in the may 2012 tournament he recorded his first victory over a "yokozuna", defeating hakuho by "kotenage" or armlock throw. the referee initially awarded the match to hakuho, but the judges overturned the decision. since then, he has largely alternated winning and losing tournaments. toyohibiki is a demonstrated "makuuchi" regular but also has one of the longest tenures among active members of the top division without ever making "san'yaku." he fell to "jūryō" in september 2015 for the first time since his suspension in 2010 but made an immediate return to "makuuchi". his "up and down" form continued in 2016 as he was relegated after the march tournament, returned to the top division in july and was relegated again after a 6–9 record in november. he won promotion back to "makuuchi" after the march 2017 tournament where he took his third "jūryō" championship after winning a three-way playoff when he, osunaarashi and asanoyama all finished on 10–5. however he was immediately demoted back to "jūryō" after a 4–11 record in may. he did not enter the january 2018 tournament because of the detection of an irregular heartbeat. this resulted in him dropping to the "makushita" division, where he still remains as of 2019.