Wakakoyu Masaya

Wakakoyu Masaya - 若荒雄匡也 (born February 24, 1984) is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Funabashi, Chiba. He made his debut in March 1999 and wrestled for Onomatsu stable. He reached the makuuchi division in July 2009 and has 1 special prize. His highest rank is komusubi and he retired in September 2014.

Early Life[]

Two years after his birth in Funabashi, his father was killed in a car accident and he was subsequently raised alone by his mother. Onomatsu stable being very near the home of one of his relatives, he began visiting it from a young age. This eventually led to him entering the stable in 1999.

Career[]

Early Career[]

Yakigaya made his professional debut in March 1999 and had a rather slow start to his sumo career where he already produced two losing records by his first tournament, however, by the start of 2000, he went on a strong run and produced five straight winning records which promoted him to the sandanme division in September 2000. Yakigaya septs two years in sandanme and in September 2002 he was promoted to the highly competitive makushita division.

Wakakoyu(2008) — Wakakoyu prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2008)

Yakigaya struggled in his makushita debut and produced a 3-4 record. In 2003, he produced a 6-1 record and was promoted back to the makushita division, however, he missed two tournaments, but upon returning earned two impressive records topped off with a perfect 7–0 record to win the sandanme championship in the last tournament of that year. As a result, he was promoted to the extremely competitive rank of makushita 9. However, these ranks proved to be too competitive at the time and he would be demoted back to sandanme three tournaments later. Yakigaya would then bounce between sandanme and makushita for around two years. After five consecutive winning records, Yakigaya was promoted to the top of makushita in November 2006, but produced a losing record and as a result was demoted from the juryo promotion range. A year later in November 2007, he produced a 4-3 at the rank of makushita 3 which earned him a promotion to the salaried juryo division.

Juryo Career[]

To mark his arrival in the elite sekitori ranks he changed his shikona to Wakakoyu. Wakakoyu produced a 7-8 record in his juryo debut and since Wakakoyu was ranked at the bottom of jury at the rank of juryo 14, he was regulated back down to the makushita division. He would immediately return, but would only stay in juryo for a two tournament stint. To earn promotion back, Wakakoyu produced a rare 5-3 record and was promoted back to juryo. In March 2009, he produced an 11-4 record and was promoted all the way to juryo 2 for the May 2009 tournament. In this tournament, he produced a 9-6 record and was promoted to the top makuuchi divison in July 2009.

Makuuchi Career[]

900 — Wakakoyu with his kesho-mawashi during the dohyo-iri (c. 2010)

He only managed a 4–11 record and fell back to juryo. After a one off 6–9 record this tournament, he took in a string of winning records over the next several tournaments to again reach the top division makuuchi in May 2010. This time he proved himself with a 10–5 record that would have allowed him to fight in the next tournament at a career high maegashira 8. However, at this time, he admitted to having been involved in baseball gambling along with a number of other higher ranked wrestlers and was forced to sit out the tournament and was demoted back to juryo having never fought at his (then) highest achieved rank.

He bounced back from this setback with two winning tournaments, the second being an impressive 10–5 at juryo's highest rank. This awarded him another chance to prove himself in makuuchi in the January 2011 tournament. Wakakoyu and Toyohibiki were the last two wrestlers to again reach the top division after being demoted from it in the gambling scandal. After an 8–7 score at maegashira 10 in the May Technical Examination Tournament, he reached the upper maegashira ranks for the first time at #3. He managed to defeat two ozeki (Kotooshu and Kaio) but finished with a losing score of 5–10. His best performance in the top division came in November 2011 when he finished runner-up to yokozuna Hakuho with a score of 12–3 and was awarded his first sansho or special prize, for Fighting Spirit. It also saw him promoted to the sanyaku ranks for the first time at komusubi for the following tournament in January 2012. However, a decline in his performances saw him demoted back to the juryo division at the end of 2012 having scored only 4–11 at maegashira 13 in November.

Later Career[]

Wakakoyu continued his decline and after three consecutive 6-9 records, he was ranked at the lower quarter of juryo. He would remain at these ranks for another year, before demotion to makushita became certain after a 5-10 record at the ran of juryo 11.

Retirement from Sumo[]

Wakakoyu returned to juryo in September 2014 after a 5-2 record in makushita. He was ranked at the very bottom of juryo, and even a 7-8 record would immediately demote him back to the makushita division. After losing his eight bout to Kotoeko on the thirteenth day, he immediately announced is retirement mid-tournament. His danpatsu-shiki or official retirement ceremony was held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan on January 31, 2015. He has secured one of the Sumo Association's 105 toshiyori-kabu or elder names, and is now known as Shiranui Oyakata.

Controversy[]

Gambling Scandal[]

Wakakoyu was suspended along with over a dozen other wrestlers from the July 2010 tournament after admitting involvement in illegal betting on baseball. As a result, he fell to the juryo division in September.

Personal Life[]

In September 2008, Wakakoyu produced an extremely rare 5-3 record. Unsalaried wrestlers usually wrestle seven matches, but due to unequal distribution of matches, he was placed in his eighth match.
Wakakoyu collects "One Piece" model figures. He cherishes his collection and describes it as his "treasure". His other hobby is fishing.

Fighting Style[]

Wakakoyu was an oshi-sumo specialist, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques to fighting on the mawashi. His most common winning kimarite were oshidashi (push out), tsukidashi (thrust out) and hikiotoshi (pull down).