Musoyama Masashi
Encyclopedia
Musōyama Masashi is a former sumo
Sumo
is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

 wrestler from Mito, Ibaraki
Mito, Ibaraki
is the capital of Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and has a central location, moderately offset towards the coast in that prefecture. As of 2005, the city has an estimated population of 263,748 and a total area is 217.45 km², giving a population density of 1,212.91 persons per km²...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. A former amateur champion, he turned professional in January 1993, and he won promotion to the top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

division in just four tournaments. He won thirteen special prizes
Sansho (Sumo)
Sanshō are the three special prizes awarded to top division sumo wrestlers for exceptional performance during a sumo honbasho or tournament. The prizes were first awarded in November 1947.-Criteria:...

 and spent a total of 31 tournaments at komusubi and sekiwake before finally reaching the second highest rank of ōzeki in 2000, shortly after winning his only top division tournament championship or yusho
Yusho
A Yūshō is a tournament championship in sumo. It is awarded in each of the six annual honbasho or official tournaments, to the wrestler who wins the most number of bouts. Yūshō are awarded in all six professional sumo divisions...

.
He retired in 2004
2004 in sumo
-Tournaments:*Hatsu basho, Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, 11 - 25 January*Haru basho, Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, 14 - 28 March*Natsu basho, Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, 9 - 23 May*Nagoya basho, Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, 4 -18 July...

. He is now the head coach of Fujishima stable
Musashigawa stable
Fujishima stable is a heya or stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Dewanoumi group of stables. It was set up on 29 August 1981 by Musashigawa Oyakata, the former yokozuna Mienoumi, who branched off from Dewanoumi stable...

.

Early career

Musōyama was interested in sumo from a young age, as his father was the director of the Ibaraki Prefecture
Ibaraki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan, located in the Kantō region on the main island of Honshu. The capital is Mito.-History:Ibaraki Prefecture was previously known as Hitachi Province...

 sumo association. Musōyama won national amateur titles at high school and at Senshu University
Senshu University
is a private university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Former "Senshu College" was founded in 1880, the first school in Japan comprising Economics and Law Departments to systematically offer a specialized educational curriculum in the Japanese language....

, where he was a rival of Tosanoumi
Tosanoumi Toshio
Tosanoumi Toshio , is a former sumo wrestler. He first reached the top division of professional sumo in 1995, winning 13 special prizes and earning 11 gold stars for defeating yokozuna over his long career. The highest rank he reached was sekiwake...

. He made his professional debut in January 1993 in the third makushita division, as due to his amateur achievements he had been given makushita tsukedashi status. He breezed through makushita undefeated with two consecutive 7-0 scores to earn promotion to the second jūryō division, and he made his debut in the top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

division in September 1993. It took him only seven tournaments from his professional debut to make the sanyaku ranks, debuting at sekiwake in March 1994. In September he won his first eleven matches, finishing as runner up to Takanohana
Takanohana Koji
is a former sumo wrestler from Suginami, Tokyo, Japan. He was the 65th man in history to reach sumo's highest rank of yokozuna, and he won 22 tournament championships between 1992 and 2001, the fifth highest total ever...

 with a fine 13-2 record. Over the next few years he was regularly ranked at either sekiwake or komusubi, but was unable to make the next step up. He suffered a number of injuries, including a dislocated shoulder and a persistent problem with his left big toe which affected his speed of movement.

Ozeki career

In January 2000 Musōyama won his first top division yusho
Yusho
A Yūshō is a tournament championship in sumo. It is awarded in each of the six annual honbasho or official tournaments, to the wrestler who wins the most number of bouts. Yūshō are awarded in all six professional sumo divisions...

or tournament championship with a score of 13-2, finishing one win ahead of Takanohana who he had defeated earlier in the tournament. He followed up with a 12-3 score in March, his second runner-up performance, which earned him promotion to ōzeki. He missed the whole of his debut ōzeki tournament through injury and could manage only a 4-11 record on his return, resulting in demotion back to sekiwake. However he scored ten wins in the September 2000 tournament, which immediately restored him to ōzeki status. His time at ōzeki was bedeviled by further injuries which meant he was often merely struggling to maintain his rank instead of challenging for tournament championships and further promotion. His best performance as an ōzeki was a 12-3 runner-up score in March 2001, but in general he was unable to win more than eight or nine bouts. On the 6th day of the May 2001 tournament he had a match with Kotomitsuki
Kotomitsuki Keiji
Kotomitsuki Keiji is a former sumo wrestler from Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. A former amateur champion, he turned professional in 1999. He reached the top makuuchi division in November 2000 and won one yusho or tournament championship, in September 2001...

 that lasted a total of nine minutes and 17 seconds. After two breaks, the match was eventually called off and rescheduled for later in the day, the first time this had happened in the top division since 1978. Musoyama lost the rearranged match. The last tournament in which he managed a score in double figures was in July 2003. After pulling out of the September 2004 tournament with only two wins he lost his first three matches in November and announced his retirement, at the age of 32.

After retirement

Musōyama remained in sumo as a coach at his stable, Musashigawa
Musashigawa stable
Fujishima stable is a heya or stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Dewanoumi group of stables. It was set up on 29 August 1981 by Musashigawa Oyakata, the former yokozuna Mienoumi, who branched off from Dewanoumi stable...

, and is now known as Fujishima-oyakata. He has also worked as a shinpan or judge of tournament bouts. In September 2010 he took over as the head coach and changed its name to Fujishima stable.

Fighting style

He was mainly a oshi-sumo wrestler, preferring pushing and thrusting techniques. His most common winning kimarite
Kimarite
Kimarite are winning techniques in a sumo bout. For each bout in a Grand Sumo tournament , a sumo referee, or gyoji, will decide and announce the type of kimarite used by the winner...

was oshi-dashi, a simple push out. However, he was also capable of fighting on the mawashi
Mawashi
In sumo, a mawashi is the belt that the rikishi wears during training or in competition. Upper ranked professional wrestlers wear a keshō-mawashi as part of the ring entry ceremony or dohyo-iri.-Mawashi:...

, his favoured grip being hidari-yotsu (right hand outside, left hand inside).

Top division record


































































































See also


External links

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