Shōdai Naoya

Shōdai Naoya - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of Shōdai Naoya

Shōdai Naoya (正代 直也; born November 5, 1991) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Uto, Kumamoto. He is in the Tokitsukaze stable. He is a right hand inside-type wrestler. His highest rank is ōzeki. He has two gold stars for defeating a yokozuna and seven special prizes, six for Fighting Spirit and one for Outstanding Performance. He was runner-up in two tournaments before winning his first top-division championship in September 2020.

This profile of Shōdai Naoya covers Early Life and Family Background, Career and Rise to Fame, Promotion to ōzeki and Fighting style.

Early Life and Family Background of Shōdai Naoya

Shōdai Naoya's talents were first noticed by the coach of the Uto Boys Sumo Club while he was playing sumo in the park at Uto Elementary School. In 5th grade he competed in the national sumo competition, and while at Kakujō Middle School he was an alternate member of the winning team at the All-Middle School sumo championship. In his final year at Kumamoto agricultural high school he won the youth national sumo championship.

Shōdai went on to university at Tokyo University of Agriculture, where he studied international food information sciences in the international agricultural development department. He became a university yokozuna in his second year, and met the qualifications to join professional sumo at the makushita 15 rank as a tsukedashi, however he gave preference to finishing school and missed the one year time limit to accept this opportunity. In his third year at university he advanced to the All-Japan sumo championship, however he lost to Endō and therefore did not attain the amateur yokozuna title that year. He also did not qualify for tsukedashi in his 4th year at university.

Career and Rise to Fame of Shōdai Naoya

After graduating from university, he joined the Tokitsukaze stable and entered his first tournament in March 2014. Because he missed his opportunity to start in the makushita ranks as a tsukedashi, he began in maezumō in this tournament. He lost on the 5th day to Shiba, however finishing with a 2–1 record allowed him to continue to the professional ranks. In May when ranked in jonokuchi (the beginning level of professional sumo), he faced Shiba on day 5 and beat him for the first time. He went on to finish with a 7–0 record and take the jonokuchi championship. This propelled him into the next higher level of sumo, jonidan, in the July tournament, where he finished with a 6–1 record, and advanced to the next higher level, sandanme in the September tournament. He faced Shiba again on day 9 and lost, however his 6–1 record was good enough to advance him to the next higher level, makushita in the November tournament. He lost his third and fourth matches in this tournament to Higoarashi and Asatenmai, however still finished with a promising 5–2 record which allowed him to advance higher up the makushita ranks. In the January 2015 tournament he was concerned that diarrhea and a bacterial infection would affect his performance, however he could win the tournament with a perfect 7–0 record when he beat Ishiura, who was promoted to jūryō, on the last day. In the next three tournaments in makushita he attained winning records and was promoted to jūryō in the September 2015 tournament. He kept his family name, Shōdai, rather than change his name as most sumo wrestlers do. His stable master commented that, "It's a good name. Not bad at all".

Later in a press conference, he made comments that were interpreted as pessimistic, and he was dubbed as a "negative sumo wrestler". But he finished his first tournament in jūryō with a strong 11–4 record. In the following tournament he improved his previous performance to 13–2, took the jūryō championship, and was promoted to the highest level of sumo, makuuchi.

In the January tournament he became the 20th wrestler from Kumamoto prefecture to attain the highest rank of sumo since the end of World War II. He also became tied for third fastest wrestler to reach the highest level of sumo since 1958 (excluding tsukedashi) at only 11 tournaments. As opposed to another wrestler, Kagayaki, who also was making his top level debut and earned only a 4–11 record, Shōdai earned an impressive 10–5 record, continued his streak of no losing tournaments, and also took the Fighting Spirit prize. He became number two on the all-time list for fastest attainment of a special prize at 12 tournaments since entering sumo, second only to former yokozuna Wakanohana, who took the Fighting Spirit prize in his 9th tournament in January 1950.

In November 2016 he scored eleven wins against four losses from the rank of maegashira 3, sharing the Fighting Spirit prize with Ishiura. He defeated ōzeki Kisenosato in this tournament and was promoted to a career-high rank of sekiwake for the January tournament. It took him only 17 tournaments from his professional debut to reach sekiwake, which is the second fastest (after Konishiki's 14) since the introduction of the six tournaments a year system in 1958 for those starting from maezumō. He narrowly missed out on a winning record in his sekiwake debut, and remained in the junior san'yaku ranks for the following tournament at komusubi. But he won only four bouts and was demoted back to the maegashira ranks for the May 2017 tournament. In July, ranked at maegashira 1, he earned his first kinboshi or gold star by defeating yokozuna Harumafuji on Day 2. He remained near the top of the maegashira ranks in his next few tournaments. In November 2019 he was a runner-up to Hakuhō with an 11–4 record and earned the Fighting Spirit Prize by defeating Asanoyama on the final day. In January 2020 he was in contention for the championship until the final day, finishing one win behind surprise champion Tokushōryū on 13–2. He also received the Fighting Spirit prize. He returned to the sekiwake rank in March 2020 for the first time since January 2017, and to san'yaku for the first time since March 2017. He was one of only two men to defeat the tournament winner Hakuhō in March and maintained his sekiwake rank with an 8–7 record. In the July 2020 tournament he won his fifth Fighting Spirit prize after a 11-4 performance in which he was one of only two wrestlers to defeat the tournament winner Terunofuji.

In the September 2020 tournament Shōdai won his first championship with a 13–2 record, defeating Tobizaru on the final day to avoid the need for a play-off. His only defeats were to the previous tournament winner Terunofuji on Day 4 and komusubi Okinoumi on Day 7. Shōdai said "I was only in the sole lead on the final day, so until then I wasn't worrying about the championship race and I felt comfortable". He also earned his first Outstanding Performance Prize and sixth Fighting Spirit Prize. He is the first Kumamoto Prefecture native to win a top division championship.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Ddai_Naoya), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.