土佐ノ海 敏生 Tosanoumi Toshio
Personal information
Born	Toshio Yamamoto (1972-02-16)February 16, 1972 (age 53) Kōchi, Japan
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	160 kg (353 lb; 25 st 3 lb)
Career
Stable	Isenoumi
University	Doshisha University
Record	732–735–16
Debut	March 1994
Highest rank	Sekiwake (May 1997)
Retired	January, 2011
Elder name	Tatekawa
Championships	2 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita)
Special Prizes	Outstanding Performance (7) Fighting Spirit (5) Technique (1)
Gold Stars	11 Takanohana II (4) Akebono (3) Wakanohana III (3) Musashimaru
* Up to date as of August 2012.

Tosanoumi Toshio (born February 16, 1972, asToshio Yamamoto inAki City,Kōchi Prefecture,Japan), is a formersumo wrestler. He first reached the top division of professional sumo in 1995, winning 13 special prizes and earning 11kinboshi or gold stars for defeatingyokozuna over his long career. The highest rank he reached wassekiwake. He retired in 2010 to become a coach at his stable,Isenoumi stable under the name of Tatekawa.

After success in amateur sumo competitions while atDoshisha University, where he was a two-time winner of the All Western Japan Sumo Championships in 1992 and 1993, Yamamoto was recruited by formersekiwakeFujinokawa and joinedIsenoumi stable. He was given theshikona of Tosanoumi, meaning "sea ofTosa", from his native Kōchi Prefecture. Because of his amateur achievements he hadmakushita tsukedashi status and entered professional sumo in the third,makushita division in March 1994. He enteredjūryō four tournaments later. Another four tournaments later he was promoted to the highest,makuuchi division. Because he had won theyūshō or tournament championship with a 14–1 record from the rank ofjūryō 1, he entered atmaegashira 7, the second highest top division debut rank afterDaiju in 1970. For his firstmakuuchi bouts he was drawn against some tough opponents; firstōzekiWakanohana, followed byyokozunaTakanohana the second day. He lost both bouts, and would finish the tournament 7–8.

Recovering from this, his first evermake-koshi, Tosanoumi continued to rise through the ranks, reachingkomusubi in January 1996 andsekiwake in May 1997. His best result in a tournament came in November 1998, when he finished as runner-up toKotonishiki with 12 wins. Although he never rose higher thansekiwake, he held the rank for seven tournaments in total, the last being in May 2005. He was also ranked atkomusubi on thirteen occasions, for a total of twenty tournaments in thesan'yaku ranks. He remained inmakuuchi continuously from July 1995 until January 2006, when a 5–10 result atmaegashira 14 resulted in demotion tojūryō. He reappeared inmakuuchi just two tournaments later in May 2006, but remained at the bottom of the division. He fell tojūryō on three further occasions, in May 2007, March 2008 and September 2008, but each time made an immediate return to the top division.

Tosanoumi won a total of thirteenprizes (equal to the seventh highest ever) and elevengold stars (the fourth highest ever) in his longmakuuchi career. He defeated twoyokozuna in the same tournament on four separate occasions. He earned four gold stars fromTakanohana, and three each fromWakanohana andAkebono. He is the only wrestler to winkinboshi in four consecutive tournaments, which he achieved from November 1998 to May 1999. His last gold star came in 2003 when he beatMusashimaru, in what was the latter's last bout before retirement. In July 2007 he recorded his 600th career win, which came by default when his opponent withdrew.^[1] Tosanoumi is tenth on the all-time list ofmost top division appearances with 1183, and he had 80 tournaments ranked in the top division.

He became the oldest activesekitori after the March 2009 tournament following the retirement ofŌtsukasa. However, he was unable to maintain hismakuuchi position, dropping tojūryō 6 after winning only four matches atMaegashira 15. An 8–7 record in May was not enough to return him to the top division this time. He could manage only a 5–10 score in July, his first everjūryōmake-koshi. He recorded his 700th career win in the January 2010 tournament, the firstmakushita tsukedashi entrant to achieve this feat.

Following the large number of demotions to thejūryō division in September 2010 after six wrestlers were suspended from competition he made a surprise return to the top division, becoming at 38 years and six months the oldest man ever to do so (this record has since been broken byAminishiki). He was however out of his depth and scored only 2–13, resulting in demotion straight back tojūryō.

In November 2010 Tosanoumi could score only 4–11 atjūryō 8, which would have resulted in demotion to themakushita division. This broke a run of 97 consecutive tournaments at asekitori rank. Instead Tosanoumi chose to retire, announcing his decision on December 15 shortly before the release of the new rankings. He has stayed in sumo as a coach at Isenoumi stable under thetoshiyori name Tatekawa, and hisdanpatsu-shiki or official retirement ceremony took place at theRyōgoku Kokugikan on May 28, 2011.^[2]

Tosanoumi's fighting style was solidlyoshi-sumo, using pushing and thrustingtechniques as opposed toyotsu-sumo or grappling techniques.^[1] He has attributed his relative lack of injuries during his career in part to this preference.^[1] Over 30 percent of his wins in sumo wereoshi-dashi, a simple push out.^[3]

Tosanoumi announced in September 2008 that he would be getting married. The wedding reception and ceremony were held in January 2009.

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of sumo record holders
• List of sumo tournament top division runners-up
• List of sumo tournament second division champions
• List of past sumo wrestlers
• List of sumo elders
• List of sekiwake

• Tosanoumi Toshio's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage
• Tosanoumi's basho results
• Complete biography and basho results (Japanese)

• 1972 births
• Living people
• Japanese sumo wrestlers
• People from Aki, Kōchi
• Sumo people from Kōchi Prefecture
• Sekiwake
• Doshisha University alumni

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata