Kyokutenh%C5%8D Masaru

Kyokutenh Masaru in Nalaikh, Ulan Bator, Mongolia is a former professional sumo wrestler. He made his debut in March 1992 out of shima stable, with the first group of Mongolians ever to join the sport in Japan, reaching the top makuuchi division in January 1998. In his exceptionally long career he received seven special prizes for Fighting Spirit, and won one ysh , in May 2012 from the maegashira ranks, which made him atthe oldest firsttime ysh winner in sumo history, and he was runnerup in one other tournament. His highest rank was sekiwake, which he held on three occasions. He was the first wrestler since the 1950s to be ranked in the top division after the age of 40. He has made more appearances in the top division than any other wrestler at 1470, and only shio has fought more than his 1870 career bouts. He announced his retirement in July 2015 and declared his intention to stay in sumo as an elder, having acquired Japanese citizenship in 2005. He is now known as shimaoyakata.

In May 2012, in his first tournament for his new stable, he won his first Emperors Cup by beating Tochizan in a playoff after both finished with 123 records. In this tournament, Kyokutenh had been in professional sumo just over twenty years, and atyears andmonths was the oldest wrestler ever to take a top division championship in modern sumo history. He was also the first maegashira ranked wrestler to win a tournament since Kotomitsuki in 2001. Also, as Kyokutenh had acquired Japanese citizenship, he was technically the first Japanese to win the championship since Tochiazuma in January 2006, although he will still be regarded as a foreign champion in the Sumo Associations record book. His ysh was the 50th won by a Mongolian born wrestler.

Source: Wikipedia