Hakuōhō Tetsuya

Hakuōhō Tetsuya (伯桜鵬 哲也) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kurayoshi, Tottori.

After a successful amateur career, he turned professional in January 2023, via makushita tsukedashi system, winning that division's championship and being promoted to sumo's top division in July 2023.

Nicknamed "Reiwa monster" thanks to his record-breaking promotions, his highest rank has been maegashira 9.

He wrestles for Miyagino stable, whose oyakata is former yokozuna Hakuhō.

As a kid, Ochiai played football from the first grade to the fourth grade.

Because of his physique and poor playing habits, he was nevertheless advised to quit the sport.

While in second grade at Seitoku Elementary School in Kurayoshi, the same school as former yokozuna Kotozakura, he took part in the "Sakura-zumo" children's tournament and decided to take up the sport when he won the individual competition as a fourth grader.

It was only during that time he began to wrestle regularly.

He entered Tottori Nishi Junior High School, the sister school of Tottori Jōhoku High School, but had to hang in there, calling his father at the end of his first sumo training session to throw in the towel, the rigors of training being too much for him.

Encouraged by Ichinojō, who was Jōhoku High's club captain, he nevertheless kept at it and during the junior high school national championships in his second year, he defeated the reigning champion, citing this moment as the one that made him love sumo.

In ninth grade, he won the Hakuhō Cup junior high school tournament.

However, it was also during these years that he injured his shoulder, a condition that has not yet fully healed.

He then entered Tottori Jōhoku High School and won the title of high school yokozuna in his second and third year of high school competition; in his third year, he was in the top eight at the All-Japan Championships and thus was eligible for sandanme tsukedashi.

After graduating from high school, he focused on healing his shoulder injury and worked at his father's metalwork machinery company Noda Gumi in Tottori.

By virtue of winning the All Japan Corporate Sumo Championship in September 2022 (and thus being named Corporate Yokozuna) he was eligible to enter professional sumo as makushita tsukedashi.

It marked the first time since 1949 that the jūryō championship was decided in a playoff between two wrestlers with 14–1 records.

After the May 2023 tournament it was announced that Ochiai received the shikona, or ring name, Hakuōhō (伯桜鵬) from his stablemaster.

The ring name is a combination of "Haku" (伯), referring to the province of Hōki (伯耆国) which became Tottori Prefecture, "Ō" (桜) from "Sakura-zumo" (桜ずもう), a sumo tournament in Kurayoshi in which he participated when he was a schoolboy and finally "Hō" (鵬) to refer to Ochiai's master, Hakuhō.

On 26 June 2023, Hakuōhō's name appeared on the July 2023 sumo tournament rankings at the position of west maegashira 17, ushering his entry into sumo's top division in just his fourth professional tournament.

At the invitation of Miyagino oyakata (the 69th yokozuna Hakuhō), Ochiai joined the Miyagino stable.

He made his professional debut in January 2023 at the rank of makushita 15 to reflect his amateur success (makushita tsukedashi).

He won the makushita title with an undefeated record of seven wins and was subsequently promoted to the jūryō division for March, becoming the first wrestler to earn a jūryō promotion after just one tournament in 90 years.

Since the abolition of the makushita tsukedachi system for promotion to the top of the makushita division in September 2023, Ochiai is likely to be the last wrestler to be promoted to the jūryō division in just one tournament in sumo's modern history.

Given Ochiai's quick rise to the second-highest division, Miyagino confessed he hadn't had the time to think of a shikona for his apprentice.

Thanks to his record-breaking promotion, Ochiai began to be nicknamed Reiwa no kaibutsu (令和の怪物), meaning 'Reiwa monster', in reference to ōzeki Musōyama who was nicknamed 'Heisei monster' after he too was promoted to jūryō after being undefeated as a makushita.

Ochiai experienced his first defeat in professional sumo on day 2 of the Osaka tournament (in March 2023) against the other newly promoted jūryō, Tamashōhō.

On the 6th day of the same tournament, he announced that he had made the unusual decision to become the of makuuchi wrestler Hokuseihō because he wanted to experience this role himself and considered it a learning experience.

He finished the March 2023 tournament with 10–5 record.

Ochiai was promoted to jūryō 8 in the May 2023 tournament.

He finished the tournament with 14 wins along with Gōnoyama, who defeated Ochiai on Day 11.

Hakuōhō is the sixth-youngest wrestler since 1990 to reach the top division, doing so at the age of 19 years and 10 months, as well as the second wrestler since the Shōwa era to reach makuuchi in three tournaments since their debut (the other being Endō).

The two wrestlers were thus competing for the jūryō championship and Ochiai would have been the first wrestler under the age of 20 to win the title since his master Hakuhō's victory at the 2004 tournament.

Ochiai was however beaten again by Gōnoyama in the jūryō championship playoff.

Upon his promotion, Hakuōhō told reporters that his goal for his first top division tournament was 12 wins and the Shukun-shō (Outstanding Performance prize), which his stablemaster Miyagino achieved in his first makuuchi appearance in May 2004.

Hakuōhō said that he hadn't gotten used to his new name yet, but said that it felt fresh.

He said he was satisfied with his performances in his first three tournaments, but that from now on it would not be so easy.

Hakuōhō began his tournament with a win over Aoiyama, and went on to win the majority of his matches although he also lost to former san'yaku Takarafuji (on Day 3) and Ryūden (Day 5).

On Day 6, he overcame Gōnoyama, who had beaten him twice for the jūryō division title in the previous tournament; defeating him by hatakikomi and bringing his 5-match winning streak to a halt.

In September 2023, Hakuōhō revealed to the press that during the tournament his shoulder would dislocate after days of fighting, having dislocated a total of three times during the duration of the tournament.

Wishing to continue to wrestle to satisfy the expectations of those around him and the public, Hakuōhō reached a positive kachi-koshi record on Day 11, with a victory over the former ōzeki Takayasu.