Kaihō
| Kaihō Ryōji | |
|---|---|
| 海鵬 涼至 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Ryōji Kumagaya April 17, 1973 Aomori, Japan |
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 122 kg (269 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Hakkaku |
| Record | 572-637-36 |
| Debut | January 1996 |
| Highest rank | Komusubi (November 2001) |
| Retired | July 2010 |
| Championships | 1 (Makushita) |
| Special Prizes | 2 (Technique) |
| Gold Stars | 1 (Musashimaru) |
| * Up to date as of May 2010. | |
Kaihō Ryōji (born April 17, 1973 as Ryōji Kumagaya) is a former sumo wrestler from Aomori, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. An amateur champion at Nihon University, he entered professional sumo in 1996. He was one of the lightest sekitori wrestlers in recent years. He won two special prizes for Technique. He retired from active competition in 2010 and became a coach, but in April 2011 he was asked to resign from the Japan Sumo Association after being found guilty of match-fixing.
Kaihō was born in Fukaura, a town in the Nishitsugaru District of Aomori Prefecture. He was an amateur sumo champion at Nihon University, and won the middleweight world title for Japan in the 2nd World Sumo Championships held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan. He entered professional sumo in January 1996 at the age of 22, joining Hakkaku stable. Because of his amateur achievements, he was given makushita tsukedashi status and allowed to enter at the bottom of the third highest makushita division. He won the makushita championship in his very first tournament with a perfect 7-0 record, defeating Kyokutenhō in a playoff - the only yūshō of his career. He was promoted to the second highest jūryō division in May 1997. At this point he switched from fighting under his family name of Kumagaya to the shikona of Kaihō, which was taken from the name of his father's boat, Kaihō-maru (Kai means "ocean" or "sea" in Japanese).
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