Dejima Takeharu

Dejima Takeharu (出島 武春, born March 21, 1974) is a former

subsequently made ōzeki also, in March and May 2000 respectively. With Musashimaru at yokozuna, Dejima had three of his colleagues in the top two ranks, an advantage as sumo wrestlers never fight members of their own stables except in playoffs.

Dejima held onto his ōzeki rank for two years, with his best result being an 11–4 score in March 2000, but in July 2001 he was forced to pull out of the tournament with only three wins. As he had also made a

losing score

in May 2001, he was demoted from ōzeki. Returning in September, he needed ten wins to return to ōzeki but still in poor condition he could only manage a 5–10 record.

Later career

Persistent injuries, particularly to his knees and ankles, prevented Dejima from making any sustained attempt to regain ōzeki status. Aside from an 11–4 runner-up performance in January 2003 which briefly returned him to san'yaku, he largely remained in the

maegashira ranks. He competed for 48 tournaments after dropping from the ōzeki rank – longer than any other former ōzeki in history until Miyabiyama overtook him. Near the end of his career he was still capable of producing strong results, as he proved in January 2007 by defeating Yokozuna Asashōryū

, the only wrestler to do so in that tournament.

In May 2007 he produced a strong 12–3 record, his second runner-up performance in makuuchi and his highest score in a tournament since his title win, and was awarded his fourth

komusubi

In the July 2009 tournament, which came exactly ten years after his championship win, Dejima announced his retirement from active competition after suffering nine losses in the first eleven days, rather than face demotion to the second jūryō division.[2]

Dejima has stayed in the sumo world as a coach at Musashigawa stable (now

Dejima was an oshi-sumo specialist, favouring pushing and thrusting techniques (tsuki-oshi) over fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common winning technique was oshi-dashi, or push-out, followed closely by yori-kiri or force out. These two techniques accounted for around 70 percent of his wins.^[5] He rarely employed throwing moves, his most common being the beltless sukuinage or scoop throw which he used for only 3 percent of his victories.^[5]

He was famed for his explosive start at the