Oginohana Akikazu (born 18 November 1967 as Akikazu Koiwai) is a former

sumo is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by th ...

wrestler from Ichikawa, Chiba,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. He made his professional debut in July 1983, and reached the top division in January 1990. His highest rank was '' maegashira'' 2. He retired in July 1998. He is the son of former '' sekiwake'' Oginohana Masaaki and the elder brother of former ''

komusubi , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ('' rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the o ...

'' Oginishiki. Since 2014 he has been the head of the

Dewanoumi stable is a heya (sumo), stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ''Glossary of sumo terms#ichimon, ichimon'' or group of stables. It has a long, prestigious history. Its current head coach is former ''maegashira'' Oginohana Akikazu, Oginohana. ...

Career

He had not shown much interest in sumo while at high school and was instead a member of the

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team. However, while recuperating from a baseball injury he was persuaded to drop out of school and join

where his father, the former ''sekiwake'' Oginohana Masaaki, worked as a coach. Initially fighting under his family name of Koiwai, he made his professional debut in July 1983. He adopted his father's ''

shikona A is a sumo wrestler's ring name. The tradition of ring names in sumo dates back to the Muromachi period and established itself during the Edo period, where they were used as a means to hide the identities of the . Given by the master to his di ...

'' or fighting name in March 1987. In the same tournament his younger brother joined the stable and began using the family name as a ''shikona'' instead (he later became Oginishiki). As he rose up the ranks Oginohana's strong and supple physique, and the power of his right arm overarm throw, were much admired. He bore a physical resemblance to former ''

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ('' rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the o ...

'' Wakanohana II, and like him was popular with female sumo fans. He won the '' makushita'' division championship in May 1988 and reached '' sekitori'' level upon promotion to the ''

jūryō Professional sumo as administered by the Japan Sumo Association is divided into six ranked divisions. Wrestlers are promoted and demoted within and between these divisions based on the merit of their win–loss records in official tournaments. Fo ...

'' division in July 1989. He took the ''jūryō'' division championship with a 13-2 record in November 1989 and was promoted to the top ''

makuuchi , or , is the top division of Professional sumo divisions, the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous ...

'' division for the following tournament in January 1990. Both Oginohana and his friend and stablemate, Ryūkōzan, came through with winning records in their ''makuuchi'' debuts, but Ryūkōzan collapsed and died of a heart attack during a training session a few weeks later. Oginohana seemed to lose a good deal of his fighting spirit after this incident. His expected rise to the ''

san'yaku The following words are terms used in sumo wrestling in Japan. A B C D E F G H ...

'' ranks never materialized, and he never won a '' sanshō'' or special prize. Twice he was in a position when he would have been awarded the Fighting Spirit Prize if he had won on the final day of the tournament, but on both occasions he lost (to Terao on his top division debut in January 1990 and Takahanada in March 1991). He fell down to ''jūryō'' on a couple of occasions, and ended up winning the ''jūryō'' championship four times, second only to Masurao's five. His last appearance in the top division was in March 1996, and he retired in July 1998 when he lost thirteen bouts and was certain to be demoted to the ''makushita'' division. His top division record was 169 wins to 216 losses with 5 absences, a winning percentage of .439, and his highest rank was ''maegashira'' 2, achieved in May 1990.

Retirement from sumo

Oginohana remained in the sumo world as a coach at Dewanoumi stable and an elder of the

Japan Sumo Association The , officially the ; sometimes abbreviated JSA or NSK, and more usually called Sumo Kyōkai, is the governing body that operates and controls Professional sports, professional sumo wrestling, called , in Japan under the jurisdiction of the Min ...

. For two years after his retirement he had ''jun-tosiyori'' status and used his old fighting name (a practice since abolished), but in 2000 he became Takasaki-''oyakata'', succeeding his father who had reached the mandatory retirement age for coaches of 65 years old. In February 2014 he became the head coach of Dewanoumi stable, succeeding former ''sekiwake'' Washūyama who was also nearing retirement age. He is also a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

of tournament bouts and has deputized for chief judges Kasugano and Fujishima. In January 2016 he was elected to the Sumo Association's board of directors. Oginohana was one of seven wrestlers born in the 1967–1968 school year to reach the top division, the others being Ryūkōzan, Daishōhō, Takatōriki, Mainoumi, Kenkō and Terunoumi, but he is the only one of those seven still involved in sumo, with Mainoumi choosing to leave upon his retirement, Takatōriki being expelled, and the other four all being deceased. In addition, none of those seven became ''yokozuna'' or ''ōzeki'', and in Japan they are compared unfavourably with their contemporaries from professional baseball where " Kuwata– Kiyohara Generation" is regarded as a

golden age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

. On 4 July 2019 Dewanoumi Oyakata collapsed at a training session whilst supervising '' jonokuchi'' wrestlers. It was diagnosed as

variant angina Variant angina, also known as Prinzmetal angina, vasospastic angina, angina inversa, coronary vessel spasm, or coronary artery vasospasm, is a syndrome typically consisting of angina (cardiac chest pain). Variant angina differs from stable angin ...

and he was saved by the availability of an

automated external defibrillator An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the life-threatening cardiac Heart arrhythmia, arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and pulseless ventricular tachycardia, and is able ...

, which was required by the Sumo Association to be installed at every stable following the death of his stablemate Ryūkozan in 1990. He returned to work on 9 July.

Fighting style

Oginohana was a ''yotsu-sumo'' wrestler who preferred grappling techniques to pushing and thrusting. His favoured grip on the '' mawashi'' was ''hidari yotsu'', a right hand outside, left hand inside position. His speciality was ''uwatenage'', or overarm throw.

Career record

References

External links