Oginohana Akikazu

Oginohana Akikazu - 小城乃花昭和 (born November 18, 1967) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ichikawa, Chiba. He made his debut in July 1983 and last wrestled for Dewanoumi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 1990. His highest rank was maegashira 2 and he retired in July 1998.

Early Life[]

He had not shown much interest in sumo while at high school and was instead a member of the baseball team. However, while recuperating from a baseball injury he was persuaded to drop out of school and join Dewanoumi stable where his father, the former sekiwake Oginohana Masaaki, worked as a coach.

Career[]

Early Career[]

Initially fighting under his family name of Koiwai, he made his professional debut in July 1983. He adopted his father's shikona or fighting name in March 1987. In the same tournament his younger brother joined the stable and began using the family name as a shikona instead (he later became Oginishiki). As he rose up the ranks Oginohana's strong and supple physique, and the power of his right arm overarm throw, were much admired. He bore a physical resemblance to former yokozuna Wakanohana II, and like him was popular with female sumo fans. He won the makushita division championship in May 1988 and reached sekitori level upon promotion to the juryo division in July 1989.

Juryo Career[]

Oginohana won the first seven matches in his sekitori debut and finished with an impressive 10-5 record. In his third juryo tournament, he took the juryo yusho with a strong 13-2 record and was promoted to makuuchi in the following January 1990 tournament.

Makuuchi Career[]

Both Oginohana and his friend and stablemate, Ryukozan, came through with winning records in their makuuchi debuts, but Ryukozan collapsed and died of a heart attack during a training session a few weeks later. Oginohana seemed to lose a good deal of his fighting spirit after this incident. His expected rise to the san'yaku ranks never materialized, and he never won a sansho or special prize. Twice he was in a position when he would have been awarded the Fighting Spirit Prize if he had won on the final day of the tournament, but on both occasions he lost (to Terao on his top division debut in January 1990 and Takahanada in March 1991). He fell down to juryo on a couple of occasions, and ended up winning the juryo championship four times, second only to Masurao's five. His last appearance in the top division was in March 1996, and he retired in July 1998 when he lost thirteen bouts and was certain to be demoted to the makushita division. His top division record was 169 wins to 216 losses with 5 absences, a winning percentage of .439, and his highest rank was maegashira 2, achieved in May 1990.

Retirement from Sumo[]

Screen Shot 2021-04-10 at 12.48.17 PM — Dewanoumi Oyakata (c. 2018)

Oginohana remained in the sumo world as a coach at Dewanoumi stable and an elder of the Japan Sumo Association. For two years after his retirement he had jun-tosiyori status and used his old fighting name (a practice since abolished), but in 2000 he became Takasaki-oyakata, succeeding his father who had reached the mandatory retirement age for coaches of 65 years old. In February 2014 he became the head coach of Dewanoumi stable, succeeding former sekiwake Washuyama who was also nearing retirement age. He is also a judge of tournament bouts and has deputized for chief judges Kasugano and Fujishima. In January 2016 he was elected to the Sumo Association's board of directors.

Oginohana was one of seven wrestlers born in the 1967–1968 school year to reach the top division, the others being Ryukozan, Daishoho, Takatoriki, Mainoumi, Kenko and Terunoumi, but he is the only one of those seven still involved in sumo, with Mainoumi choosing to leave upon his retirement, Takatoriki being expelled, and the other four all being deceased. In addition, none of those seven became yokozuna or ozeki, and in Japan they are compared unfavourably with their contemporaries from professional baseball where "Kuwata–Kiyohara Generation" is regarded as a golden age.

On 4 July 2019 Dewanoumi Oyakata collapsed at a training session whilst supervising jonokuchi wrestlers. It was diagnosed as variant angina and he was saved by the availability of an automated external defibrillator, which was required by the Sumo Association to be installed at every stable following the death of his stablemate Ryukozan in 1990. He returned to work on 9 July.

Fighting Style[]

Oginohana was a yotsu-sumo wrestler who preferred grappling techniques to pushing and thrusting. His favored grip on the mawashi was hidari-yotsu, a right hand outside, left hand inside position. His speciality was uwatenage, or overarm throw.