Oho Konosuke

Oho Konosuke - 王鵬幸之介 (born February 14, 2000) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Koto, Tokyo. He made his debut in January 2018 and currently wrestles for Otake stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 2022 and has 1 special prize and 2 kinboshi. His highest rank as of 2025 is sekiwake.

Early Life[]

TaihoOho — Naya with his grandfather Taiho (c. 2003)

Konosuke Naya was born on February 14, 2000, in Tokyo's Koto Ward. Naya was born the third of four sons and his father was the active (now retired) makuuchi wrestler Takatoriki and his mother is the daughter of the 48th yokozuna Taiho.^[1] He attended Arima Elementary School in Tokyo, Japan, and also was a member of the local sumo dojo.^[2]

In his fourth year of elementary school, he was the runner-up in the National Wanpaku Sumo Tournament.^[2] Despite performing reasonably well in elementary school, he later admitted to having a lazy attitude due to relying on his family legacy.^[3] After graduating from Saitama Shiritsu Omiya Nishi Junior High School, he entered Saitama Sakae High School, which is known for its strong sumo program, and was classmates with the future Kotoshoho, Tochitaikai,^[4] Gonoyama and Kotozakura.^[5] He was a key member of the sumo team and in his third year won both the group and individual championships on the national level.^[6] Following his high school graduation, he elected to postpone his debut in professional sumo in order to compete in the 2017 All Japan Sumo Championships.^[7]

Career[]

Early Career[]

In December 2017, Naya officially began training at Otake stable, which was founded by his grandfather Taiho and formerly owned by his father Takatoriki. He began training with sandanme and makushita ranked wrestlers while he was set to compete in the lowest division, jonokuchi.^[8] At the entrance exam for new recruits, he was both the tallest and heaviest recruit.^[8] He made his professional debut in January 2018, competing under his own name Naya (納谷). During the presentation ceremony for new recruits, Naya presented himself wearing a kesho-mawashi that had belonged to his grandfather.^[9] During his first fights in maezumo (pre-sumo), he defeated his three opponents, including fellow debutant Hoshoryu. In his first official tournament on the banzuke in March 2018, he won the jonokuchi division championship with a perfect 7–0 record, defeating Hoshoryu again and inflicting on him his only defeat of this tournament. Since then, he and Hoshoryu have maintained a certain rivalry.^[10]^[11]

OhoMakushita — Oho battles Wakakinsho in sandanme (c. 2018)

Naya reached the makushita division in September 2018, and competed exclusively in makushita in 2019 and 2020. He steadily climbed the rankings, achieving winning records in nine of eleven tournaments. In the March 2019 tournament, Naya was in contention for the makushita championship but was defeated in his seventh match by eventual champion Churanoumi. In November 2020, he achieved a record of 6-1 from the top makushita rank which earned him a promotion to juryo.^[12]

Juryo Career[]

His promotion to sekitori status saw him adopt the shikona "Oho" (王鵬). Otake-oyakata (former juryo wrestler Dairyu), Oho's stablemaster, commented that he had considered giving Oho the shikona Taiho (大鵬), but this was not possible because Taiho was also the name of a non-transferable elder share (ichidai toshiyori) within the Sumo Association.^[13] He therefore replaced the character Dai (大) with O (王) as a bit of wordplay to evoke the memory of Taiho and the solid mentality of Oho.^[14] The character O (王) can be pronounced the same as the character Dai (大) which is commonly used by wrestlers of Otake stable in deference to both the founder's (Taiho) and the current stablemaster's (Dairyu) shikona. The character Ho (鵬) is taken directly from Taiho's shikona.^[15]

Oho's juryo debut in January 2021 ended with a 5–10 record and he was demoted back to makushita; however, he quickly returned to juryo by achieving a winning record in March. On his return to juryo, Oho scored eight victories but injured his right ankle and had to leave the competition on the final day, handing a victory by default to his opponent Wakamotoharu. This injury absence was the first of his career.^[16] He posted double-digit winning records in two of the next three tournaments. His 11-win performance at juryo 7 in November 2021 was enough to promote him to the top makuuchi division for the January 2022 tournament.^[12]

Makuuchi Career[]

After the banzuke for the January 2022 tournament was announced, confirming him at maegashira 18, Oho spoke to reporters and said he was looking forward to competing in the top division, that he had visited his grandfather's grave,^[17] and he thought his grandfather, who died aged 72 in 2013, was cheering him on in heaven.^[18] In his makuuchi debut Oho began well with seven wins from his first ten bouts, but he lost his last five to finish with a record 7–8. Oho attributed this late fade to a lack of concentration.^[19] That losing record sent him back down to juryo for the March 2022 tournament, but he returned to makuuchi in May 2022 at the rank of maegashira 14 following a 10–5 record. He competed in makuuchi for the remainder of 2022, alternating winning and losing records.^[12]

