Kotonishiki Katsuhiro - Retirement From Sumo

Retirement From Sumo

In March 2000 Kotonishiki had to withdraw on the 5th day of the tournament through injury, with only two wins. As a result, he fell to the jūryō division for the first time since 1989. On his comeback in July he scored an 8-7 majority of wins at the rank of jūryō 1 but did not get promoted back to the top division; an extremely rare occurrence. In the September 2000 tournament, after losing six of his first seven bouts, he announced his retirement from sumo, saying that he had reached his physical limit and could no longer overcome his various injuries.

Kotonishiki has remained in the sumo world as a coach at Sadogatake stable. He has so far been unable to acquire a permanent toshiyori or elder name. For the first two years of his retirement he had jun-toshiyori status and was known as Kotonishiki Oyakata. When that expired he borrowed the Wakamatsu name in 2002 and then the Takenawa name in 2003. From July 2007 until January 2009 he borrowed Kaiō's Asakayama name. He then used Kisenosato's toshiyori kabu of Arasio. In September 2009 he switched to the Hidenoyama kabu vacated by the retiring Hasegawa.