Wakamotoharu Minato

Wakamotoharu Minato - 若元春港 (born October 5, 1993) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Fukushima City, Fukushima. He made his debut in November 2011 and currently wrestles for Arashio stable. He reached the makuuchi division in January 2022 and has 2 special prizes as well as 1 kinboshi. His highest rank as of 2025 is sekiwake.

Early Life[]

Minato Onami comes from a sumo family. His grandfather Wakabayama reached the rank of komusubi and his father, Wakashinobu, who was a makushita division wrestler, now owns a chankonabe restaurant in Fukushima.^[1] Onami has an elder brother, Wataru, and a younger brother, Atsushi. All brothers became professional wrestlers between 2009 and 2017 and are currently wrestling for Arashio stable.^[2]

As a child, Onami was particularly admiring of Sotairyu, at the time the only sekitori ranked wrestler from his home prefecture of Fukushima.^[3] He was part of Gakuho Fukushima High School's sumo club, in the city of Fukushima. As a high school student, he was one of the victims of the 2011 earthquake. During the initial reconstruction period, he moved to the Arashio stable in Tokyo with his younger brother Atsushi to live and train there for a month, thanks to the help of his older brother Wakatakamoto, who was already wrestling in the stable.^[1]^[4] That same year, he decided to become a professional sumo wrestler in the same stable as a sign of gratitude after they had welcomed him and his brother.^[5]

Career[]

Early Career[]

Onami made his professional debut in November 2011 under the shikona, or ring name, Araonami (荒大波). In his first official tournament (honbasho) in January 2012, under the new shikona Goshi (剛士), he won the jonokuchi championship, or yusho, with a perfect 7–0 record. He followed this with a 5-2 in jonidan which boosted him to sandanme for the May 2012 tournament. He would spend three tournaments in sandanme and earned promotion to makushita in November 2012.^[6]

Screen Shot 2020-12-25 at 1.32.20 PM — Wakamotoharu prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2019)

In July 2013, Goshi produced a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 55 and was promoted to the competitive rank of makushita 7. This rank proved to be too hard for Goshi at the time, and after a series of poor records, Goshi was demoted back down to sandanme in March 2015. He would immediately return to makushita in May 2015, but would fall back down to sandanme after sitting out of the November 2015 tournament.^[6]

After producing seven consecutive winning records, he was promoted to makushita 5 in March 2017. After this tournament, he was given the shikona "Wakamotoharu" due to the arrival of his younger brother, Wakatakakage. He would remain in the upper ranks of makushita and in January 2019, he took the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 3. As a result he was promoted to juryo for the following March 2019 tournament.^[6]

Juryo Career[]

At the time of his first promotion to the juryo division, he and Wakatakakage became the twentieth pair of brothers to achieve the status of sekitori in sumo history.^[7] Commenting on his promotion his master Arashio (former komusubi Oyutaka) and his senior Sokokurai expressed their reservations, with his master commenting that he had been expecting a promotion for three years and criticizing Wakamotoharu's lack of effort in training. Sokokurai, for his part, commented that he had had to encourage him since the end of 2018 in order for him to give himself the means for promotion.^[7] During his first juryo tournament, Wakamotoharu scored only five wins and was demoted back to makushita. He however returned to juryo after a 6–1 record at makushita 1 in September 2019.^[6]

Since his master (former komusubi Oyutaka) was from Niigata Prefecture, Wakamotoharu regularly attended training camps organized by his stable to scout promising young talent, training notably with future Onosato.^[8]

In November 2019 he had to apologize after a picture of him bound to a chair and gagged with tape was posted on social media by fellow wrestler Abi.^[9] The prank was criticized for seeming to make light of past incidents of violence within sumo stables, and the Japan Sumo Association responded by banning sumo wrestlers from having individual social media accounts.^[10]

Makuuchi Career[]

In December 2021 the Japan Sumo Association released the rankings for the January 2022 tournament, and he was promoted to the top makuuchi division, joining his younger brother Wakatakakage.^[11] Wakamotoharu and Wakatakakage are the 12th pair of brothers to both be ranked in the top division at the same time.^[12] He is the second member of Arashio stable to make the top division following Wakatakakage in November 2019, and the first since the current stablemaster, former maegashira Sokokurai, took over.^[13] Speaking to reporters Wakamotoharu recalled the difficulty of beginning 2021 by having to sit out the January tournament because of a COVID-19 infection but ending it with his best result as a sekitori, an 11-4 record in November, which saw him win promotion.^[14] He said that he hoped he would be able to outdo his younger brother.^[15] At the time of his promotion, the supporters' association in his hometown of Fukushima gave him a replica of the kesho-mawashi worn by his grandfather Wakabayama. On display in his parents' chanko restaurant, the original kesho-mawashi depicts a lion dance scene.^[12]

In the January 2022 tournament Wakamotoharu secured a winning record in his makuuchi debut on Day 14 when he defeated Tobizaru. His second straight winning record came on Day 12 of the March 2022 tournament, when he defeated Endo to move to 8–4. He finished the tournament with another 9–6 record.^[6]

