Ōhō Kōnosuke

Ōhō Kōnosuke (Japanese: 王鵬 幸之介, born February 14, 2000, as Kōnosuke Naya (納谷 幸之介, "Naya Kōnosuke")) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kōtō, Tokyo. Wrestling for Ōtake stable, he made his professional debut in January 2018. He reached the second-highest "jūryō" division in January 2021 and entered the "makuuchi" ranks the following year. His highest rank has been "maegashira" 8. He is the son of former "sekiwake" Takatōriki and the grandson of 48th "yokozuna" Taihō.
Career.
He began sumo in elementary school, where he did reasonably well in tournaments despite having what he later admitted was a lazy attitude due to buying into his family legacy. He later went to Saitama Sakae High School, famous for its sumo program, where he was a classmate of fellow future sekitori Kotoshōhō. From here, his performance improved and by his final year of high school, he was captain of the sumo team and had won several tournaments.
It was expected that he would join Ōtake stable immediately after graduation, which was founded by his grandfather Taihō and formerly owned and operated by his father Takatōriki. However, he elected to postpone his debut in professional sumo in order to compete in the 2017 All Japan Sumo Championships.
He made his professional debut in January 2018, competing under his own name. In his first tournament on the "banzuke" in March 2018 he won the "jonokuchi" division championship after finishing with a 7–0 record. He reached the "makushita" division in September 2018, and competed exclusively in "makushita" in 2019 and 2020. He eventually earned promotion to "jūryō" after finishing with a 6–1 record at the top "makushita" rank.
His ascent to "sekitori" status saw him take the "shikona" Ōhō, with the "Ō" kanji "王" being able to be pronounced phonetically the same as "大" (read: ō or dai), which is commonly used by wrestlers of Otake stable in deference to both Taihō and the current stablemaster (former "jūryō" Dairyū). The "Ho" kanji "鵬" is taken directly from Taihō's shikona.
Ōhō's debut tournament at "jūryō" in January 2021 ended with a disappointing 5–10 record, seeing him immediately demoted back to "makushita". He was, however, able to bounce straight back to "jūryō" after winning four of his seven bouts in March. He would post winning records in three of his next four tournaments, with two of those in double digits. His 11-win performance at "jūryō" 7 in November 2021 was enough to promote him to the top "makuuchi" division for the January 2022 tournament. Speaking to reporters after the "banzuke" was announced confirming him at "maegashira" 18, Ohō said he was looking forward to competing in the top division. He said that he thought his grandfather, who died aged 72 in 2013, was cheering him on in heaven. In his debut Ōhō began well with seven wins in his first ten bouts, but he lost his last five to finish on 7–8, which Ōho later put down to a lack of concentration. Because he was on the very lowest rank in the division this losing record sent him back down to for the March 2022 tournament, but he returned to in May 2022 at the rank of 14 following a 10–5 record. He again produced a losing record in his second top division tournament, scoring 6–9. In the July 2022 tournament, he achieved his first winning record in the top-division, the 8-7 score earning him his new career high rank of 13. The following tournament in September saw Ōho once again start strongly but stumble in the second week, starting 7-3 but losing his last five matches to again finish with a losing 7-8 record.
The November 2022 tournament saw Ōhō's best result in the top division to date. On Day 12 he defeated Hōshōryū to move to 10–2, sharing the lead with Hōshōryū and Takayasu. However he lost the lead to Takayasu the following day. Ending the tournament with a 10-5 record, Oho was promoted to his highest rank to date, "maegashira" 8.
Fighting style.
Ōhō prefers pushing and thrusting techniques ("tsuki/oshi"). He regularly wins by "oshidashi" (front push out), "yorikiri" (frontal force out) and "oshitaoshi" (front push down).
Career record.