Mitoizumi
| Mitoizumi Masayuki | |
|---|---|
| 水戸泉 眞幸 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Masato Koizumi September 2, 1962 Mito, Ibaraki |
| Height | 1.94 m (6 ft 4 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 183 kg (403 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Takasago |
| Record | 807-766-162 |
| Debut | March, 1978 |
| Highest rank | Sekiwake (September, 1986) |
| Retired | September, 2000 |
| Championships | 1 (Makuuchi) 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita) |
| Special Prizes | Outstanding Performance (1) Fighting Spirit (6) |
| * Up to date as of August 2007. | |
Mitoizumi Masayuki (born 2 September 1962 as Masato Koizumi) is a former sumo wrestler from Mito, Ibaraki, Japan. His professional career spanned 22 years, from 1978 until 2000. The highest rank he reached was sekiwake. He won over 800 career bouts and took the yūshō or championship in the top makuuchi division in 1992. Mitoizumi was nicknamed the "Salt Shaker", due to his habit of throwing enormous quantities of purifying salt onto the ring (dohyō) during the pre-match preliminaries. He is now a coach, and is known as Nishikido-oyakata.
Mitoizumi was discovered by Takamiyama, a famous Hawaiian born sumo wrestler, who met the 16-year-old and his brother at a department store where Takamiyama was making a personal appearance. He was persuaded to join Takasago stable and made his professional debut in March 1978. Initially fighting under his own surname of Koizumi, he switched to the shikona of Mitoizumi (reference to his birthplace) in 1981. He was troubled early in his career by illness and in 1982 he seriously injured his knee and was hospitalised for four months, causing him to miss tournaments and plunge down the rankings. This was just one of many injuries he would have to battle with over the course of his long career.
He made the breakthrough to the salaried sekitori ranks in May 1984 when he reached the jūryō division, in the same tournament in which Takamiyama announced his retirement. Mitoizumi was promoted to the top makuuchi division just two tournaments later in September 1984. However, he was to suffer more misfortune. Just before the May 1985 tournament he was involved in a motor accident, receiving cuts to his face; and was forced to sit out part of the tournament. After the next tournament, he was demoted back to jūryō. In September 1986, after he had managed to return to the top division and reach a new highest rank of sekiwake, he injured his knee again in a bout with ōzeki Ōnokuni and returned to the second division once more. It took him until January 1988 to fight his way back to the top division, but this time he was to remain there for the next eleven years.
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