Sagatsukasa Hiroyuki

Education

He defeated the future top makuuchi division wrestler Futeno, and also finished ahead of the future Asashōryū.

Career

He has both a makushita and a jūryō division championship. His highest rank has been maegashira 9. In his second year of high school he took the championship to take the high school yokozuna title.

He went onto Toyo University where the future Kimurayama was his teammate.

Joining Irumagawa stable, he was below the official height requirement at just 166 cm but was accepted after passing a secondary examination. Initially fighting under his own surname of Isobe, he reached the second highest jūryō division in November 2007.

After changing his shikona to Sagatsukasa he initially remained near the bottom of jūryō and was demoted to makushita on several occasions. He lasted only one tournament in makuuchi and a series of poor performances back in jūryō saw him demoted to makushita once again.

He lasted four tournaments at the top before being relegated to jūryō for the March 2012 tournament.

However, he was injured and missed the last seven days of the tournament and was again relegated. He only lasted one tournament in jūryō and dropped out of the salaried divisions back to makushita where he has remained. Sagatsukasa"s Sumo Association profile lists his favoured techniques as kuisagari, an unusual move employed by shorter wrestlers that involves pushing the head against the opponent"s chest and grabbing the front part of the mawashi, oshi (pushing) and nage (throwing).

His most common winning kimarite in his career to date have been oshi dashi (push out), hiki otoshi (pull down) and tsuki otoshi (thrust over).

In September 2011 he defeated Tochinowaka with the spectacular ipponzeoi move, which had only been seen twice in the top division since 1974.

Achievements

• Isobe began practicing sumo very early, and in his sixth year of primary school won a national boys sumo tournament, earning the title of "young boy yokozuna" for this accomplishment. In junior high school as a representative for Shizuoka prefecture in a national tournament, he won both the team and individual competitions. In his third year he won a Kanazawa tournament and was chosen for a tournament expedition to China, which was also attended by many future stars in sumo. However he fought his way back and reached the top division in March 2010 after a 9-6 score at jūryō 1. Returning to jūryō in May 2011 he won the yūshō or championship with a 13-2 record and was promoted back to the top division. After six tournament in the second division, the last two of which he achieved consecutive 9-6 records, he was promoted back to the top division for the March 2013 tournament.