Ryuden Goshi

Ryuden Goshi - 竜電剛至 (born November 10, 1990) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kofu, Yamanashi. He made his debut in March 2006 and currently wrestles for Takadagawa stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 2018 and has 2 special prizes. His highest rank as of 2025 is komusubi.

Early Life[]

Watanabe is the youngest of three brothers and has a judo background, having taken up the sport as a first-grader at Ikeda Elementary School and having continued to practice judo at Kai Shiritsu Ryuo Junior High School in the nearby town of Kai.^[1] In junior high school, Watanabe won the Yamanashi prefectural judo tournament in the over-90 kilos class.^[1] Destined to join the judo club of a prestigious high school outside his native prefecture,^[2] he was however persuaded in his second year of junior high school by Sendagawa Oyakata (former sekiwake Akinoshima), a coach at Takadagawa stable who was visiting his school to scout new apprentices, to give sumo a try, telling him he would "become a man among men".^[3]

Career[]

Early Career[]

He made his debut in March 2006, the same tournament as Tochinoshin, Sakaizawa and Masakaze. He was immediately given the shikona of Ryuden, with the "Ryu" part taken from his hometown school and the "den" part from the legendary wrestler Raiden.^[3]

Ryuden (c. 2011) — Ryuden during his time in makushita (c. 2010)

Ryuden gradually rose the ranks through the lower divisions and reached the makushita division in March 2008 at the young age of 17. He bounced back and forth between makushita and sandanme for a couple of months, before becoming a makushita regular beginning from November 2008. In July 2009, Ryuden produced a 6-1 record and was placed in an eight-man playoff for the makushita yusho, however he lost to Sotairyu in the first round.^[4]

He was talked of, alongside Masunoyama, as a candidate for the first wrestler born in the Heisei era to reach the sekitori ranks when he produced a 5–2 score at the rank of makushita 15 in November 2009.^[2] However his progress then stalled with two consecutive make-koshi, and he suffered a concussion after falling from the dohyo in a match against Takanoiwa in March 2010, and was embarrassed when he had to be carried off in a wheelchair. He was overtaken by Takayasu who did become the first Heisei born sekitori in November 2010, with Masunoyama. Commenting on this historic failure, his master Takadagawa declared that Ryuden had succumbed to pressure.^[2]

Juryo Career[]

Ryuden was however promoted to juryo after scoring a perfect 7–0 record and taking the makushita championship at the September 2012 tournament. He was promoted along five others, including Kyokushuho, Akiseyama, Homarefuji and Masakaze.^[5] Ryuden became the first sekitori produced by the new Takadagawa stablemaster (former sekiwake Akinoshima), who had taken over the running of the stable from former ozeki Maenoyama, in 2009.^[6] He was also the first sekitori from Yamanashi Prefecture since Hidenohana, 24 years earlier.^[5] At the time of his promotion, his master encouraged him to wrestle in such a way as to create excitement and rally the public to a Japanese wrestler, since sumo was dominated by Mongolian wrestlers at the time.^[3]^[6]

However Ryuden suffered a fracture of his right hip joint in his juryo debut in November and had to withdraw from the tournament. During his long injury recuperation he made two abortive attempts to return, breaking the hip twice more. This resulted in him falling all the way down to jonokuchi 17 in the rankings, journalists commenting that Ryūden "had to go through hell".^[7] For four consecutive tournaments from January until July 2014, although still injured, he fought (and won) one match at the end of the tournament, solely to prevent falling off the banzuke completely. He was finally fit to return in September 2014 and won three consecutive yusho to quickly return to the third highest makushita division. He was finally promoted back to juryo in November 2016. Only Hokutokuni (off the banzuke) and Kotobeppu (jonokuchi 39) had returned to juryo from lower ranks than Ryuden had. Ryuden remain in juryo for eight tournaments, where he only produced one losing record out of the eight tournaments.^[4]

Makuuchi Career[]

7360b144979e3666e10f2c5bd311d65b20180119111515636 — Ryuden prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2018)

Ryuden was promoted to the top makuuchi division in January 2018, becoming the second top division wrestler from Takadagawa stable after Kagayaki to achieve this since the new head coach took over.^[8] At the time of his promotion, he was the first Yamanashi Prefecture native to be ranked in makuuchi since Onohana in March 1988, and the seventh postwar wrestler from this prefecture to achieve this promotion.^[8] He was also the second wrestler in sumo history, after Kotobeppu, to earn a promotion to makuuchi after being relegated to the jonokuchi division.^[8]

