Musoyama Masashi

Musoyama Masashi - 武双山正士 (born February 14, 1972) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Mito, Ibaraki. He made his debut in January 1993 and wrestled for Musashigawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in September 1993 and has 13 special prizes, 2 kinboshi and 1 top division championship. His highest rank was ozeki and he retired in November 2004.

Early Life[]

Oso was interested in sumo from a young age, as his father was the director of the Ibaraki Prefecture sumo association. In his third year at Mito Agricultural High School, he became high school yokozuna after winning the national high school sumo championship. He won national amateur titles at high school and at Senshu University, where he was a rival of Tosanoumi. He dropped out of Senshu University to join professional sumo in January 1993.

Career[]

Early Career[]

He made his professional debut in January 1993 in the third makushita division, as due to his amateur achievements he had been given makushita tsukedashi status. He breezed through makushita undefeated with two consecutive 7–0 scores to earn promotion to the second juryo division in May of the same year.

Juryo Career[]

Upon promotion to juryo, he changed his shikona from Oso to Musoyama, meaning "twin warrior mountain." In his sekitori debut he posted nine wins and followed with a strong 11-4 record which earned him a promotion to makuuchi after two tournaments in juryo and four tournaments overall.

Makuuchi Career[]

He made his debut in the top makuuchi division in September 1993. It took him only seven tournaments from his professional debut to make the san'yaku ranks, debuting at sekiwake in March 1994. In September he won his first eleven matches, finishing as runner up to Takanohana with a fine 13–2 record. Over the next few years he was regularly ranked at either sekiwake or komusubi, but was unable to make the next step up. He suffered a number of injuries, including a dislocated shoulder and a persistent problem with his left big toe which affected his speed of movement.

Ozeki Career[]

In January 2000 Musoyama won his first top division yusho or tournament championship with a score of 13–2, finishing one win ahead of Takanohana whom he had defeated earlier in the tournament. He followed up with a 12–3 score in March, his second runner-up performance, which earned him promotion to ozeki. He missed the whole of his debut ozeki tournament through injury and could manage only a 4–11 record on his return, resulting in demotion back to sekiwake. However he scored ten wins in the September 2000 tournament, which immediately restored him to ozeki status.

E6b1c1ea4fe3d099c8a39ea45e050392 1 — Musoyama defeats Yokozuna Takanohana (c. 2000)

His time at ozeki was bedeviled by further injuries which meant he was often merely struggling to maintain his rank instead of challenging for tournament championships and further promotion. His best performance as an ozeki was a 12–3 runner-up score in March 2001, but that was the only tournament in which he was able to win more than ten bouts. On the 6th day of the May 2001 tournament he had a match with Kotomitsuki that lasted a total of nine minutes and 17 seconds. After two breaks, the match was eventually called off and rescheduled for later in the day, the first time this had happened in the top division since 1978. Musoyama lost the rearranged match. The last tournament in which he managed a score in double figures was in July 2003. After pulling out of the September 2004 tournament with only two wins he lost his first three matches in November and announced his retirement, at the age of 32.

Retirement from Sumo[]

756bd2ff-4c4f-42f9-9d6b-e3dc70dc7bed — Fujishima Oyakata (c. 2015)

Musoyama remained in sumo as a coach at his stable and is now known as Fujishima-oyakata. He has also worked as a judge of tournament bouts. In September 2010 he took over as the head coach and changed its name to Fujishima stable. In March 2021, he produced his first sekitori, Bushozan, who was also from his hometown of Mito, Ibaraki.

In January 2015 Musoyama was named deputy director of the Refereeing Department, and as a result was one of the chief judges to adjudicate sumo matches. He held this position until March 2022, but since then he has had to fill in as a chief judge on several occasions. On March 6, 2020, he was appointed as deputy director in the Japan Sumo Association.

Personal Life[]

Musoyama considers Kaio to be his biggest rival, but they are also close friends off the dohyo. They wrestled a total 49 times where Musoyama defeated him 18 times and Kaio defeated him 31 times.
Musoyama was a big fan of professional wrestling when he was an active wrestler. He was close friends with former sumo wrestler Rikio who became a professional wrestler. In Rikio's pro wrestling debut, Musoyama and Kaio both showed up to cheer him on.
During his career, Musoyama's favorite food was ramen. His hobby is fishing. He is a fan of the show Tamori Club.
Musoyama's father was an amateur sumo wrestler and he participated in the National Sports Festival of Japan (日本国民体育大会) eleven times.
Musoyama is close friends with Japanese printmaker Nancy Seki.

Fighting Style[]

He was mainly a oshi-sumo wrestler, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques. His most common winning kimarite was oshidashi, a simple push out. However, he was also capable of fighting on the mawashi, his favored grip being hidari-yotsu (right hand outside, left hand inside).

Record[]

Division Results[]

Total: 554-377-122/921 (72 basho)
Makuuchi: 520-367-122/877 (68 basho)
Juryo: 20-10/30 (2 basho)
Makushita: 14-0/14 (2 basho)

Championships[]

1 Makuuchi Championship (January 2000)
2 Makushita Championships
- 1st (January 1993)
- 2nd (March 1993)

Achievements[]

Special Prizes: Outstanding Performance Prize (5), Fighting Spirit Prize (4), Technique Prize (4)
Kinboshi: 2: Takanohana (1), Akebono (1)
Record: Tied for 3rd most tournaments ranked in junior san'yaku (komusubi and sekiwake ranks) (31 tournaments)
Record: Tied for 7th most special prizes (13 special prizes)