Wakamotoharu Minato

Wakamotoharu Minato - 若元春港 (born October 5, 1993) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Fukushima, Fukushima Prefecture. 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 2024 is sekiwake.

Early Life[]

Onami began practicing sumo due to the fact that his grandfather was an ex-komusubi and his father was also a former professional sumo wrestler. In high school, he participated in the national tournaments for three consecutive years and in his second year he won second place at the Tohoku tournament. He had to evacuate Fukushima due to the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and he lodged at the Arashio stable for where his older brother, Wakatakamoto, was already a wrestler. He stayed in the stable for around a month, and after high school graduation, he joined the stable and made his professional debut in November 2011.

Career[]

Early Career[]

Onami made his debut under the shikona "Araonami", but immediately changed it to "Goshi" in the following tournament. In his first jonokuchi tournament, Goshi took the jonokuchi 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.

Screen Shot 2020-12-25 at 1.32 — Wakamotoharu (c. 2019)

In July 2013, Goshi produced a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 55 and was promoted to the extremely 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, but would fall back down to sandanme after sitting out of the November 2015 tournament. After producing seven consecutive winning records, he was promoted to makushita 5 in March 2017. After this tournament, he changed his shikona to "Wakamotoharu" due to the arrival of his younger brother, Wakatakakage. He would remain in the top quarter of makushita and in January 2019, he took the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record at the rank of makushita 3. In this tournament, he defeated veteran makuuchi wrestler Takekaze in his last match. As a result he was promoted to juryo in March 2019.

Juryo Career[]

Wakamotoharu and Wakatakakage became the 19th pair of brothers to reach the sekitori level. He struggled in his first juryo tournament and produced a 5-10 record. As a result he was demoted back to makushita and would not return back to juryo until three tournaments later. In his return, he duplicated his juryo debut with a 5-10 record and was demoted back down to makushita. He would immediately return and has remained in juryo ever since. Wakamotoharu tested positive for COVID-19 after his brother, Wakatakakage, tested positive for the virus ten days before the tournament. As a result, the whole Araiso stable was forced to sit out of the January 2021 tournament. In November 2021, he posted a strong 11-4 record at the rank of juryo 1 and was promoted to makuuchi for the January 2022 tournament.

Makuuchi Career[]

Wakamotoharu and Wakatakakage are the 12th pair of brothers to both be ranked in the top division at the same time. 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. 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.

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.

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

After two consecutive 10-5 winning records in the top maegashira ranks, Wakamotoharu was promoted to komusubi for the January 2023 tournament. He secured a winning record 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. 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. After the tournament, the hypothesis of Wakamotoharu's promotion to ōzeki received a response from the chairman of the judging committee, Sadagotake, who commented that the July tournament would be one where promotion to ozeki would be considered if his results were good enough. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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. For his feat in beating the yokozuna, Wakamotoharu received the Outstanding Performance Prize.

Personal Life[]

Wakamotoharu announced after his makuuchi promotion that he had got married in November 2021, after a three-year relationship.
Wakamotoharu's favorite oden ingredient is Chikuwabu.
He is a fan of singers Ed Sheeran and Aiko, professional wrestling, the comedy duo Chocolate Planet, and the Kinnikuman series.

Family[]

The three Onami brothers are the grandchildren of former komusubi Wakabayama. 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. 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 19th 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.

Fighting Style[]

Wakamotoharu is a yotsu-sumo wrestler, preferring grappling techniques to pushing and thrusting. His most common winning kimarite is a straightforward yorikiri, or force out, and he uses a hidari-yotsu grip on the mawashi or belt, with his right hand outside and left hand inside his opponent's arms.