Tochimusashi Yota

Tochimusashi Yota - 栃武蔵陽太 (born January 11, 1999) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Iruma, Saitama. He made his debut in March 2021 and currently wrestles for Kasugano stable. He reached the juryo division in September 2022. His highest rank as of 2025 is juryo 7.

Early Life[]

During his third year at Sayama Elementary School, Kanno won a local wanpaku sumo tournament, however, in the following year's wanpaku tournament, he lost in the final and decided to take sumo wrestling more seriously.^[1] He subsequently joined a local sumo club in Iruma, Saitama. During his time with the club, Kanno encountered Kasugano stable, which had set up camp in Iruma, and even trained with sekiwake Tochiozan.^[2]

KannoSY — Kanno as a student yokozuna (c. 2019)

Kanno went on to attend Iruma Shiritsu Kurosu Junior High School. During his third year, he achieved eighth place in the prefectural individual tournament and third place in the group tournament. In his third year of high school, he won the individual championship at the Kanazawa Tournament and achieved second place at the World Junior Sumo Championships.^[3]

After graduating, he enrolled at Chuo University and was a member of the school's sumo club. In only his second year, Kanno won the National Student Sumo Championship which made him a "student yokozuna" and granted him makushita tsukedashi status. Because he wanted to wait until after his graduation from university before joining professional sumo, he missed out on the chance to enter at the level of the third makushita division.^[4] In his fourth year, Kanno made it to the top 8 in the Student Championships and the top 32 in the All Japan Sumo Championships, with the former granting him sandanme tsukedashi status.^[5]

Career[]

Early Career[]

After graduating, Kanno joined Kasugano stable which he already had a longstanding relationship with.^[3] Due to his amateur achievements, Kanno was granted sandanme tsukedashi status which allowed him to make his debut at the bottom of sandanme. He made his debut in March 2021 alongside Gonoyama who was also his college teammate.^[6]

After three tournaments in sandanme, Kanno was promoted to makushita in September 2021. He reached as high as makushita 2 in March 2022 before finishing with his first career losing record. Nevertheless, he bounced back with two 5-2 records and was promoted to juryo in September 2022.^[7]

Juryo Career[]

Upon promotion to juryo, he was given the shikona "Tochimusashi" (栃武蔵) where the "Tochi" (栃) comes from his stable and the "Musashi" (武蔵) was derived from Musashi Province, the predecessor of Saitama prefecture.^[8] In his first juryo tournament, Tochimusashi won the yusho with a strong 11-4 record. However, after his juryo yusho, Tochimusashi experienced a decline in his sumo and was demoted to makushita in May 2023 after three consecutive losing records.^[7]

Tochimusashi returned to juryo in January 2024 but finished with a poor 5-10 record and was demoted back down to makushita for the March 2024 tournament. Following his demotion, Tochimusashi withdrew from the following two tournaments due to surgery on his left shoulder. He returned to action in July 2024, having fallen back down to sandanme for the first time in three years. Nevertheless, he returned immediately back to makushita in September 2024.^[7]

Personal Life[]

Tochimusashi is a big fan of Twice, with the Sumo Association listing his hobby as watching Twice and naming Twice as both his favorite artist and YouTube channel.^[9]
Tochimusashi considers Gonoyama his main rival, as they both attended Chuo University and entered professional sumo at the same time.^[10]

Fighting Style[]

Tochimusashi's favored techniques are listed at the Sumo Association as migi-yotsu (a left hand outside, right hand inside grip on the opponent's mawashi), yori (forcing), oshi (pushing) and tsuki (thrusting).^[11] His most common winning kimarite are oshidashi (push out), yorikiri (force out) and uwatenage (overarm throw).^[12]