Masunoyama
| Masunoyama Tomoharu | |
|---|---|
| 舛ノ山 大晴 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Tomoharu Kato 1 November 1990 Iloilo City, Philippines |
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 176 kg (388 lb; 27.7 st) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Chiganoura |
| Current rank | see below |
| Debut | July, 2006 |
| Highest rank | Maegashira #4 (Nov, 2012) |
| Championships | 1 (Sandanme) 1 (Jonokuchi) |
| Special Prizes | Fighting Spirit (1) |
| * Up to date as of Mar 24, 2017. | |
Masunoyama Tomoharu (舛ノ山 大晴?, born November 1, 1990 in Iloilo City, Philippines) is a sumo wrestler from Sakae, Chiba, Japan. He turned professional in July 2006 and was the first wrestler born in the Heisei era to become a sekitori when he was promoted to the jūryō division in November 2010, alongside Takayasu. He reached the top makuuchi division in September 2011. He was injured in his top division debut and fell back to jūryō, but he returned in July 2012 and scored eleven wins, winning the Fighting Spirit Award. A serious knee injury sustained in 2015 has meant he has fallen greatly in rank.
He was born in the Philippines to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother. His family moved to Japan when he was about one month old. His parents had always been fans of sumo and from a very young age he had aspired to be a sumo wrestler. He was a member of the sumo club at his primary school, and when his junior high school did not have a sumo club he decided to attend practice at an area high school and other locations so he could continue doing sumo. He participated and did very well in children's sumo and also in national amateur sumo tournaments. However, in his third year of junior high school his parents divorced and he moved back with his mother to her native Philippines. He graduated from junior high school there and in May 2006 returned to Japan. Still interested in sumo, he decided to join Chiganoura stable.
He first stepped on the pro sumo dohyō in July 2006. Being a diligent trainer, and managing to avoid injury, he rose through the ranks and in a little over a year and half achieved his first championship at the rank of sandanme 46 with a 7-0 perfect record. It would take him another two and half years of mostly winning records to reach the second division jūryō in November 2010. He entered jūryō at the same time as Takayasu. Both had the distinction of being half Filipino as well as simultaneously being the first two wrestlers to enter jūryō that were born in the Heisei Era.
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