as a university champion, ishibashi was allowed to bypass the two lowest tiers of professional sumo and begin his career in the fourth "sandanme" division in march 2016. three "kachi-koshi" (winning records) in his first three "basho" (tournaments) saw him promoted to the "makushita" division for september. winning records in september and november were followed by a perfect 7-0 in january 2017 which earned him the divisional championship and promotion to the second division ("jūryō"). at this point he took the "shikona" ring name of asanoyama. his promotion ensured that takasago stable would once again have a "sekitori," following the demotions of asasekiryū and to "makushita" which had left the stable with no wrestlers in the top two divisions for the first time since 1878. asanoyama revealed his determination to reach "jūryō" to honour the memory of his sumo coach at high school who had recently died of cancer, and that his resolve did not falter even though he lost two matches in november and had to wait for one more tournament to earn promotion.