Yoshii Ko

Yoshii Ko - 吉井虹 (born August 1, 2003) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Yaizu, Shizuoka. He made his debut in March 2019 and currently wrestles for Tokitsukaze stable. His highest rank as of 2025 is makushita 3.

Early Life[]

Yoshii started practicing judo at the age of 5, but after winning a local sumo tournament, he started to train for sumo at a local dojo in Yaizu, Shizuoka.^[1] In his fifth year of elementary school, Yoshii made it to the top 16 at the Wanpaku National Sumo Tournament and in his sixth year, he was runner-up at the All Japan Elementary School Sumo Tournament. He went on to attend Yaizu Municipal Minato Junior High School and in his second year, Yoshii won the All-Japan Junior High School Sumo Tournament. This earned him the title of junior high school yokozuna.^[2]

Career[]

After graduating junior high school, Yoshii decided to enter professional sumo. This was an unusual decision as only 3 out of the 47 junior high school yokozuna's at the time had decided to join professional sumo right out of junior high school.^[3] Yoshii had multiple offers from strong high school sumo programs, however, since his fifth year of elementary school, he had already made up his mind that he was going to enter professional sumo right out of junior high school.^[2]

YoshiiYusho — Yoshii defeats Kinbozan to win the makushita yusho (c. 2022)

Yoshii joined Nakagawa stable and made his professional debut in March 2019 alongside Kitanowaka, Tokihayate and junior high school rival Otsuji. Yoshii reached sandanme in September 2019 after strong results in jonidan and jonokuchi. The banzuke for the May 2020 tournament was released on April 27, 2020, and Yoshii was ranked at makushita 54. At only 16 years 8 months and 26 days old, he was the youngest makushita wrestler since 1972, when entry into sumo before junior high school graduation was still allowed.^[4] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the May 2020 tournament was cancelled, so Yoshii technically made his makushita debut in July 2020. On July 20, 2020, Yoshii transferred to Tokitsukaze stable after his stable was forced to close down due to an assault scandal.^[5]

He posted four consecutive winning records and was promoted to makushita 21 in March 2021. At the time, he had not posted a single losing record since his entry into sumo. However, after this Yoshii went on a losing slump and was demoted back down to sandanme in January 2022. Nevertheless, he returned to makushita in March 2022 and won the makushita yusho with a perfect 7-0 record in July 2022. This boosted him to the rank of makushita 3 for the September 2022 tournament, however, he finished this tournament with a 2-5 record.^[6]

Fighting Style[]

Yoshii's favored techniques are listed at the Sumo Association as hidari-yotsu (a right hand outside, left hand inside grip on the opponent's mawashi), yori (forcing) and oshi (pushing).^[7] His most common winning kimarite are straightforward: yorikiri (force out) and oshidashi (push out). He also regularly employs uwatenage (overarm throw) and katasukashi (under-shoulder swing down).^[8]