Kakuryū Rikisaburō  Kakuryū Rikisaburō was born August 10, 1985, as Mangaljalavyn Anand. His father was a university professor. He grew up dreaming of professional basketball, not sumo. At age 14, he decided to devote himself to sumo after seeing a tournament featuring fellow Mongolians Kyokutenhō and Kyokushūzan on TV. He wrote a letter about his desires and had a friend translate it into Japanese. He then mailed the letter to several stables in Japan. Izutsu stable's head was impressed and invited Kakuryū to Japan. Kakuryū's family had no background in Mongolian wrestling, and he had no experience in wrestling before coming to Japan. When Kakuryū joined Izutsu stable, he weighed just and his "oyakata" former "sekiwake" Sakahoko joked he was better suited to be the stable's "tokoyama" (hairdresser) than a wrestler. Kakuryū made his professional debut at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament in November 2001, then weighing . After reaching the fourth highest "sandanme" division fairly quickly, he struggled, being demoted back to "jonidan" twice. After 17 tournaments, he finally won the "sandanme" championship in July 2004 with a 7–0 record and earned promotion to the "makushita" division. Kakuryū first reached "sekitori" status in November 2005 upon promotion to the "jūryō" division but fell short with a 5–10 record, dropping back to "makushita." He returned to the second division in March 2006 and reached the top "makuuchi" division that November, after scoring 9 wins at the rank of "jūryō" 1 in the previous tournament. He was the eighth Mongolian to make "makuuchi" after Kyokushūzan, Kyokutenhō, Asashōryū, Asasekiryū, Hakuhō, Harumafuji and Tokitenkū. He was the first (and to date only) wrestler from the stable to make the top division since the current stablemaster took control in 1994. One of seven wrestlers to be promoted to "makuuchi" for that tournament, he made his debut halfway up the "maegashira" ranks at number 8, the highest since Miyabiyama began at "maegashira" 7 in March 1999.