Enhō Yūya

Enhō Yūya (炎鵬 友哉) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ishikawa Prefecture.

In his third year there he took the gold medal in the 2012 World Junior Sumo Championships in the lightweight division.

He continued to Kanazawa Gakuin University and majored in sports medicine.

In his first year, he was the champion of the West Japan New Student Athlete Sumo Tournament, and in his second and third years he won the World Amateur Sumo Championship two years in a row.

In all, he acquired ten titles.

Seriously interested in joining pro sumo, Nakamura was interviewed at a number of stables before graduating, and upon finishing university, he joined Miyagino stable.

Nakamura became an attendant and apprentice to yokozuna Hakuhō.

Hakuhō chose the shikona Enhō for him, with "en" meaning fiery and "hō" meaning the Chinese mythological bird Peng, which is also the hō in the yokozuna's own name.

He made his debut in March 2017 and wrestles for Miyagino stable.

His highest rank has been maegashira 4.

He is shorter and weighs significantly less than the vast majority of sumo wrestlers in the upper ranks, but has learned to use his small stature and size for maximum advantage, becoming known for toppling larger opponents.

He has achieved one special prize for Technique.

Yūya Nakamura's father supported the family by working at a newspaper.

Nakamura first started practicing sumo at the age of five, due to the influence of his older brother.

In primary school he also was goal keeper for a school water polo team.

At the area middle school, he was in the sumo club with the future Kagayaki.

In his 3rd year, the team that he and future Kagayaki were members of took the team championship in the middle school prefectural tournament.

Nakamura went on to Kanazawa Gakuin, a high school in his city.

He participated in maezumō in the March 2017 tournament alongside future Wakatakakage.

In the ceremony to debut new recruits on day 5, he wore the ceremonial apron, or kesho-mawashi, that his mentor Hakuhō was to start using from that day.

However, Hakuhō ended up taking injury leave from the tournament on that same day.

Enhō's first pro tournament was the following May, starting at the bottom in the jonokuchi division.

He was undefeated at 7–0 and took the championship.

After this tournament he changed his second name in his full shikona title from his real name Yūya, to the name Akira.

The name Akira honored his mentor at his dojo, named Akira, who died in a motorcycle accident nine years previously.

In the following July tournament, he again had a perfect 7–0 record, and after a playoff took the championship.

In the playoff, he beat former makuuchi wrestler Masunoyama who was in his first full tournament back in sumo, after a series of injury leaves.

The win against Masunoyama was shitatenage which would become Enho's signature move.

For the following September tournament, Enhō was promoted to the sandanme division and once again took a perfect 7–0, this time winning a playoff versus Matsuda.

For the November tournament he was promoted to the makushita division.

In this tournament Enhō was approaching an all-time record for consecutive wins from entry into sumo.

However, in his first bout he lost to former komusubi Jōkōryū who himself holds the record for most consecutive wins upon entering sumo.

Enhō ended the tournament with a 5–2 record.

In the following January tournament, he was ranked at makushita 6 and achieved a 4–3 winning tournament.

In most cases, at his rank with this record he would not have been promoted to the next division, the salaried ranks of jūryō. However, several jūryō wrestlers had records bad enough to be demoted from the division, and Enhō was promoted to fill one of the many open slots there.

Not including makushita tsukedashi wrestlers, who are allowed to debut at a higher rank, this promotion meant Enhō tied the record for the fastest ever wrestler promoted to sekitori at six tournaments from his professional debut.

For this March 2018 tournament, Enhō was ranked at the bottom rung, at jūryō 14.

As is often the case for a first timer in the salaried ranks, the wall was too high and he only managed a losing tournament record of 4–11 and was demoted back to makushita.

After two strong performances of 5–2 in the upper ranks of makushita, Enhō was re-promoted to jūryō for the September tournament.

In this tournament and the next two, he recorded three straight 9-6 records.