Ryōgoku Kajinosuke IV
両国 梶之助
Personal information
BornHideaki Kobayashi
(1962-07-30) 30 July 1962
Nagasaki, Japan
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight171 kg (377 lb)
Career
StableDewanoumi
Record316-313-20
DebutMarch, 1985
Highest rankKomusubi (July, 1987)
RetiredJanuary, 1993
Elder nameSakaigawa
Championships1 (Jūryō)
Special PrizesOutstanding Performance (1)
Fighting Spirit (1)
Gold Stars3 (Chiyonofuji)
* Up to date as of May, 2008.

Ryōgoku Kajinosuke IV (born 30 July 1962 as Hideaki Kobayashi) is a former sumo wrestler from Nagasaki, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. He is now a sumo coach under the name of Sakaigawa.

Career

He was a premature baby, who had to be given special care because of his tiny size.[1] He was interested in sumo from a young age, but played soccer until high school as there was no opportunity to practise sumo at his junior high.[2] He was an amateur sumo champion at Nihon University, where he won six major titles.[2] Upon joining the professional sport he had makushita tsukedashi status, allowing him to make his debut at the bottom of the third makushita division. He had a losing score in his first tournament and so his first appearance on the banzuke ranking sheets was actually in the fourth sandanme division.[2] However, he responded with five straight winning records and was promoted to the second jūryō division for the first time in March 1986. After taking part in two playoffs for the jūryō championship in November 1986 and January 1987 he was promoted to the top makuuchi division for the March 1987 tournament. Until this point he had been fighting simply as Kobayashiyama, based on his own surname, but to mark his promotion he was granted the shikona of Ryōgoku, which had previously been used by three previous wrestlers from his Dewanoumi stable, most notably sekiwake Ryōgoku Kajinosuke II, who won the makuuchi division yūshō in 1914 at his first attempt. He was initially known as simply Ryōgoku Hideaki, before switching to the full Ryōgoku Kajinosuke shikona in 1989.

He achieved kachi-koshi in his first two top division tournaments and reached komusubi rank in July 1987. It was to be his highest rank, and he held it on three further occasions. He earned two special prizes for Outstanding Performance and Fighting Spirit. His three kinboshi for defeating yokozuna were all earned against Chiyonofuji. In July 1990 he not only defeated Chiyonofuji but was also the only man to beat the winner of the tournament, Asahifuji. Injury problems in his later career forced Ryōgoku's demotion back down to jūryō a couple of times, and he retired in January 1993.

Retirement from sumo

Ryōgoku remained in the sumo world as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Nakadachi Oyakata. He established his own training stable, Nakadachi stable in 1998. In 2003 he switched kabu for the Sakaigawa elder name with former yokozuna Sadanoyama. Therefore the stable was renamed Sakaigawa. Sakaigawa-oyakata is notably part of the Japan Sumo Association board of directors (riji).[3] Ryōgoku successfully transitioned as a trainer, his stable producing a lot of talented rikishi, with seven sekitori as of 2011. His first top division wrestler was Iwakiyama in 2002, a former amateur champion, followed by Hochiyama in 2006. In 2014 his most senior wrestler Gōeidō reached ōzeki rank and won a tournament championship in 2016.

Career record

Ryōgoku Kajinosuke[4]
Year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo
March
Haru basho, Osaka
May
Natsu basho, Tokyo
July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya
September
Aki basho, Tokyo
November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1985 x Makushita tsukedashi #60
25
 
East Sandanme #24
61
 
West Makushita #50
61
 
East Makushita #25
52
 
West Makushita #12
52
 
1986 West Makushita #4
61
 
West Jūryō #12
69
 
East Makushita #4
52
 
East Jūryō #13
87
 
West Jūryō #9
87
 
West Jūryō #7
105P
 
1987 East Jūryō #3
105P
 
West Maegashira #12
96
 
West Maegashira #5
87
 
West Komusubi #1
69
 
East Maegashira #2
510
 
East Maegashira #8
105
 
1988 East Komusubi #1
510
 
West Maegashira #2
69
 
West Maegashira #5
87
 
East Maegashira #1
69
 
East Maegashira #4
96
 
East Maegashira #1
78
 
1989 East Maegashira #2
69
 
East Maegashira #5
663
 
East Maegashira #8
87
 
East Maegashira #4
510
 
West Maegashira #8
96
 
East Maegashira #3
105
O
1990 West Komusubi #1
411
 
West Maegashira #6
114
F
East Komusubi #1
69
 
West Maegashira #3
78
East Maegashira #4
384
 
West Maegashira #13
213
 
1991 East Jūryō #9
123P
Champion

 
East Jūryō #1
96
 
West Maegashira #15
105
 
West Maegashira #7
78
 
West Maegashira #9
78
 
West Maegashira #10
105
 
1992 West Maegashira #3
510
 
East Maegashira #9
411
 
East Maegashira #16
105
 
East Maegashira #9
654
 
West Maegashira #11
213
 
West Jūryō #7
159
 
1993 East Makushita #12
Retired
000
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Top Division Runner-up Retired Lower Divisions

Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: =Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: Makuuchi Jūryō Makushita Sandanme Jonidan Jonokuchi

Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna Ōzeki Sekiwake Komusubi Maegashira

See also

References

  1. Patmore, Angela (1990). The Giants of Sumo. MacDonald & Co. ISBN 0-356-18120-0.
  2. 1 2 3 Sharnoff, Lora (1993). Grand Sumo. Weatherhill. ISBN 0-8348-0283-X.
  3. "Oyakata (Coaches) List". Japanese Sumo Association. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  4. "Ryōgoku Kajinosuke Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
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