He scored ten wins in his top division debut and shared the Fighting Spirit prize with fellow newcomer Abi. Since then, he has stayed in makuuchi and has mainly shown solid performances. In September 2018, Ryuden was the fastest maegashira-ranked wrestler to reach the positive kachi-koshi balance with a win over Shohozan. For this feat and his 10 wins in total, he was nominated for the Fighting Spirit prize, but was shelved because he did not reach the majority of the attending committee members votes. In May 2019, he notably defeated ozeki Goeido on Day 11 and earned a tenth victory by defeating komusubi Aoiyama on the last day of the tournament. For this performance, he received his first special prize for Technique. The following tournament, he was promoted to komusubi, a first for a wrestler from Yamanashi Prefecture since Fujizakura, 47 years earlier.^[9] His promotion to the san'yaku ranks makes Ryuden the first wrestler in sumo history to earn a promotion to this status after being relegated to jonokuchi. With 79 tournaments elapsed since entering professional sumo, Ryuden is also the 10th slowest wrestler to reach the san'yaku ranks.^[9] Entering the July 2019 tournament at his highest rank, Ryuden recorded an initial defeat to yokozuna Kakuryu, but bounced back to claim back-to-back victories over ozeki Takayasu and Tochinoshin. However, he finished the tournament with a poor 4–11 record and was demoted after only one tournament in san'yaku, remaining in the mid-maegashira ranks until May 2021, where he fell to maegashira 14. He was withdrawn from that tournament by his stablemaster, who said he had breached COVID-19 compliance guidelines and may face further sanction from the Sumo Association.^[10]

RyudenTochinoshin2022 — Ryuden forces out Tochinoshin (c. 2022)

When Ryuden competed again after his suspension in November 2021, he entered the competition at the rank of makushita 47. He commented that since the Sumo Association had let him continue to fight, he now had no choice but to fight without shame,^[11] while staying away from the press for a while.^[12] Ryuden won the makushita division title with a perfect 7–0 record. Thanks to his championship victory, he was promoted to makushita 5 and during this period he was competing to win a second tournament in a row but was beaten on the final day by Gonoyama (then called Nishikawa). He however earned a promotion to the juryo division for the March 2022 tournament, where he won his first championship in that division. After the May tournament of the same year, where he scored a 9–6 record, he won the juryo division again in July, leading to his promotion back to the makuuchi division. On his return to sumo's top division, he finished just a few victories behind the tournament winner (jun-yusho), maegashira Tamawashi, notably achieving a seven-match winning streak. Ryuden was subsequently promoted to maegashira 6.^[4]

Controversy[]

COVID-19 Violations[]

Ryuden was withdrawn from the May 2021 tournament by his stablemaster, after the latter was tipped off by Ryuden's wife about a cheating affair.^[10] Takadagawa accused Ryuden of having breached COVID-19 compliance guidelines.^[13] After an investigation by the compliance department of the Sumo Association, it was found that on 25 different occasions between 12 March 2020, and 20 January 2021, Ryuden had gone out with several adulterous women, breaking the rules on unnecessary trips.^[14] Ryuden was therefore suspended for three tournaments retroactive to the May basho; he was eligible to compete again in November.^[14]

Personal Life[]

In February 2019, Ryuden announced his engagement to his partner, a nurse named Mai Fukumaru, after a four-year relationship.^[15] The couple married in June of the same year, with 430 guests in attendance.^[16] In May 2021, it was revealed by the Shukan Shincho, alongside the investigation into the breached COVID-19 compliance guidelines, that Ryuden was having an affair with one of his fans.^[17] It was also revealed that as a result of this relationship, the woman in question became pregnant and had, at Ryuden's insistence, an abortion; Ryuden had tried to pay her approximately 5 million yen in compensation, in vain.^[17]
Ryuden's tsukebito, or personal attendant, and long-time friend Shobushi passed away on May 13, 2020, from multiple organ failure due to complications from COVID-19. They attended the same junior high school and were both members of the judo club at the school. Ryuden considered him to be a younger brother.^[18]
Ryuden's favorite foods are Raindrop cake,^[19] Hamburg steak, and pasta.^[16]

Fighting Style[]

Ryuden is a yotsu-sumo specialist who prefers grappling techniques. His favorite winning kimarite is yorikiri (force out),^[20] with a morozashi hold, or both arms inside his opponent's.^[21]