Tochitaikai Yū
Tochitaikai Yū is a professional sumo wrestler from Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, who is currently affiliated with the Kasugano stable. His younger brother, Tokotochi, is a former fifth-class tokoyama who also belonged to the same stable.
Early life and career
Tochitaikai attended the Iruma Junior Sumo Club after he began taking sumo seriously during his third year at Higashi-Koshigaya Elementary School in Koshigaya, Saitama. He also participated in swimming and baseball in addition to sumo. He attended Higashi Junior High School in Koshigaya, but there was no sumo club, so he took up track and field. In his second year of junior high, he transferred to Kurosu Junior High School in Iruma, and joined their sumo club. In 2014, during his third year he won the individual competition at the National Junior High School Sumo Championship, earning the title of junior high school yokozuna. He also won the team competition at the same tournament. He went on to Saitama Sakae High School where his classmates included future rikishi's Kotoshoho and Oho. During his high school years, he became a regular in the team competitions from his first year and won team championships at the Inter-High School Athletic Meet and the National Athletic Meet in the junior division.Sumo career
After graduating high school, Tochitaikai decided to pursue sumo and entered the Kasugano stable. He made his debut in the November 2017 tournament before his high school graduation. In the January 2018 tournament, he was in the jonokuchi division and advanced to the championship match with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss, where he faced off against his former high school classmate, Kototebakari Toshiki, and won the jonokuchi championship despite losing to Kototebakari earlier in his fourth match. The following March tournament, he was promoted to the jonidan division where he beat Kototebakari in the opening match, finishing with 7 wins and no losses, and winning the jonidan championship. In May, he was promoted to the sandanme division. The following July tournament, he experienced his first losing record since his debut, but still earned promotion to the makushita division in the November tournament that year.In 2019, in the July tournament, Tochitaikai rose to seventh place in the west makushita division, it was his first time to be ranked within the top 15 in the makushita division. In the November tournament, he rose to fourth place in the east makushita division, it was his first time being ranked within the top 5 of the division. In the first half of the November tournament, he had 3 wins and 1 loss, in his fifth bout he had his first juryo match, and lost to Wakamotoharu, he then lost three straight matches, resulting in a losing record.
In the March 2020 tournament Tochitaikai was ranked in 15th place in the makushita division, but in the September 2022 tournament, he returned to fourth place in the west makushita division, it was his first time to be ranked within the top 5 in the makushita division in 16 tournaments, he won his second juryo match against Gonoyama in the final match, resulting in a winning record of 4 wins and 3 losses, it was his first time to be ranked within the top 5 in the makushita division. In the November tournament, where he was ranked as the 2nd East Makushita, he lost the fifth match and finished with 3 wins and 4 losses.
In January 2023, Tochitaikai was ranked as the 5th East Makushita and earned 5 wins and 2 losses, and since it was expected that 3 or 4 sekitori slots would open up, he was considered a strong candidate for promotion to Juryo after the tournament. However, the ranking committee did not approve his promotion after the tournament, and in the following March tournament, he was ranked as the top East Makushita but lost the first match against Ochiai, who had won the previous tournament's Makushita division and was promoted to Juryo; he ended up with 3 wins and 5 losses, missing out on promotion to Juryo. In the September tournament of the same year, he was ranked as the top East Makushita, but suffered four consecutive losses from the first day, and again missed out on promotion to Juryo.
In the March 2024 tournament, Tochitaikai started with a 3–2 record in the west makushita division as the 4th-ranked rikishi, but in his final two matches he faced Kotoeko and Akua, both of whom were juryo rikishi
In the May tournament, Tochitaikai was ranked 14th in the East Juryo division, where he finished with an 8–7 record. In the July tournament, he updated his personal best to 11th in the East Juryo division, but a six-match losing streak from the third day had an adverse effect and he ended up with a losing record by the end of the tenth day, he then won three matches in a row to bounce back, but then lost consecutive matches to Mitoryu on the fourteenth day and to Oshoumi in the makushita division on the final day, finishing with a 5–10 record and falling to the makushita division in the following tournament. His demotion to the makushita division was officially confirmed when the September tournament rankings were announced, meaning he would be back in the makushita division in just two tournaments. In the September tournament, he finished with a record of 4 wins and 3 losses as the top East makushita wrestler, and was promoted back to juryo, replacing Aoiyama, who was inevitably demoted to makushita after this tournament, thus continuing the stable's record of consecutive active sekitori in the juryo division for the first time since 1935.
In the November tournament, Tochitaikai had a record of 10 wins and 4 losses at the end of the 14th day, which put him in a good position to win the juryo championship, but he lost to Shiden and missed out on the opportunity. This was his first double-digit win as a sekitori.
In both the January and March tournaments of 2025, Tochitaikai updated his highest rank and had a winning record, and in the May tournament he eventually made his debut as the 18th East maegashira rikishi in the makuuchi division. After winning just four matches, he returned to for the following tournament.
Tochitaikai withdrew from the January 2026 tournament after suffering a MCL injury to his right knee on Day 9.