Ichinojō Takashi
| Ichinojō Takashi | |
|---|---|
| 逸ノ城 駿 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Altankhuyag Ichinnorow April 7, 1993 Arkhangai, Mongolia |
| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Weight | 197 kg (434 lb; 31.0 st) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Minato |
| Current rank | see below |
| Debut | January, 2014 |
| Highest rank | Sekiwake (Nov, 2014) |
| Championships | 1 (Jūryō) |
| Special Prizes | Fighting Spirit (1) Outstanding Performance (1) |
| Gold Stars | 3 Harumafuji (2) Kakuryū |
| * Up to date as of June 26, 2017. | |
Ichinojō Takashi (born 7 April 1993 as Altankhuyag Ichinnorow) is a sumo wrestler from Arkhangai, Mongolia. He is notable as being the second foreign-born wrestler, and the first of non-Japanese descent allowed to debut at an elevated rank in the third makushita division due to his amateur sumo success. In only his third professional tournament he took the second division jūryō championship. In his fifth professional tournament, his first in the top makuuchi division, he was the runner-up and promoted all the way to sekiwake, his highest rank to date. He is the heaviest man in the top division as of 2016.
Ichinnorow is the first of all Mongolian wrestlers who have gone on to join Japanese sumo to come from a nomadic clan, as most of the Mongolians who preceded him have been city dwellers. From a young age he participated actively in Bökh, traditional Mongolian wrestling and at the age of 14 he took the championship in the Bökh competition held in his province of Arkhangai. On moving to Japan, he was on the judo team at his high school in Tottori prefecture but when the sumo coach at the school saw his ability he asked him to transfer to the sumo team. In his second and third years he collected a total of five amateur sumo titles. After graduating he was originally slated to join Minato stable which had no foreign wrestlers at the time (as only one foreign-born wrestler is allowed per stable) but he instead stayed on at his high school as a coach, and won a national amateur sumo championship taking the title of amateur yokozuna or grand champion in 2013.
He planned to start professionally with Minato stable in the November 2013 tournament but he had yet to procure his working visa, but he was still able to participate in maezumō for that tournament. With his previous amateur yokozuna title, he was allowed to debut at the high rank of makushita 15 in a system called makushita tsukedashi, the second foreign-born rikishi to ever achieve this status after Japanese-Brazilian Ryūdō. As no one else in his stable was ranked in the makushita division or higher, he automatically became the highest ranked wrestler in his stable on entering, a rare occurrence. In his January 2014 debut he turned in an impressive 6-1 record, which also included a win in his last bout against Amuru, a wrestler with professional experience at the jūryō level. He was promoted to makushita 3 for the following tournament. The upper ranks of makushita are extremely competitive with up-and-coming wrestlers trying to break into professional sumo and recently demoted jūryō wrestlers trying to gain re-promotion. In this environment, Ichinojō still managed a 6-1 record, with the majority of his wins being against wrestlers with jūryō experience. His record allowed him to make his debut in the professional ranks of jūryō in only his third tournament. He debuted at jūryō 10 and managed an 11-4 record, which tied him with four other wrestlers. On the final day he won a four-man playoff to take the championship, with both his playoff wins being against wrestlers he had lost against during the regular tournament, Kotoyūki and Kagamio.
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