Wakakōyū Masaya
| Wakakōyū Masaya | |
|---|---|
| 若荒雄 匡也 | |
 |
|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Masaya Yakigaya February 24, 1984 Funabashi, Chiba, Japan |
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10 1⁄2 in) |
| Weight | 166 kg (366 lb; 26.1 st) |
| Career | |
| Stable | Ōnomatsu |
| Record | 466-444-31 |
| Debut | March, 1999 |
| Highest rank | Komusubi (Jan, 2012) |
| Retired | September, 2014 |
| Championships | 1 (Sandanme) |
| Special Prizes | Fighting Spirit (1) |
| * Up to date as of Feb 1, 2015. | |
Wakakōyū Masaya (born 24 February 1984 as Masaya Yakigaya) is a former professional sumo wrestler from Funabashi, Japan. His highest rank was komusubi. The last two characters of his ring name were taken from his mentor and coach at Ōnomatsu, the former Masurao. He was only the second wrestler from his stable to reach the top division. He was runner-up in one tournament and earned one special prize, for Fighting Spirit. He is now a sumo coach.
Two years after his birth in Funabashi, his father was killed in a car accident and he was subsequently raised alone by his mother. Ōnomatsu being very near the home of one of his relatives, he began visiting the stable from a young age. This eventually led to him entering the stable in 1999.
Fighting under his own surname of Yakigaya, he rose steadily through the ranks until reaching sandanme where he started to struggle. He managed to reach makushita in September 2002 but was demoted back to sandanme after one tournament. In 2003, he missed two tournaments, but upon returning earned two impressive records topped off with a perfect 7-0 record to win the sandanme championship in the last tournament of that year.He fought for four years in the makushita ranks with occasional temporary demotions to sandanme before finally achieving a record that enabled his promotion to the second division, jūryō, in January, 2008. To mark his arrival in the elite sekitori ranks he changed his shikona to Wakakōyū.
After a year and half in jūryō with two demotions to makushita he managed a 9-6 record at the jūryō 2 rank and was promoted to the bottom of the makuuchi division in July, 2009. He only managed a 4-11 record and fell back to jūryō. After a one off 6-9 record this tournament, he took in a string of winning records over the next several tournaments to again reach the top division makuuchi in May, 2010. This time he proved himself with a 10-5 record that would have allowed him to fight in the next tournament at a career high maegashira 8. However, at this time, he admitted to having been involved in baseball gambling along with a number of other higher ranked wrestlers and was forced to sit out the tournament and was demoted back to jūryō having never fought at his (then) highest achieved rank.
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