Kisenosato
| Kisenosato Yutaka | |
|---|---|
| 稀勢の里 寛 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Yutaka Hagiwara July 3, 1986 Ibaraki, Japan |
| Height | 187 cm (6 ft 1 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 175 kg (386 lb; 27.6 st) |
| Web presence | Tagonoura stable website |
| Career | |
| Stable | Tagonoura |
| Current rank | Yokozuna |
| Debut | March 2002 |
| Highest rank | Yokozuna (January 2017) |
| Championships | 1 (Makuuchi) 1 (Makushita) |
| Special Prizes | Outstanding Performance (5) Fighting Spirit (3) Technique (1) |
| Gold Stars | 3 Hakuhō (2) Asashōryū |
| * Up to date as of Feb 26, 2017. | |
Kisenosato Yutaka (born July 3, 1986, as Yutaka Hagiwara (萩原 寛 Hagiwara Yutaka?)) is a sumo wrestler from Ibaraki, Japan. He made his professional debut in 2002, and reached the top makuuchi division in 2004 at the age of just 18. After many years in the junior san'yaku ranks, he reached the second highest rank of ōzeki in January 2012. He earned three kinboshi or gold star defeats of yokozuna in his career leading up to ōzeki and nine special prizes. He scored more than 20 double-digit winning records at the ōzeki rank. In 2016, he secured the most wins in the calendar year, the first wrestler to do so without winning a tournament in that year.
After being a runner-up in a tournament on twelve occasions, he broke through at the January 2017 tournament, winning his first top division championship or yūshō with a 14–1 record and subsequently was promoted to yokozuna, the first Japanese born wrestler to reach sumo's highest rank since Wakanohana in 1998. He had been a candidate four times previously (July 2013, January 2014, July 2016 and September 2016), but in each case he failed to achieve the necessary number of wins.
He was born in Ashiya, Hyōgo, but moved to Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki when he was two years old. In his second year of middle school he moved to neighbouring Ushiku but continued to attend school in Ryūgasaki. Though Hagiwara was a fan of watching sumo from a young age, he was on his schools' baseball teams as a pitcher in primary and junior high school. He eventually gave up when he realized he was only excelling because of his size. On a chance meeting with then head of Naruto stable, the former yokozuna Takanosato, the head of the stable convinced Hagiwara's initially skeptical parents that he was a great candidate for sumo. Hagiwara eventually joined the stable upon finishing junior high school. The stable was known for its strict environment and Naruto Oyakata would encourage him to always use forward-moving techniques in training to better prepare him for tournament situations, rather than go for a quick win by stepping backwards.
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