Takakeishō Takanobu

Takakeishō Takanobu (貴景勝 貴信) as Takanobu Satō (佐藤 貴信) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ashiya, Hyōgo.

He made his professional debut in September 2014, and reached the highest makuuchi division in January 2017 after 14 tournaments.

Because of his strong desire to join the professional ranks as quickly as possible, he participated in maezumo (preliminary sumo tryouts) in September 2014 while still a high school student, a very rare occurrence.

His coach, the former yokozuna Takanohana, made an arrangement with Sato's high school that he would continue to attend school when not participating in official tournaments.

Later news reports however stated that he had dropped out of high school.

Satō officially entered the sumo ring as a professional Rikishi in November 2014, and in his debut won the lowest division, or jonokuchi, championship with a perfect 7–0 record.

He added on another championship, again with a perfect 7–0 record in his next tournament in the next highest division jonidan.

In the following March tournament in Osaka, competing in the sandanme division, he finally lost his first bout on the third day, ending his successive win record at 15 bouts.

In the following May 2015 tournament, in the makushita division, he had a perfect 6–0 record up until his last bout, but he lost this one to the future Takaryū, who took the championship.

This happened again two tournaments later, where he chalked up another six wins in his first six bouts, only to lose to veteran Azumaryū.

This was still a good enough record to compete in an eight-man playoff.

He defeated two opponents to make it to the final round, but then lost the last round for the championship to future sekitori Chiyoshōma.

In the following November 2015 tournament after winning three bouts in a row, he lost his next four and got his first make-koshi or losing tournament.

He would bounce back two tournaments later, in March of the following year, winning all of his bouts and defeating former sekitori in his final bout to clinch his first makushita championship.

This was a decisive championship that would, in the next tournament, propel him into the salaried ranks of jūryō.

In his first jūryō tournament he became only the sixth wrestler in history, and the first ever in his teens to win eight consecutive bouts (a kachi-koshi) in his debut.

He however went on to lose four bouts and ended with an 11–4 record for that May 2016 tournament.

He spent the next few tournaments rising steadily up the ranks of jūryō recording only one make-koshi, his second up to that point.

This culminated in his fourth tournament in jūryō where he chalked up a 12–3 record in the ultra-competitive upper ranks of this division and earned his first championship as a salaried wrestler.

In January 2017, he was promoted to the top flight makuuchi division.

On this occasion he chose to adopt the ring name Takakeishō Mitsunobu.

The first character in his shikona surname comes from the first character in the shikona of his stablemaster, Takanohana, and the second two characters are taken from the given name of the Japanese historical figure, Kagekatsu Uesugi.

In Takakeishō's top division debut he only managed a 7–8 record.

However, he followed up with eleven wins against four losses in the March 2017 tournament and was awarded his first special prize, for Fighting Spirit.

He won his first championship in the top division in November 2018, four years after his debut.

Takakeishō wrestles for Tokiwayama stable, and his highest rank has been ōzeki, which he first reached in May 2019.

He has earned seven special prizes and three gold stars for defeating yokozuna.

He won his second championship in November 2020, his third one in January 2023, and his fourth one in September 2023.

Satō's given name of Takanobu was derived from the name of yokozuna Takanohana, who would eventually become his stablemaster.

Growing up in Ashiya, Hyōgo, Satō competed in full-contact karate in early primary school, and was runner up for the championship in a national competition.

However, his father was determined that his son would become a sumo wrestler, and in Satō's third year he began participating sumo at a local dojo.

After primary school, he entered Hotoku Gakuen Junior High School, known for its sumo program.

In his third year there he won a national championship and took the title of junior high school yokozuna, or grand champion.

Encouraged by his father to eat hamburgers and French fries, his weight increased from 30 kilos in the third grade to 80 kilos by sixth grade.

He then moved to eastern Japan and entered the private high school Saitama Sakae, which had an athletics course.

During his time at Saitama Sakae, Satō won two successive championships, the Kantō regional high school sumo tournament and the National Junior Sumo Tournament, wrestling in the free weight category.

In total Satō won 10 national titles in his high school years.

In his third year, he was also champion in the free weight category of the World Junior Sumo Tournament held in Taiwan.

Satō was quite eager to join the professional sumo world, so after high school, he decided to forego university in favour of competing in national sumo tournaments (which would have given him a chance to later gain makushita tsukedashi status) and quickly joined Takanohana stable.

Though it is common practice for wrestlers to take on a ring name upon entering this particular stable, he chose to use his real name.