Ōnoshō Fumiya

Ōnoshō Fumiya
阿武咲 奎也
Ōnoshō in 2018
Personal information
Born	Fumiya Utetsu (1996-07-04) July 4, 1996 (age 27) Nakadomari, Aomori Prefecture Japan
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	170 kg (370 lb; 27 st)
Career
Stable	Ōnomatsu
Current rank	see below
Debut	January, 2013
Highest rank	Komusubi (November, 2017)
Championships	1 (Jūryō)
Special Prizes	Fighting Spirit (3) Outstanding Performance (1)
Gold Stars	2 (Harumafuji, Hakuhō)
* Up to date as of 24 September 2023.

Ōnoshō Fumiya (阿武咲 奎也), born July 4, 1996, as Fumiya Utetsu (打越 奎也, Utetsu Fumiya) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Aomori Prefecture. He debuted in sumo wrestling in January 2013 and made his top makuuchi debut in May 2017. His highest rank has been komusubi, and he has won four special prizes for Fighting Spirit (3) and Outstanding Performance (1) as well as two gold stars for defeating a yokozuna while ranked as a maegashira. He wrestles for Ōnomatsu stable.

Background

Fumiya Utetsu was born in Nakadomari, a small town on the northern tip of Honshu. Growing up he enjoyed skiing and snowboarding.^[1] He became interested in sumo wrestling at the age of five after encouragement from his grandfather, and began to train at his local gym.^[2] When at Nakasato Elementary School, he was trained by Takarafuji, as both are from the same hometown, Takarafuji being in his second year at Goshogawara Commercial High School when Ōnoshō was in his first year of elementary school.^[3] When in elementary school, he also met Takakeishō and later confessed that he "hated him" but that they have since formed a friendship and a friendly rivalry.^[4][5] When in Nakasato Junior High School, he participated in the very first Hakuhō Cup in 2010,^[6] and his Aomori team won the team competition of that year.^[7] After that, he enrolled at Sanbongi Agricultural High School along Nishikifuji,^[8] and there he notably won the individual competition at the 2012 Gifu National Athletic Sumo Championships.^[2] While still an amateur, he and his team would visit the Kindai University sumo club, where Ōnoshō was thus trained by his senior Tokushōryū, among others.^[9] In November 2012, he decided to drop out and turned pro, sharing the same newcomer promotion as Ishiura and Abi.^[10][11] He joined Ōnomatsu stable and adopted the shikona, or ring name, Ōnoshō,^[2] in reference to his stable and including the kanji for "to bloom" (咲) reflecting the hopes of his master (former sekiwake Masurao).^[1]

Career

Early career

Ōnoshō made his professional debut at the age of sixteen in the Osaka tournament in March 2013. He quickly moved through the lower divisions and reached the third highest makushita division in November of the same year. Seven consecutive winning records (kachi-koshi) saw him promoted to the second division (jūryō) for the January 2015 tournament. This promotion makes Ōnoshō the 10th youngest juryō promoted since the Shōwa era.^[12] This promotion also makes Ōnoshō the 128th sekitori of Aomori Prefecture and the first since Homarefuji in 2012.^[13] Yokozuna Hakuhō also commented when referring to Ōnoshō that he was one of the most promising young talents in sumo at the time.^[12] Competing against more experienced opponents he however made relatively little impact in his first jūryō run but looked to be maintaining his place in the division before sustaining an injury in November 2015.^[14] A 5–10 record in March 2016 saw him relegated for the first time in his wrestling career. He rebounded by winning all seven of his bouts in makushita in May and was promoted back up to the second division despite losing in a play-off for the championship to Oyanagi.^[15] Over the next six tournaments, Ōnoshō worked his way up the ranks of jūryō and a 9–6 result in March 2017 clinched his promotion to sumo's top division (makuuchi) for the first time.^[16]

Makuuchi career

In his first tournament in the top division Ōnoshō was assigned the rank of maegashira 14. He recovered from an opening day defeat to Daishōmaru to record a 10–5 result, with his defeated opponents including other promising young wrestlers such as Hokutofuji, Ishiura and Kagayaki, as well as more experienced foes such as Kaisei and Myōgiryū.^[17] His efforts saw him being rewarded with the special prize for Fighting Spirit as well as promotion to maegashira 6 for the next tournament.^[18] In the following July tournament he was one of only two wrestlers to defeat the eventual runner-up Aoiyama,^[19] and he finished with another 10–5 record. In September 2017 at the rank of maegashira 3 he earned a kinboshi by defeating the eventual yūshō winner Harumafuji on his way to a second Fighting Spirit prize and a third 10–5 record. He thereby became the first rikishi since the 38th yokozuna Terukuni (and thus the first wrestler in the era of the six tournament system) to achieve double-digit records in each of his first three makuuchi tournaments.^[20] He was promoted to the san'yaku ranks at komusubi for the November 2017 tournament, becoming only the second wrestler ever from his stable after Wakakōyū in 2012 to achieve this feat.^[21] After losing six of his first seven bouts in November, he recovered in the second week of the tournament and secured his majority of wins on the final day.^[22] He withdrew from the January 2018 tournament on Day 10 with a posterior cruciate ligament injury to the right knee.^[23] The injury kept him out of the following tournament in March and saw him relegated to jūryō.^[24] In May, however, he returned to action and secured his promotion back to the top division as he won the jūryō title by defeating Tsurugishō and ending the tournament with a 12–3 record.^[11] In November of the same year, Ōnoshō ended the tournament with an 11–4 record and won his third Fighting Spirit prize after defeating Yutakayama, who was also competing for the prize and would have won it had he won the match.^[25] This performance saw him being promoted to east maegashira 6 for the next tournament in which he got an 8–7 score. He had an unremarkable 2019, not being able to mount a serious challenge for promotion back to san'yaku. In March 2020 he earned his second kinboshi by defeating Hakuhō for the first time. He finished the tournament with a 9–6 record and the Outstanding Performance prize.^[26]

Ōnoshō withdrew from the May 2022 tournament after fracturing his left rib in his Day 5 loss to Takakeishō.^[27] In the January 2023 tournament he led the field outright on Day 12 with ten wins and two losses.^[28] However he had a disappointing end to the tournament, losing his last three matches and missing out on the Fighting Spirit Prize on Day 15 after being disqualified for a hair-pull on Hōshōryū.^[29] In the March 2023 basho Ōnoshō withdrew on Day 9 following injuries to both of his knees two days earlier.^[30] During the rest of the year Ōnoshō achieved modest results, however, recording a poor score of 3–12 at the November tournament. This score logically relegated him to the lowest ranks of the makuuchi division.

In the first half of the January 2024 tournament, however, Ōnoshō recorded a good performance, keeping himself among the leading wrestlers for the title race.^[31] Ōnoshō, however, suffers two consecutive defeats at the hands of Ōzeki Kirishima and Yokozuna Terunofuji on Days 10 and 11 respectively, effectively removing him from the title race.^[32][33]

Fighting style

Ōnoshō has a preference for oshi techniques (pushing and thrusting) rather than grasping his opponent's mawashi or belt.^[1] His most common kimarite or winning move is oshidashi, the push-out.^[34] His style is regarded as aggressive, with him looking to move forward and finish the match as quickly as possible.^[35] However, since his 2018 injury layoff he has sought to add more variety to his technique.^[35]

Personal life

Ōnoshō is known for his love of music, he's also very fond of karaoke.^[4]

Career record

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers
• List of active gold star earners
• List of komusubi
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• Active special prize winners

References

External links

• Ōnoshō Fumiya's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage