Takanoiwa
| Takanoiwa Yoshimori | |
|---|---|
| 貴ノ岩 義司 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Adiya Baasandorj February 26, 1990 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia |
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 148 kg (326 lb) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Takanohana |
| Current rank | see below |
| Debut | November, 2008 |
| Highest rank | Maegashira 2 (Mar 2017) |
| Championships | 1 (Jūryō) 1 (Sandanme) |
| Special Prizes | Fighting spirit (1) Outstanding Performance (1) |
| Gold Stars | 1 (Hakuho) |
| * Up to date as of August 28, 2017. | |
Takanoiwa Yoshimori (born 26 February 1990 as Adiya Baasandorj) is a sumo wrestler from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He made his professional debut in November 2008. He has both a sandanme and a jūryō division championship. He reached the jūryō division in July 2012 and the top makuuchi division for the first time in January 2014. He is the first wrestler recruited by former yokozuna Takanohana to reach the elite sekitori ranks. He has been runner-up in one top division tournament and earned two special prizes, one for Fighting Spirit and one for Outstanding Performance. His highest rank is maegashira 2.
Baasandorj passed a selective test administered by a Japanese coach from Johoku High School in Shimane prefecture, who had come to Mongolia looking for sumo prospects. He was then invited to come to Japan as an exchange student on a sumo program at the age of sixteen. Only three months after coming to Japan, his father died of liver disease in Mongolia. He had already lost his mother to heart disease when he was eight years old. Through this adversity, he still managed to excel, and in 2007 made the best four in the individual category at a national junior sumo competition and in 2008 finished second in the middle-weight category at the World Junior Sumo Championships held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In November 2008 he joined Takanohana stable, run by former yokozuna Takanohana who he had idolized since a young age. The ring name he would choose is purported to have come from a chance meeting with singer and author Akihiro Miwa in Haneda airport, as he was being accompanied by Takanohana from Shimane prefecture to his new stable. Upon meeting him, Miwa described him a "like a rock" (岩 iwa). This left an impression on him and that very evening he consulted with his stablemaster and together they conceived of the ring name of Takanoiwa (noble rock), the taka (貴) coming from his stablemaster's ring name (as is the custom at the stable).
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