Tamarikidō

Tamarikidō Hideki
玉力道 栄来
Tamarikido appearing for the last bout of his career in January 2010
Personal information
Born	Hideki Yasumoto (1974-04-19) April 19, 1974 (age 43) Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	138 kg (304 lb)
Career
Stable	Kataonami
Record	375-354-120
Debut	March, 1997
Highest rank	Maegashira 8 (May, 2003)
Retired	January 2010
Championships	1 (Jūryō) 1 (Sandanme)
* Up to date as of January 2010.

Tamarikidō Hideki (born April 19, 1974) is a former sumo wrestler born in Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan. Though born in Japan, he is a Zainichi Korean. His highest rank was maegashira 8. A former amateur champion, he turned professional in 1997, reaching the top makuuchi division in 2001. He had many injury problems throughout his career, missing over 100 matches, and last fought in makuuchi in 2003. He announced his retirement in January 2010.

He was a teammate of Takanohana at the Meidai Nakano High School's sumo club. He was also a former amateur sumo champion at Meiji University, and was considered extremely promising. He came third in the All Japan Sumo Championships. He made his professional debut in March 1997 at the bottom of the third makushita division. He was a runner-up in his first tournament but had a few setbacks before finally reaching the second highest jūryō division in September 1999.

Tamarikidō made his debut in the top makuuchi division in January 2001. He has spent eleven tournaments in the top division in total, the last in November 2003 when he had to withdraw after winning only two bouts. 2004 was a disastrous year for him as a knee injury in May meant he missed nearly all his matches and fell to the fourth sandanme division. It was subsequently discovered that due to the lack of treatment of earlier injuries, his anterior cruciate ligament was completely worn away. He began his comeback in 2005, winning the sandanme division championship in March of that year.

He eventually managed to return to the jūryō division in March 2006, and having fallen to sandanme 80, he was the lowest ranking former top division wrestler ever to regain sekitori status. He had climbed as high as jūryō 4 by the November 2006 tournament. However, he was demoted back to the unsalaried ranks after the September 2007 tournament when he managed only a 3-12 score at jūryō 12. He continued to slide down the rankings, with four consecutive make-koshi scores of 3-4 from November 2007 to May 2008. After recording only one win in November 2008 he was demoted back to the sandanme division for the January 2009 tournament. He made an immediate return to the third division with a 6-1 score.