Kiribayama Tetsuo

Kirishima Tetsuo (霧島 鐵力), born April 24, 1996, as Byambachuluun Lkhagvasuren (Бямбачулуун Лхагвасүрэн) is a professional sumo wrestler from Mongolia.

He was the first new sekitori Michinoku stable had produced since Kirinowaka in January 2008.

He shared his promotion with another future san'yaku wrestler, Wakamotoharu.

During promotional interviews he spoke of his desire to fight with a black shimekomi, in order to evoke Yokozuna Harumafuji.

As part of his promotion, he also received a partnership with a jewellery brand that had already supported his master when he was active.

The brand offered him a keshō-mawashi representing a black parrot.

Kirishima moved through the jūryō division in just five tournaments.

The stable had not had a foreigner since Hakuba was forced to retire over match-fixing allegations in 2011.

In 2014, he was invited by an acquaintance along with four other Mongolians to Japan to try out sumo at Michinoku stable with no previous experience of the sport.

At that time, he was over 1.80m tall, but weighed less than 70 kg. Michinoku stablemaster, former ōzeki Kirishima, thought Lkhagvasuren was the best of the five, but was reluctant at first to take on a foreign recruit.

He made his debut in March 2015 under the name Kiribayama Tetsuo (霧馬山鐵雄), and reached the top makuuchi division in January 2020.

He wrestles for Michinoku stable.

His highest rank has been ōzeki.

He has won the makuuchi championship twice along with one runner-up performance and four special prizes in his career to date.

Upon his promotion to ōzeki in May 2023, Kirishima changed his ring name from Kiribayama, adopting the ring name of his stablemaster Michinoku (former ōzeki Kirishima).

Lkhagvasuren was born into a nomadic community in Dornod Province, near the border between China and Russia.

His name is a reference to his grandfather, Yatamsuren, who was a renowned bökh wrestler.

His father was in charge of a vast herd of sheep, and from a young age, Lkhagvasuren rode horses to help his father at work, which strengthened his legs and waist – an advantage for sumo.

He eventually moved to Ulaanbaatar and began practicing judo and bökh in a club, where he was joined later by future Ōzeki Hōshōryū.

He eventually relented after Lkhagvasuren committed to staying in Japan, and let him take the new recruits examination in February 2015.

As he entered his stable, his slight stature drew a comment from a wakaimonogashira in his stable, who commented that he would be too thin to hold his own in sumo.

Lkhagvasuren received the shikona, or ring name, Kiribayama (霧馬山) to evoke his master, with the kanji 霧 derived from his former wrestling name, Kirishima (霧島), his nomadic past with the kanji 馬, for 'horse', and finally the kanji 山 to evoke Yokozuna Futabayama, a great wrestler who belonged to the same ichimon, or clan, as his stable.

He officially began his career in May 2015.

At the time, he was in the same class as Homarenishiki, the first Canadian sumo wrestler (Rikishi) in 30 years.

During the first years of his stable life, he had difficulty adapting, mastering very little of the language and mentioning his lack of sleep when his stablemates snored too loudly in the stable dormitory.

During his debut in maezumō, he faced (then called Hamamachi), a former vice-captain of Nippon Sport Science University sumo club, with whom he also shared the same debut promotion.

Hamamachi handed him his only defeat in four matches to determine his future position in the jonokuchi division.

In his first match in this division, he lost again to Hamamachi, who won the tournament that year, but finished with a score of 5–2, securing promotion to the next division.

In jonidan, he was among the wrestlers competing for the championship (yūshō), but was nevertheless beaten by Sakae, who then lost in the playoff to Hamamachi, during the last day of competition.

however, his 6–1 score allowed him to enter sumo's third division, sandanme, for the November 2015 tournament.

There, he won the tournament with a perfect score of 7–0.

Logically promoted to the makushita division for the January 2016 tournament, he nevertheless suffered the first negative record (make-koshi) of his career and was demoted back to the sandanme division.

Despite being promoted back to makushita for the Nagoya tournament, he suffered a left knee ligaments injury during a practice session and had to withdraw from the tournament (kyūjō), only to be demoted back to the lower division.

Following this injury, Kiribayama gradually changed his fighting style, moving from an overuse of throwing techniques and back-dropping techniques to a style based more on forward momentum.

At the time of his injury, he was also suffering from severe homesickness, but thanks to his master's efforts he hung on, motivated in particular by the prospect of returning to his homeland for a visit in the event of promotion to jūryō.

In November 2017, he was competing for the makushita division championship but failed after being defeated by former jūryō wrestler on the final day.

However, he bounced back the following year by winning the championship at the May tournament, despite injuring his elbow during a training session.

In March 2019, Kiribayama was finally promoted to the jūryō division after a 4–3 record at Makushita 1.

It took him four years in total to reach the sekitori ranks from his professional debut.

His fellow Mongolian, Yokozuna Kakuryū, became his stablemate in October 2019 when Izutsu stable closed.