Wakamotoharu's bout against Terunofuji in the July 2022 tournament was stopped after two minutes by gyoji Shikimori Inosuke after Wakamotoharu's mawashi became undone. After a pause of about ten minutes for a mono-ii and to reset the positions of the wrestlers, Wakamotoharu was defeated when Terunofuji quickly swung him out of the ring with an underarm throw.^[16]

Wakamotoharu8 — Wakamotoharu prepares for his upcoming match (c. 2021)

After two consecutive 10-5 winning records in the top maegashira ranks, he was promoted to komusubi for the January 2023 tournament. He secured a kachi-koshi in his san'yaku debut on the 14th day. He retained his komusubi ranking in the March banzuke. In May 2023 he was promoted to sekiwake, making him and his brother Wakatakakage the fourth siblings in history to reach sumo's third-highest rank, and the first since yokozuna brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana in the early 1990s.^[17] During the May tournament, he notably defeated Ozeki Takakeisho on Day 14. He finished the tournament with a 10-5 record and was awarded the Technique prize.^[6]

After the tournament, the hypothesis of Wakamotoharu's promotion to ozeki received a response from the chairman of the judging committee, Sadogatake, who commented that the July tournament would be one where promotion to ozeki would be considered if his results were good enough.^[18] Wakamotoharu would need 12 wins at the July basho to reach the normal ozeki promotion requirement of 33 wins at san'yaku in three tournaments.^[19] Commenting on his potential promotion, Wakamotoharu expressed his relief at seeing his career finally stabilize in the sport's top division. Similarly, he confided that his position as ozeki-tori (candidate for the rank of ozeki) came as a surprise to him, as he has spent the majority of his career trying to catch up with his brother Wakatakakage in the rankings, his younger brother also having been in his potential promotion situation before him. Aware of his situation he also expressed his wish to become the equal of former ozeki Kaio and Chiyotaikai.^[20]

Prior to the July tournament, Wakamotoharu received a kesho-mawashi from his Fukushima patronage association. Designed by his mother, who used to work in the design industry after graduating from an art school, the design features flowers and fruit from the prefecture to evoke the Hanamiyama Park.^[21] During the tournament, however, Wakamotoharu lost his chance of the ozeki title when he suffered his fourth defeat on Day 12 to returning ozeki Kirishima.^[6]

WakamotoharuKinboshi — Wakamotoharu defeats Yokozuna Terunofuji (c. 2024)

Wakamotoharu lost his san'yaku status for the first tournament of 2024, having been demoted to the rank of maegashira 1. On Day 2 of the tournament, he claimed his very first kinboshi (gold star) with an upset victory over Yokozuna Terunofuji in a match lasting 1 minute and 42 seconds. This was followed up the next day with a victory over one of the ozeki competitors, Takakeisho. Wakamotoharu finished the tournament with 10 wins, with reports suggesting his record to be enough to earn promotion back to the san'yaku ranks. For his feat in beating the yokozuna and several other san'yaku-ranked opponents, he received the Outstanding Performance Prize.^[6]

At the May 2024 tournament, Wakamotoharu withdrew from the competition on the seventh day, citing an injury to his left toe sustained during training. However, he did not rule out the possibility of returning to the tournament.^[22] He returned on Day 11 but was defeated by Hiradoumi, resulting in a losing record. After two good tournaments in September and November, the press echoed Wakamotoharu's chances of being promoted to ozeki if he could have a good tournament in January 2025, encouraged by his brother Wakatakakage's promotion to san'yaku.^[23]

Personal Life[]

Wakamotoharu announced after his makuuchi promotion that he had got married in November 2021, after a three-year relationship.^[12] Following the reception of his wedding in February 2025, he also revealed that he was the father of a daughter, born in 2020.^[24]
Wakamotoharu is a fan of singers Ed Sheeran and Aiko, professional wrestling, the comedy duo Chocolate Planet, and the Kinnikuman series.^[25] Wakamotoharu's favorite oden ingredient is Chikuwabu^[26] and his favorite food is sushi.^[25]

Family[]

The three Onami brothers are the grandchildren of former komusubi Wakabayama.^[1] They were given their shikona or sumo names by Arashio stable's head coach Oyutaka, after the three sons of Mori Motonari in the well-known Japanese parable "Lesson of the three arrows" – Takamoto, Motoharu, and Takakage.^[27] The eldest brother, Wakatakamoto, has a highest rank of makushita 7 and has been in sumo the longest, debuting in November 2009. Wakamotoharu and Wakatakakage are the 20th pair of brothers in sumo to both reach sekitori level. Wakatakakage, the youngest brother, has had by far the quickest rise up the rankings of the three.^[28]

Fighting Style[]

Wakamotoharu prefers to grab his opponent's mawashi rather than push or thrust, and his favorite grip is hidari-yotsu, with his right hand outside and left hand inside his opponent's arms.^[25] His most common winning kimarite or technique is a straightforward yorikiri, or force out. He also regularly employs the last minute utchari, or backward pivot throw.^[29]