tokyo.^[7]

Personal Life[]

In July 2006, Masunoyama was the sole new recruit into professional sumo, and this garnered him a lot of attention with the press. The press has continued to be enamored with him because of his friendly character, diligence, and ability to cope with adversity. He has also appeared on various television programs to be interviewed and has proven himself to have a remarkable singing voice on these programs.^[1]
He has said in interviews that he feels indebted to his mother for raising him on her own, and he sends money to her in the Philippines. He expressed hope to one day buy her a house.^[8]
Earlier in his sumo career, Masunoyama had initially been advised by a doctor that he had heart disease and should be careful not to overstrain himself; this also appeared to reflect in his sumo, where after an initial spurt of energy at the tachi-ai he would collapse after around 20 seconds from exhaustion. Eventually however, the coach at his stable insisted on a second opinion and a thorough heart examination was conducted which found no evidence of a heart condition.^[9]
Masunoyama's brother works in Tokiwayama stable as a tokoyama or hairdresser under the name Tokosen.^[10]
Having lived in the Philippines for a while, Masunoyama is fluent in English and Tagalog.^[1]
Masunoyama's hobbies include eating and listening to music. His favorite food is fried chicken^[11]

Fighting Style[]

Masunoyama went on the offensive right from the tachi–ai or initial charge, using pushing and thrusting techniques (tsuki/oshi). Nearly half of all his victories are by either yorikiri, the force out, or oshi dashi, the push out.^[12]