Kimurayama Mamoru

木村山守 Kimurayama Mamoru
Personal information
Born	Mamoru Kimura July 13, 1981 (1981-07-13) (age 30) Wakayama, Japan
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	170 kg (370 lb; 27 st)
Career
Heya	Kasugano
Current rank	see below
Debut	March 2004
Highest rank	Maegashira 7 (November, 2010)
Yūshō	2 (Jūryō)
* Career information is correct as of Nov 2011.

Kimurayama Mamoru (born 13 July 1981 as Mamoru Kimura) is a professional sumo wrestler from Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. His highest rank has been maegashira 7.

Career

Born in Gobo, he was an amateur champion at Toyo University, but did not have enough collegiate titles to receive makushita tsukedashi status and join professional sumo in the third highest makushita division, instead beginning at the bottom of the rankings in March 2004. He joined Kasugano stable, run by another Wakayama Prefecture native, the former sekiwake Tochinowaka. His shikona or fighting name was adapted from his own surname, which is also a time-honoured name in Kasugano stable, being the name of a gyoji or referee, Kimura Soshiro, who ran the stable in the early 20th century.

Kimurayama in May 2009

Kimurayama reached sekitori status in January 2008 upon promotion to the second highest jūryō division and won his first yusho or tournament championship in the following tournament with a 12-3 record. He made his debut in the top makuuchi division two tournaments later at maegashira 12, but fell short with a 7-8 record. He won his second jūryō championship in March 2010, after a three way playoff with Koryu and Tamaasuka. He did not manage a kachi-koshi or winning record in the top division until his eighth try in July 2010. This performance, and another 8-7 in September, resulted in promotion to his highest rank to date of maegashira 7 for the November 2010 tournament. He has remained in the top division since then, and actually moved up from magashira 17 to maegashira 15 despite only scoring 7-8 in the May 2011 Technical Examination tournament, due to the large number of retirements caused by a match-fixing scandal. Despite recording his fifth successive make-koshi in September, he remained in makuuchi for the November tournament. Of his 14 top division tournaments, only two have resulted in winning records (both 8-7).

He is the only wrestler in the top three divisions from Wakayama Prefecture.

Fighting style

Kimurayama favours pushing and thrusting techniques as opposed to fighting on the mawashi. His most common winning kimarite is a simple oshi-dashi, or push out. He frequently employs the sidestepping henka move at the tachi-ai or initial charge, and consequently wins many bouts by hiki-otoshi, the pull down, and tsuki-otoshi, the thrust over.

Tournament record

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Kimurayama Mamoru^[1]

year in sumo	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2004	x	(Maezumo)	East Jonokuchi #12 6–1	East Jonidan #62 6–1	East Sandanme #93 6–1	East Sandanme #35 6–1
2005	East Makushita #51 6–1	West Makushita #22 2–5	East Makushita #37 3–4	West Makushita #45 6–1	West Makushita #18 3–4	West Makushita #23 4–3
2006	West Makushita #16 4–3	East Makushita #11 4–3	West Makushita #7 5–2	East Makushita #3 4–3	East Makushita #1 2–5	West Makushita #9 0–0–7
2007	West Makushita #49 5–2	East Makushita #29 6–1	East Makushita #12 5–2	West Makushita #5 4–3	East Makushita #4 4–3	West Makushita #1 6–1
2008	West Jūryō #11 6–9	East Jūryō #14 12–3 Champion	West Jūryō #2 11–4	West Maegashira #12 7–8	West Maegashira #14 7–8	East Maegashira #15 6–9
2009	West Jūryō #1 9–6	West Maegashira #15 7–8	East Maegashira #16 5–10	West Jūryō #5 8–7	East Jūryō #2 9–6	West Maegashira #14 4–11
2010	West Jūryō #3 7–8	West Jūryō #4 11–4–PP Champion	West Maegashira #12 7–8	West Maegashira #13 8–7	East Maegashira #9 8–7	West Maegashira #7 5–10
2011	West Maegashira #14 6–9	East Maegashira #17 Tournament Cancelled 0–0–0	East Maegashira #17 7–8	West Maegashira #15 7–8	West Maegashira #16 7–8	East Maegashira #17 –
Record given as win-loss-absent    Top Division Champion Retired Lower Divisions Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi(s) P=Playoff(s) Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

See also

• Glossary of sumo terms
• List of sumo tournament second division winners
• List of active sumo wrestlers

References

1. ^ "Kimurayama Mamoru Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. http://sumodb.sumogames.com/Rikishi.aspx?r=6010. Retrieved 2009-09-05. 

External links

• Kimurayama Mamoru's official biography (English) at the Grand Sumo Homepage

Persondata
Name	Kimurayama Mamoru
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	13 July 1981
Place of birth	Wakayama, Japan
Date of death
Place of death