Tohakuryu Masahito

Tohakuryu Masahito - 東白龍雅士 (born April 17, 1996) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Adachi, Tokyo. He made his debut in May 2019 and currently wrestles for Tamanoi stable. He reached the makuuchi division in November 2023. His highest rank as of 2023 is maegashira 15.

Early Life[]

Masahito Shiraishi began sumo wrestling in his fifth year of elementary school. He attended Katsushika City Daido Junior High School and was a member of their sumo club.

Screen Shot 2021-01-25 at 8.51 — Shiraishi celebrates a collegiate tournament win (c. 2018)

He went on to attend Senshu University Matsudo Senior High School. At the school, he played an active role for the school's sumo club during the national competitions. In the individual category he achieved third place once, second place twice, and first place once. His rival was future and current ozeki Takakeisho.

After graduation from high school, he received multiple offers from many stables, but he opted to continue his sumo career on the collegiate level. He enrolled at Toyo University and won three individual competitions and helped his school win three consecutive team championships. He joined Tamanoi stable upon graduation from college.

Career[]

Early Career[]

Due to his amateur accomplishments he was granted sandanme tsukedashi which means he will start at the bottom of the sandanme division. He initially wrestled under his family name of "Shiraishi". He made his debut in May 2019 and won the sandanme yusho after winning all seven matches. As a result, he was promoted to the makushita division for the following tournament.

Hope705-shiraishi — Shiraishi prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2019)

In his makushita debut, he produced a 5-2 record and followed this performance with two more consecutive winning records which promoted him to the top quarter of the makushita division in January 2020. He struggled and produced a 2-5 record in this tournament, but bounced back with two 6-1 records and as a result was promoted to the highly competitive rank of makushita 2 for the September 2020 tournament. However, a week before the tournament, there was a COVID-19 outbreak in his stable (Tamanoi heya) so he was forced to sit out of the tournament. He returned in November 2020 without any loss of rank and scored a 4-3 record which earned him a promotion to the salaried juryo division.

Juryo Career[]

Upon promotion to juryo, he changed his shikona from his family name to "Tohakuryu" (東白龍). He made his juryo debut in January 2021 tournament alongside the highly popular Oho and he outperformed Oho by producing eight wins while Oho could only manage five wins. In May 2021, he posted a 10-5 record and was promoted to the rank of juryo 4 in July, but finished with a 5-10 record. He had to withdraw from Day 11 of the July 2022 tournament after another COVID outbreak at Tamanoi stable. He reached his highest rank to date of juryo 1 in November 2022, but posted a 5-10 losing record in the tournament.

Makuuchi Career[]

After 3 consecutive losing records in juryo, Tohakuryu posted a strong 10-5 record in September 2023, gaining promotion to makuuchi for the November 2023 tournament. However, Tohakuryu could only manage five wins in his top division debut and was demoted back down to juryo.

Personal Life[]

His hobbies are watching drama and anime on YouTube and Netflix and reading manga.

Fighting Style[]

Tohakuryu is a tsuki/oshi specialist, who prefers pushing and thrusting at his opponents rather than fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common winning kimarite or technique is hatakikomi (slap down), followed closely by oshidashi (push out).