Photo by Michihiro Taguchi — shot ringside.
In sumo, Takerufuji is a thrust-and-push wrestler of Isegahama stable who reached the top makuuchi division in eight tournaments from his debut without a single losing record, and then won the championship in his first tournament there — the first man to do that since the official championship system began in 1926. He hurt his ankle on the fourteenth day of it. The two years since have been a run of injuries and demotions: he has been down to juryo twice, and he came back to the top division at West maegashira 13 for Nagoya 2026, where he went 10-5.
The championship, and the two years that followed
The article above stops at the moment Takerufuji reached the top division. What happened next is the part people remember, and the part that has shaped everything since.
In March 2024, ranked East maegashira 17 in his first top-division tournament, he went 13–2 and won it, taking the Outstanding Performance, Fighting Spirit and Technique prizes as well — all three of sumo’s special prizes at once. Michihiro Taguchi, who was at the Osaka venue that fortnight, records it as the first championship by a wrestler in his first top-division tournament since the official championship system began in 1926. He also puts down the near-miss version that circulates: Ryogoku’s 1914 record is often described the same way, but that was a newspaper award for the best top-division score in an era of draws, holds and absences, before forfeits and re-matches existed.
Takerufuji had hurt his ankle on the fourteenth day. Taguchi describes the press gathering in the second-floor corridor on the final morning to trade rumours about whether he would withdraw, and then Takerufuji walking out for the ring-entering ceremony anyway. His account of the deciding bout is short: the sumo mattered less than the will. He threw Gonoyama out, and the hall came apart.
Where he stands now
He is 27, stands 187 cm and weighs 148 kg, and fights for Isegahama stable. On the Nagoya 2026 ranking sheet he was West maegashira 13, back in the top division after a year away, and he went 10–5. That record moved him up to East maegashira 8 on the September 2026 (Aki) banzuke. His career record is 169 wins, 76 losses and 44 days out across 24 tournaments; in the top division, 63–40 with 32 days out across nine. His highest rank is maegashira 4.
| Tournament | Rank | Record |
|---|---|---|
| March 2024 | East maegashira 17 | 13–2, championship, all three prizes |
| May 2024 | East maegashira 6 | 0–0, 15 days out |
| July 2024 | East juryo 2 | 2–1, 12 days out |
| September 2024 | West juryo 11 | 13–2, juryo championship |
| November 2024 – March 2025 | Maegashira | 10–5, 10–5, 9–6 |
| May 2025 | East maegashira 4 (highest rank) | 6–9 |
| July 2025 | East maegashira 6 | 5–8, 2 days out |
| September 2025 | East maegashira 12 | 0–0, 15 days out |
| November 2025 – March 2026 | Juryo | 8–7, 8–7, 8–7 |
| May 2026 | West juryo 2 | 11–4 |
| July 2026 | West maegashira 13 | 10–5 |
Two of those rows are full absences, and a third is a tournament he left after three days. Taguchi flagged the shape of the problem in June 2024, while Takerufuji was still recovering: a top-division champion dropping straight into the salaried second division had no precedent. It happened, and then it happened again fifteen months later.
What has not changed is what he does when he is fit. Taguchi’s tally of his juryo career, made in November 2024, came to 28 wins and 5 losses, a rate of .848, with only four men in the division having beaten him to that point. At Nagoya 2026 the schedule sent him up against Onosato and Aonishiki on the last two days from thirteen ranks below them; when Taguchi went through the special-prize arguments after that tournament, he named Takerufuji as one of the two men with the hardest run-in.
Taguchi’s view: it was always going to be a race against the calendar
Two weeks after the championship, on April 8, 2024, Taguchi set Takerufuji beside Wajima — the only university wrestler ever to make yokozuna — and found the two careers running almost in step. Wajima won his first championship at 24, as a sekiwake in his fifteenth top-division tournament, and was an ozeki inside the year and a yokozuna at 25. Takerufuji won his at 24 too, in his first.
Can Takerufuji become a yokozuna? That is a fight against age. It will be decided by around 26.
Michihiro Taguchi, Dohyo no Mokugekisha, April 8, 2024
He is 27 now, and the two years in between went to injury rather than to the ranks above him. The deadline Taguchi set has passed. The open question is the smaller one his own record poses: he did not lose a single fortnight on the way up, across nine tournaments from the bottom division to the title, and of the fourteen since he has failed to see four of them out. Nagoya 2026 was his first winning record in the top division since March 2025.
A sumo boy from the start
Takerufuji was a born sumo wrestler, taking to the sport as a young boy. By his middle-school years he was already testing himself against the country’s best, competing in the Hakuho Cup. He then went on to Tottori Johoku High School, one of the great breeding grounds for the sport, before continuing to Nihon University. In the university sumo club he was a contemporary of Kiho.
