Aoiyama Kōsuke

Aoiyama Kōsuke
碧山 亘右

Aoiyama in the January 2012 tournament
Personal information
Born Daniel Ivanov
(1986-06-19) June 19, 1986
Elhovo, Bulgaria
Height 1.92 m (6 ft 3 1⁄2 in)
Weight 201 kg (443 lb; 31.7 st)
Career
Stable Tagonoura, Kasugano stable
Current rank see below
Debut May, 2009
Highest rank Sekiwake (Nov 2014)
Championships 1 (Makushita)
1 (Jonidan)
1 (Jonokuchi)
Special Prizes Fighting Spirit (1)
Gold Stars 1 (Harumafuji)
* Up to date as of Nov 27, 2016.

Aoiyama Kōsuke (碧山 亘右) (born June 19, 1986 as Daniel Ivanov, Bulgarian: Даниел Иванов, in Elhovo, Bulgaria) is a professional sumo wrestler or rikishi. He made his debut in 2009, reaching the top division two years later, debuting in the November 2011 tournament where he won the Fighting Spirit award along with Wakakōyū. His highest rank has been sekiwake.

Early life and sumo background

After wrestling for ten years and doing amateur sumo for three, he entered the professional sumo world at the introduction of fellow countryman, ōzeki Kotoōshū, becoming only the second Bulgarian rikishi. He joined Tagonoura stable, run by former maegashira Kushimaumi. When asked by his coach whether he preferred mountains or rivers, he chose mountains and so was given the ring name of Aoiyama, meaning "blue mountain".

Career

Aoiyama in his debut tournament

In his professional debut as Aoiyama Kiyohito in the September 2009 tournament, he won the jonokuchi championship with a perfect 7–0 record. He subsequently changed his name to Aoiyama Kōsuke for his jonidan debut in the following November tournament, which he also won with a 7–0 record followed by a playoff win against the sole Kazakhstani wrestler Kazafuzan. In the following January 2010 tournament at sandanme he would finally lose his first bout, having won all of his previous 16 matches. This would be his only loss though, and his 6–1 record was enough to propel him into the makushita division in the following March tournament. He would again post a perfect record and also take the 'makushita championship. His meteoric rise would slow starting with his next tournament however. He only managed two wins in his next makushita tournament. This was his first losing tournament. In contrast to his previous successes, he would struggle somewhat for several more tournaments at this level. He eventually had enough winning tournaments in upper makushita to allow his promotion into the professional jūryō ranks for the July 2011 tournament. He was promoted to the high rank of jūryō 4 due to the high number of vacancies left by wrestlers forced to retire due to involvement in match-fixing. At this high level he only managed a 7-8 record and moved down two ranks to jūryō 6 for the following September tournament. Suffering from a herniated disc, he was forced to sit out the first two days of the tournament, but managed to make a remarkable recovery and pulled out an impressive 10–3 record for his remaining bouts of the tournament. This record was enough to allow him promotion to the top makuuchi division, where he would post an impressive 11–4 record and receive a Fighting Spirit award for his efforts. He would, however, share this record with his rival, Wakakōyū having lost to him on the final day of the tournament.

In February 2012 Aoiyama's stablemaster died and Tagonoura stable was dissolved, with Aoiyama moving to the affiliated Kasugano stable. After an 8–7 score in the March tourney, he reached his highest rank to date of maegashira 6 in the May tournament, where he produced a fine 11–4 record. In the July tournament he faced all the top ranked wrestlers for the first time. Although he was 1–6 down after seven days, he recovered to clinch his kachi-koshi on the final day. In September he made his san'yaku debut at komusubi, which was just 18 tournaments after his professional debut, the seventh fastest since 1958.[1] However, he could only win four matches. He was forced to withdraw from the November 2012 tournament on Day 9 with a knee injury. He picked up his first kinboshi or gold star for defeating yokozuna Harumafuji in September 2013. He earned promotion to sekiwake with a strong 10–5 performance in September 2014 in which he went 4–3 against wrestlers ranked in the san'yaku. He then secured a winning record in the subsequent November tournament to remain at sekiwake for the start of 2015. A 5-10 record in January 2015 saw him lose his san'yaku status was followed by another ten losses in March, but he showed some return to form to post winning records in May and July. Between September 2015 and March 2016 he recorded four consecutive 7-8 records at the top end of the maegashira rankings before a 6-9 in May.

Fighting style

Aoiyama was a yotsu-sumo specialist who preferred grabbing the opponent's mawashi and grappling rather than pushing or thrusting. However, after gaining significant weight following his Makuuchi debut, he started to predominantly use pushing, thrusting and back-step pulling attacks as this has proven extremely effective due to his upper body strength. As of March 2015, 62% of his wins have come by mean of either hatakikomi, oshidashi and tsukidashi, all of which involved pushing and thrusting.[2]

Career record

Aoiyama Kōsuke[3]
Year in sumo January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo		 March
Haru basho, Osaka		 May
Natsu basho, Tokyo		 July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya		 September
Aki basho, Tokyo		 November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2009 x x x (Maezumo) West Jonokuchi #30
7–0
Champion
 		 East Jonidan #25
7–0–P
Champion
 
2010 East Sandanme #30
6–1
 		 East Makushita #48
7–0
Champion
 		 West Makushita #5
2–5
 		 West Makushita #15
4–3
 		 West Makushita #9
5–2
 		 East Makushita #3
3–4
 
2011 West Makushita #5
4–3
 		 East Makushita #1
Tournament Cancelled
0–0–0		 East Makushita #1
5–2
 		 West Jūryō #4
7–8
 		 East Jūryō #6
10–3–2
 		 East Maegashira #16
11–4
F
2012 West Maegashira #7
6–9
 		 West Maegashira #10
8–7
 		 West Maegashira #6
11–4
 		 East Maegashira #2
8–7
 		 East Komusubi #1
4–11
 		 East Maegashira #5
6–3–6
 
2013 West Maegashira #6
7–8
 		 East Maegashira #8
9–6
 		 East Maegashira #4
5–10
 		 East Maegashira #9
10–5
 		 West Maegashira #2
6–9
★		 East Maegashira #5
10–5
 
2014 East Maegashira #3
6–9
 		 West Maegashira #5
9–6
 		 East Maegashira #1
8–7
 		 West Komusubi #1
6–9
 		 East Maegashira #3
10–5
 		 East Sekiwake #1
8–7
 
2015 East Sekiwake #1
5–10
 		 West Maegashira #3
5–10
 		 West Maegashira #6
9–6
 		 West Maegashira #2
8–7
 		 East Maegashira #1
7–8
 		 East Maegashira #2
7–8
 
2016 West Maegashira #2
7–8
 		 East Maegashira #3
7–8
 		 East Maegashira #3
6–9
 		 East Maegashira #6
8–7
 		 East Maegashira #5
9–6
 		 West Maegashira #1
4–11
 
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions

Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi(s); P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi

Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2012 September Grand Sumo Tournament Banzuke Topics" (PDF). Japan Sumo Association. September 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  2. ↑ Sumo Kyokai, Nihon. "Aoiyama profile". Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Aoiyama Kosuke". Sumo Reference. Retrieved 2011-11-28.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aoiyama Kōsuke.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.