Mainoumi
| Mainoumi Shūhei | |
|---|---|
| 舞の海 秀平 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Shūhei Nagao February 17, 1968 Aomori, Japan |
| Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 98 kg (216 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Dewanoumi |
| Record | 385-418-27 |
| Debut | May, 1990 |
| Highest rank | Komusubi (September, 1994) |
| Retired | November, 1999 |
| Special Prizes | Technique (5) |
| * Up to date as of July 2007. | |
Mainoumi Shūhei (born 17 February 1968 as Shūhei Nagao) is a former sumo wrestler from Aomori, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. During the 1990s he was one of the most popular wrestlers in sumo due to his wide variety of techniques and great fighting spirit in battling opponents nearly twice his size.
Born in Ajigasawa, Mainoumi was an amateur sumo champion at Nihon University, where he studied economics. He originally wanted to be a teacher, but decided to join professional sumo in honour of a close friend who died before he could achieve his own ambition of being a sumo champion. Mainoumi initially failed the Sumo Association's physical entrance exam, because he was too short to meet their height requirement, which at that time was 173 cm. He got round this by persuading a doctor to inject silicone into his scalp, giving him the necessary couple of centimetres. To prevent any future hopefuls from having to go through this painful procedure, the Sumo Association changed its rules to allow special dispensation for amateur champions who do not meet the height requirements.
Mainoumi made his professional debut in May 1990 in the third makushita division and reached jūryō in March 1991. On his debut in the top makuuchi division in September 1991 he scored eight wins and was awarded the Ginō-shō or Technique Prize, the first of five he was to win during his career.
Mainoumi said his ambition in the top division was to reach a san'yaku rank at least once, and this he achieved in September 1994 when he was promoted to komusubi. In July 1996 he broke his leg when the 275 kg Konishiki fell on it, ironically in a bout which Mainoumi won. He was forced to sit out the rest of that tournament and all of the next, dropping to the jūryō division. He returned to the top division in May 1997 but since his injury he had lost some of his speed and he was finding it more difficult to hold his own. In March 1998 he fell back to jūryō once again, where he remained until his retirement from sumo in November 1999.
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