He graduated in 2022, but he did not jump straight into the professional ranks. His entry into ozumo was settled that August. He joined Isegahama stable — led by the former yokozuna Asahifuji — with whom he had built a connection through training camps back home in Aomori.
A flying start in jonokuchi
He wrestled the maezumo preliminary bouts under his real name, Ishioka, then took the ring name Takerufuji from jonokuchi onward. Wrestlers coming out of the college game without a major amateur title sometimes have to start from the very bottom, and so it was for him — but the gap in ability was plain to see. He went 7–0 in both jonokuchi and jonidan, claiming the division championship each time.
The momentum never let up. He cleared sandanme in a single tournament and moved up into makushita, where he kept rolling — posting 6–1 three times and 5–2 twice on his way toward the salaried ranks. All the way up to makushita, across seven tournaments, he went 43–6, never once finishing with a losing record.
A dream debut in juryo
As a new juryo, Takerufuji opened with nine straight wins from day one. Some began to wonder aloud whether he might pull off a perfect championship in his very first salaried tournament. That, in the end, proved a step too far — only five wrestlers in history have ever swept a tournament 15–0 for the title, and one of those was a former komusubi. Even so, he won the juryo championship and powered through the division in just one tournament.
Into makuuchi in eight tournaments
Takerufuji reached the top division in just eight tournaments from jonokuchi — a staggering rise. He had taken the championship as a new juryo, cleared the division in a single tournament, and earned his place in makuuchi without ever turning in a losing record. He arrived at 24, listed then at 184 cm and 143 kg, and makes his living with a fierce thrusting and pushing style.
Takerufuji photographs, shot from ringside
Michihiro Taguchi was in the ringside seats in Osaka on the final day of the March 2024 tournament, when Takerufuji became the first wrestler since 1926 to win the top division on debut. These are his own frames, shot for Dohyo no Mokugekisha — the winning bout, the Emperor’s Cup and the parade afterwards, plus a later frame from March 2025.
Takerufuji: the official record
| Field | Takerufuji |
|---|---|
| Ring name | Takerufuji Mikiya |
| Birth name | Ishioka Mikiya |
| Ring names used | Ishioka, then Takerufuji |
| Stable | Isegahama |
| Height and weight | 187.0 cm, 148.0 kg |
| Highest rank | Maegashira 4 |
| Rank, September 2026 (Aki) banzuke | East maegashira 8 |
| Career record | 169 wins, 76 losses, 44 days absent, over 24 tournaments |
| Top-division record | 63 wins, 40 losses, 32 days absent, over 9 tournaments |
| Championships and prizes | 1 top-division championship, 2 juryo championships, and division titles at jonidan and jonokuchi; 1 Outstanding Performance prize, 1 Fighting Spirit prize, 1 Technique prize |
| Most-used winning moves | yorikiri, force out, 38%; oshidashi, push out, 24%; sukuinage, beltless arm throw, 9% |
Frequently asked questions
Q. What happened to Takerufuji?
He hurt his right ankle on the fourteenth day of the same tournament he won, March 2024, and the injury shaped everything after it. He missed the whole of the following basho, dropped out of the top division twice, and spent much of 2025 and early 2026 in juryo. He was back in makuuchi at West maegashira 13 for Nagoya 2026, where he went 10–5.
Q. Did Takerufuji really win on his top-division debut?
Yes. He took the March 2024 championship at East maegashira 17 with a 13–2 record, in his first tournament in the top division — the first man to do that since the official championship system began in 1926 — and collected all three special prizes.
Q. What stable does Takerufuji belong to?
Isegahama stable, led by the former yokozuna Asahifuji. He had a connection with the stable through training camps in his home region of Aomori.
Q. How fast did Takerufuji rise through sumo?
He reached the top makuuchi division in just eight tournaments from jonokuchi, never posting a losing record. Up to makushita he went 43–6 across seven tournaments.
Q. What is Takerufuji’s fighting style?
A thrust-and-push wrestler. The Japan Sumo Association lists him at 187 cm and 148 kg as of August 2026, and he built his rapid climb on relentless pushing attacks.
Reporting note: this article draws on Michihiro Taguchi’s ringside reporting and original statistical work published in Dohyo no Mokugekisha — his final-day report from the Osaka venue (March 24, 2024), his comparison with Wajima (April 8, 2024), his piece on a top-division champion dropping straight to juryo (June 16, 2024), his tally of the juryo record (November 1, 2024) and his review of the Nagoya 2026 tournament (July 28, 2026). Rank, age, measurements, stable, career totals and per-tournament results were rechecked against the Japan Sumo Association’s wrestler profiles and tournament sheets on August 6, 2026. Figures described as our count are arithmetic on those published sheets, not the Association’s own totals.
Updated August 6, 2026.
Read next: the day he won it, from ringside · sumo’s three special prizes · the maegashira ranks explained · Aonishiki
