Amakaze Kōichi
He had been active in judo since before elementary school, and won the Shikoku junior high school competition. He was spotted by former "ozeki" Kotokaze and recruited to his Oguruma stable at the age of 15. He made his debut in March 2007, fighting under his own surname of Kawanari. He was the first wrestler from Kagawa Prefecture since the retirement of Gokenzan in November 2006. He reached the sandanme division in 2008 and the third highest "makushita" division in 2009. He rose to the top of the makushita division in March 2013, where he was on the verge of promotion to elite "sekitori" status but fell short with a "make-koshi" or losing 1–6 record. He failed again at "makushita" 3 in November 2013, and then missed the January 2014 tournament through injury. After making attempts to lose weight his results began to improve and he earned promotion to the "jūryō" division after the January 2015 tournament. To celebrate his promotion to "sekitori" status he changed his "shikona" from his real name to Amakaze. He chose the "shikona" himself, with "kaze" (wind) being a suffix used by all wrestlers at Oguruma stable, and "Ama" taken from "Amanogawa" (the Milky Way), because his birthday of July 7 co-incides with the start of Tanabata (Star Festival) celebrations. The same kanji is also used for a river near his parents' home in Kotohira. He commented on his new name, "It means looking up to the heavens, it's good" but his stablemaster joked that he should take care not to become an "Ama-chan", or one who takes things lightly. Amakaze came through with a winning record in his second division debut of ten wins against five losses, and in July 2016 he won the "jūryō" division championship or "yūshō" with a 13–2 record. This earned him promotion to the top "makuuchi" division for the first time, joining his veteran stablemates Takekaze and Yoshikaze. Working his way up the ranks Amakaze had served as a "tsukebito," or personal attendant to Takekaze. Ranked at "maegashira" 13 in his "makuuchi" debut in September 2016, he managed only five wins against ten losses and was demoted straight back to "jūryō". For the next eight tournaments he held his own in "jūryō" but did not look like earning promotion back to "makuuchi." In March 2018 a poor 3–12 record caused his demotion to "makushita" which he followed up with another poor 2–6 record in May 2018. He injured his knee in his first bout in July 2018 and withdrew from the tournament. He did not compete again until March 2019, by which time he had fallen to the "jonidan" division. In this tournament he fought another former "makuuchi" wrestler, Terunofuji. He won promotion back to "makushita" for the January 2020 tournament, but fell to "sandanme" in March 2022. Amakaze is known for his sense of fun and love of food, and enjoys posting photos of himself and fellow wrestlers at leisure on social media. In 2015 a video of himself and two other wrestlers attempting a 40-yard dash while on a tour in Wakayama went viral. Amakaze is one of the heaviest wrestlers in sumo at , and likes to use his weight to his best advantage by grabbing his opponent's "mawashi" and forcing them out by "yori-kiri". His preferred grip is "hidari-yotsu", a right arm outside, left arm inside position. Roughly half of his winning bouts are with the "yori-kiri" technique. His other regular winning "kimarite" include "oshi-dashi" (push out) and "hataki-komi" (slap down).
Career
is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Kotohira, Kagawa. He made his professional debut in March 2007, joining Oguruma stable, and reached the top "makuuchi" division in September 2016. His highest rank has been "maegashira" 13. He has one "jūryō" division championship or "yūshō."