Higonoumi Naoya
Encyclopedia
Higonoumi Naoya is a former sumo
Sumo
is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

 wrestler from Kumamoto
Kumamoto, Kumamoto
is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Greater Kumamoto has a population of 1,460,000, as of the 2000 census...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. After his retirement he opened up Kise stable
Kise stable
Kise stable was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon or group of stables. It established in December 2003 by former maegashira Higonoumi, who branched off from Mihogaseki stable. The stable's first top division wrestler was Ichihara , a former amateur champion, in January 2008...

.

Career

A former amateur champion at Nihon University
Nihon University
Nihon University is the largest university in Japan. Akiyoshi Yamada, the minister of justice, founded Nihon Law School in October 1889....

, he turned professional in 1992, joining Mihogaseki stable
Mihogaseki stable
The is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon or group of stables. Its current head coach, former ozeki Masuiyama Daishiro II took charge in November 1984. He is the son of the previous head, also an ozeki under the name Masuiyama, making it one of only three current stables...

 and making his debut in the makushita division as a makushita tsukedashi entrant. Initially fighting under the shikona
Shikona
A shikona is a sumo wrestler's ring name.As with standard Japanese names, a shikona consists of a 'surname' and a 'given' name, and the full name is written surname first. However, the given name is rarely used outside formal or ceremonial occasions. Thus, the former yokozuna Asashōryū Akinori is...

 of Sakamotoyama, he lost only two bouts in his first three tournaments, reaching the jūryō division in July 1992 and the top makuuchi
Makuuchi
or is the top division of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers , ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments....

 division in February 1993. He was ranked in the top division for 53 consecutive tournaments, every one as a maegashira - a record until it was surpassed by Kyokushuzan. He earned two kinboshi
Kinboshi
Kinboshi is a notation used in professional sumo wrestling to record a lower-ranked wrestler's victory over a yokozuna....

 for defeating yokozuna - Akebono
Akebono Taro
is a retired American born-Japanese sumo wrestler from Waimānalo, Hawaii. Joining the professional sport in Japan in 1988, he was trained by pioneering Hawaiian sumo wrestler Takamiyama and rose swiftly up the rankings, reaching the top division in 1990...

 in May 1995 and Takanohana
Takanohana Koji
is a former sumo wrestler from Suginami, Tokyo, Japan. He was the 65th man in history to reach sumo's highest rank of yokozuna, and he won 22 tournament championships between 1992 and 2001, the fifth highest total ever...

 in March 1999. He fell back to the jūryō division at the end of 2001 and retired a year later in November 2002 at the age of 33.

Retirement from sumo

He remained in sumo as a coach under the elder
Toshiyori
A toshiyori is a sumo elder of the Japan Sumo Association. Also known as oyakata, former wrestlers who reached a sufficiently high rank are the only people eligible...

 name of Kise, and opened up his own training stable
Heya
In sumo wrestling, a heya , usually translated into English as stable, is an organization of sumo wrestlers where they train and live. All wrestlers in professional sumo must belong to one. There are currently 49 heya , all but four of which belong to one of five ichimon...

, Kise-beya
Kise stable
Kise stable was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon or group of stables. It established in December 2003 by former maegashira Higonoumi, who branched off from Mihogaseki stable. The stable's first top division wrestler was Ichihara , a former amateur champion, in January 2008...

, in December 2003. He produced the top division wrestlers Ichihara
Ichihara Takayuki
Kiyoseumi Takayuki is a former sumo wrestler from Nagoya, Japan. An extremely successful amateur, his highest rank in the professional sport was maegashira 13...

 (now Kiyoseumi) in 2008 and Gagamaru in 2010. In May 2010 Kise was demoted two ranks by the Sumo Association after he was found to have made arrangements for the distribution of tickets to the previous July's Nagoya tournament
Honbasho
A is an official professional sumo tournament. There are six held each year, a system established in 1958. Only honbasho results matter in determining promotion and relegation for rikishi ....

 that ended up in the hands of around 50 high-profile yazuka affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi
Yamaguchi-gumi
is Japan's largest and most infamous yakuza organization. It is named after its founder Harukichi Yamaguchi. Its origins can be traced back to a loose labor union for dockworkers in Kobe pre-WWII....

 crime syndicate. As a result, Kise stable closed down and Kise and all his wrestlers moved to Kitanoumi stable
Kitanoumi stable
is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon or group of stables. It was set up in 1985 by former yokozuna Kitanoumi, who branched off from Mihogaseki stable. It absorbed Hatachiyama stable in 2006, following the death of its head coach, former ozeki Hokuten'yū...

, where he now works as an assistant coach. He has admitted that until around 2007 he had ties with a yazuka member.

Fighting style

Higonoumi's most common winning kimarite
Kimarite
Kimarite are winning techniques in a sumo bout. For each bout in a Grand Sumo tournament , a sumo referee, or gyoji, will decide and announce the type of kimarite used by the winner...

or techniques were basic and straightforward ones: yorikiri, a force out, and oshidashi, push out. He also regularly used hatakikomi (slap down), okuridashi (push out from behind), tsukiotoshi (thrust over) and uwatedashinage (pulling overarm throw).

Top division record


















































































External links

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