Hanakaze Daisaku

Hanakaze Daisaku 華吹 大作
Hanakaze in 2019
Personal information
Born	Yamaguchi Daisaku (1970-05-28) May 28, 1970 (age 51) Adachi, Tokyo
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Weight	120 kg (265 lb)
Career
Stable	Tatsunami
Current rank	see below
Debut	March, 1986
Highest rank	Sandanme 18 (Nov, 2003)
* Up to date as of August 31, 2021.

Hanakaze Daisaku (Japanese: 華吹 大作, born 28 May 1970 as Daisaku Yamaguchi (山口 大作)) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tokyo. He made his debut in March, 1986 and wrestles for Tatsunami stable. Despite never rising higher than the fourth division (sandanme), he has set several records for longevity in the sport. As of March 2020 he has competed in 204 tournaments, and is the only remaining active wrestler who began his career in the Shōwa era, and is consequently the only wrestler to fight in the Shōwa, Heisei and Reiwa eras. He is also the only active wrestler in his 50s, and one of very few in sumo's long history who wrestled into his sixth decade.

Career[]

Daisaku Yamaguchi joined sumo out of junior high school, in the era of the yokozuna Futahaguro and Hokutoumi, one year before his future stablemaster, the 7th Tatsunami elder, former komusubi, Asahiyutaka.^[1]

In the beginning of his career, he had three losing tournaments in a row, missed his fourth tournament, and dropped off the banzuke by the end of 1986. He returned to active sumo in March 1987, exactly one year after his initial debut. In this tournament he became the first wrestler to win a match in the newly rebuilt Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium.^[2] Since this time he has not missed a single tournament in over 31 years, although he has occasionally missed matches within tournaments due to injury. It would be July 1987 before he would receive his first kachi-koshi (majority of wins) tournament. He got his first 6–1 record in November 1988, a feat he has achieved nine times in his career. He has never had an undefeated 7-0 tournament. Conversely, in tournaments he was active in, he has had a winless 0–7 tournament three times in his career. Two of those occasions were the first and last tournaments of the Heisei era (January 1989 and March 2019). His highest rank achieved is sandanme 18 in November 2003, which was incidentally one of his winless tournaments.^[2] He battled for thirteen years with the shikona of Tatsuyamaguchi before changing it to the current Hanakaze in July 1999.^[3] He has been promoted to the sandanme division a record 19 times.^[2] Restricted by injuries, in 2019 he briefly fell into the lowest jonokuchi division for the first time in 31 years.^[4]

Though Hanakaze has never reached the top, salaried ranks, he has a number of notable longevity records. Upon the retirement of in May 2011 he became the oldest active wrestler in sumo, and also simultaneously tied with for longest active career as they both joined sumo in March 1986. In 2016, both Hanakaze and Hokutōryū simultaneously became the longest serving sumo wrestlers ever, passing the largely uninterrupted, nearly 30-year career set by the legendary Miyagino Nishikinosuke (active 1766–1796, a contemporary of Tanikaze, historically accepted as the sport's first documented yokozuna). After Hokutōryū retired following the March 2017 tournament, Hanakaze solely holds the record for longest career ever in the centuries long history of sumo; a career spanning 33 years as of March 2019.^[5] He is also the only remaining active wrestler who began his career in the Shōwa era, which ended in January 1989.^[1] He reached another milestone in the following May tournament, when he passed already retired Ichinoya to become the oldest wrestler since the beginning of the Shōwa era, which began in 1926. If he continues fighting until 2023 he will become the oldest wrestler in sumo history,^[6] as Miyagino Nishikinosuke was 52 when he retired in 1796.^[4]

Other records he holds are most tournaments ever in the history of sumo (205 as of July 2020)^[4] and the record for most consecutive tournaments, beginning in March 1987 to now.^[3] As of July 2020 he has fought 1408 bouts, with 660 wins against 748 losses, plus 13 injury absences. As he has only fought seven matches per tournament, as opposed to sekitori ranked wrestlers who fight all 15 days, he does not hold any record for most bouts contested or most consecutive bouts. He has the sixth highest number of wins among active wrestlers.^[4]

Hanakaze turned 50 years of age in May 2020. By comparison, the mandatory retirement age for elders is 65.^[2] His stablemaster attributed his longevity to his "abundance of spiritual power and physical durability" and commented "the important duties in our communal kitchen make him irreplaceable".^[7] Having never reached the sekitori level, he is not eligible for any retirement benefits despite his many years in sumo. Former yokozuna Kitanofuji has reportedly said, "If you can’t climb any higher than the third division, you’re better off quitting and returning home to the countryside."^[7]

In July 2020 he fought the 42-year-old Tenichi for the first time since July 1996 – a gap between meetings of 24 years.^[6] The combined age of the two wrestlers was 92.^[6]

Fighting style[]

Hanakaze’s most common winning kimarite are uwatenage (overarm throw) hatakikomi (slap down) and yorikiri (force out).^[8]

Career record[]

See also[]

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References[]

External links[]

• Profile at Tatsunami stable