Takayasu Akira

Takayasu Akira (髙安 晃) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler.

He made his professional debut in 2005 and reached the top makuuchi division in 2011, the first wrestler born in the Heisei era to do so.

His highest rank has been ōzeki.

He has been runner-up in a tournament seven times and has earned twelve special prizes: six for Fighting Spirit, four for Outstanding Performance and two for Technique.

His first tournament was in March, 2005.

He made steady progress through the lower divisions, with only a few losing record or make-koshi tournaments.

He won the yūshō or championship in the third makushita division in September, 2010 with a perfect 7–0 record.

This propelled him into jūryō division, where along with Masunoyama became one of the first two sekitori to be born in the Heisei era.

He decided against adopting a traditional shikona despite reaching the elite and has continued to use his birth name.

In his first jūryō tournament in November he almost pulled off a second consecutive championship, losing to Toyohibiki in a playoff after both finished with 11–4 records.

After two more strong performances at jūryō Takayasu was promoted to the top makuuchi division in July, 2011.

His debut record of 9–6 at maegashira 11 earned him a maegashira rank of no. 6 in the following tournament, then his highest, but he only managed a 6–9 record there.

After a 9–6 score in the November 2011 tournament he was promoted to a new high of maegashira 3.

He scored only 6–9 in the January 2012 tourney, but a 10–5 record in March saw him reach maegashira 1 in the May tournament.

Takayasu had his best result in the top division up to that point in the January 2013 tournament, finishing runner up on 12–3 and winning his first sanshō award for Fighting Spirit.

He had two gold star wins in 2013, in two different tournaments, both at maegashira 1, and both against Harumafuji.

The second win against Harumafuji also helped him procure his first Outstanding Performance prize, and his first promotion to the san'yaku ranks at komusubi. He only lasted one tournament at this rank however, and went into a bit of a slump before bouncing back with an 11–4 at the July 2014 tournament.

In the November 2014 tournament he scored against top-ranked competition, earning two gold stars for defeating Harumafuji and Hakuhō and receiving the Outstanding Performance prize.

This saw him promoted to komusubi once more at the beginning of 2015, but he once again fell short with a 6–9 record.

He had to withdraw from a tournament for the first time in his career in September 2015, but recovered with two winning records in the next two tournaments.

After a poor performance in March 2016, a 9–6 result in May saw him promoted to komusubi for the third time.

At Nagoya in July he produced his first winning record at a san'yaku rank with eleven wins, beating the ōzeki Kotoshōgiku, Goeido and Terunofuji and being awarded the Special Prize for Technique.

September saw him at sekiwake for the first time and he was in contention for the championship at 10–2 after twelve days, although he had a somewhat disappointing end to the tournament losing his last three bouts to maegashira ranked wrestlers.

However, he was awarded his third Fighting Spirit Prize.

His performance fueled speculation about a potential promotion to ōzeki but he failed to maintain his momentum in November, ending with a 7–8 record.

He has won five gold stars for defeating yokozuna. After achieving 34 wins in the three tournaments from January to May 2017, he was officially promoted to ōzeki on May 31, 2017.

He maintained the rank for a total of 15 tournaments.

Takayasu was born in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki to Eiji Takayasu and Bebelita Bernadas.

His father is from Ibaraki Prefecture and his mother is from the island of Bohol in the Philippines.

He has a brother, Hiroyuki, who is five years his senior.

His cousin is Satochi, former drummer of the rock band Mucc.

Takayasu was a catcher on his junior high school baseball team and expected to play for his high school club as well, but his father encouraged him to take up sumo, having noticed his physical resemblance to fellow Ibaraki native and sumo wrestler Kisenosato.

Through his father's recommendation he joined Kisenosato's Naruto stable (now Tagonoura stable) upon graduating from junior high school.

Takayasu ran away from the stable several times due to the severe training, but on each occasion his father persuaded him to return.

On his entry to Naruto stable, he was already 180 centimeters tall and weighed 120 kilograms, and consequently had much expectation pinned on him from the start.

Back at komusubi in January 2017 Takayasu produced one of his best efforts as he finished in a tie for third place and was awarded the special prize for Fighting Spirit.

His 11 wins included victories over yokozuna Kakuryū and Hakuhō and three of the four ōzeki (the fourth ōzeki was his stablemate Kisenosato).

In March 2017 Takayasu was back up to sekiwake at West "Sekiwake" #1.

Takayasu was able to win his first 10 days straight, the first time he had ever gone 10–0 to start a tournament which put him in contention for the cup.

On Day 11 and 12 Takayasu lost against yokozuna Kakuryū and Harumafuji, then on Day 13 lost against Yoshikaze.