Oho achieved his first double-digit win performance in the top division in November 2022. On Day 12 he defeated Sekiwake Hoshoryu to improve to 10–2, sharing the lead with Hoshoryu and Takayasu. However, he lost to Takayasu the following day and finished with a 10-5 record.^[12]

Over the course of 2023, Oho was able to cement his status in the top division but struggled with consistency, posting losing scores in four of six tournaments but also achieving a career-best score of 11-4 in the May tournament. In August of that year, after his rival Hoshoryu was promoted to the rank of ozeki, Oho commented on how far he still had to go after achieving mixed results in the first half of the year and mentioned his regret at not being able to compete at the sanyaku level.^[11]

Oho's 2024 started well with a 10-5 record in the January tournament and was promoted to a career-high rank of maegashira 3. In the March tournament, he narrowly missed scoring a winning record in his first tournament in the joi-jin but he earned his first gold star for defeating yokozuna Terunofuji. In the May tournament, he finished 6-9 but was able to defeat two ozeki (Kirishima on Day 6 and Hoshoryu on Day 7) and two sekiwake (Abi on Day 9 and Wakamotoharu on Day 14). In the September tournament, he scored a win over Takakeisho in what would prove to be the former ozeki's final match as a professional, along with wins over the ozeki Hoshoryu and Kotozakura en route to a 9-6 record. At the beginning of October stablemaster Otake announced that Oho would undergo surgery to repair an orbital fracture, which occurred in his Day 6 contest against Abi. Oho withdrew from the autumn regional tours, but Otake said he expected him to recover in time to compete in the November tournament.^[20] During the 2024 November tournament, Oho stood out by inflicting defeat over ozeki Kotozakura.^[12]

OhoOnosato2025-2 — Oho slaps down and defeats ozeki Onosato (c. 2025)

In the 2025 January tournament, Oho stood out again by beating most of his better-ranked opponents in the san'yaku during the first week, also inflicting defeat on ozeki Onosato and recording a personal best six consecutive wins since the first day of the tournament. On Day 7 (a day coinciding with the anniversary of the death of Taiho, Oho's grandfather), he recorded his first defeat at the hands of yokozuna promotion-seeker Hoshoryu, knocking Oho out of the leading group of wrestlers for the title. On Day 8, he suffered a second defeat at the hands of ozeki Kotozakura. Oho was able to bounce back by staying not far behind the wrestlers competing for the title, recording three more consecutive wins before suffering a third defeat by Kirishima. Maintaining his position among the leading wrestlers of the championship, Oho faced the leader of the competition, Kinbozan, on the final day with the chance to trigger a playoff in case of victory. Oho won the match, forcing at the very least a playoff between the two wrestlers. Later, Hoshoryu also qualified for the title, with the playoff becoming a three-way fight. Hoshoryu won the title by defeating Kinbozan and Oho back-to-back. Since Oho had attracted a lot of favorable comment on his solid tournament, he received his first sansho, the Technique prize, however missing out on the award for Outstanding Performance after he failed to win the championship.^[21]

Oho's performance in the January tournament would see him make his san'yaku debut in the March 2025 tournament at the rank of sekiwake. This equaled the career-high rank of his father and former Otake stablemaster (the former Takatoriki), and made them the seventh father-son pair in sumo history to be promoted to san'yaku. Oho told reporters following his promotion that he was very happy, saying that the things he had been working on little by little helped him to acquire strength little by little. He added that his job would be to continue to win steadily and consistently.^[22]

Personal Life[]

Oho's favorite foods are fruit and karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken). His hobby is reading manga, his favorite series being One Piece. His favorite television show is Ametalk!.^[23]

Family[]

His father is former sekiwake Takatoriki and his grandfather is the 48th yokozuna Taiho.^[1] His oldest brother Yukio is a professional wrestler for the promotion DDT.^[24] His second oldest brother, Naya Takamori, joined the same stable in 2020 after an amateur career at Chuo University.^[25] His younger brother, Kosei, joined the stable in 2019 and wrestles under the shikona Mudoho.^[26]

Fighting Style[]

Oho prefers pushing and thrusting techniques (tsuki/oshi) over grabbing his opponent's belt (yotsu-zumo). The majority of his wins are by oshidashi (frontal push out), yorikiri (frontal force out), tsukidashi (frontal thrust out), and oshitaoshi (front push down).^[27] He has been criticized by the commentator and former yokozuna Kitanofuji for a reliance on pull-down attempts.^[28]