Kasugaō Katsumasa

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春日王克昌
Kasugaō Katsumasa
Personal information

Birth name	Kim Sung Tak
Date of birth	July 1, 1977 (1977-07-01) (age 30)
Place of birth	South Korea
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	154 kg (340 lb)
Career*
Heya	Kasugayama
Current rank	Maegashira 9
Record	351-325-11
Debut	November, 1998
Highest rank	Maegashira 3 (March, 2007)
Yusho	1 (Jūryō) 1 (Makushita)
Special Prizes	Fighting Spirit (1)
* Career information is correct as of May 2008.

Kasugaō Katsumasa (born July 1, 1977 as Kim Sung Tak) is a sumo wrestler from Incheon, South Korea. His highest rank has been maegashira 3.

1 Career
2 Top division record
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Career

Kasugaō is the first professional Korean-born sumo wrestler in the history of sumo.^[1] His father died when he was just three years old and his mother brought the family up alone, working days and nights as a cleaner. After winning a national Ssireum competition in 1998, he was invited by the stablemaster of his current stable, Kasugayama, to come to Japan. Kaugaō saw the opportunity to support his family back in Korea. He took a leave of absence from his university and joined Kasugayama stable soon after coming to Japan. He made his professional debut in November 1998. He reached the jūryō division in July 2002 and the top makuuchi division just three tournaments later in January 2003, after winning the second division championship in November 2002 by defeating Asasekiryu on the last day. On the same day Asashōryū won the makuuchi division title, making it the first time that two foreign born wrestlers had won the top two divisions in the same tournament.^[2] Kasugaō sent all his prize money of two million yen home to his mother.^[3]

In his top division debut Kasugaō scored an impressive ten wins and was awarded the Fighting Spirit Prize. He progressed to maegashira 6 but then a series of poor results sent him back down to the jūryō division. After moving between the top two divisions a couple of times he won promotion back to makuuchi in September 2005 and has remained there ever since, reaching his highest rank of maegashira 3 in March 2007. He was forced to withdraw from the May 2008 tournament with only three wins, after suffering a knee injury on the 8th day.

He went to the same high school as South Korean footballer Kim Nam-Il and they remain very close friends.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Top division record

Kasugaō Katsumasa^[4]
	January Hatsu basho, Tokyo	March Haru basho, Osaka	May Natsu basho, Tokyo	July Nagoya basho, Nagoya	September Aki basho, Tokyo	November Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
2003	West Maegashira #13 10–5 F	East Maegashira #7 8–7	East Maegashira #6 4–11	West Maegashira #12 4–11	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)
2004	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	East Maegashira #13 4–8–3	(Jūryō)	East Maegashira #15 8–7
2005	East Maegashira #14 9–6	East Maegashira #11 1–14	(Jūryō)	(Jūryō)	East Maegashira #16 7–8	East Maegashira #16 8–7
2006	East Maegashira #12 9–6	West Maegashira #7 7–8	East Maegashira #8 6–9	West Maegashira #11 5–10	West Maegashira #15 8–7	West Maegashira #7 8–7
2007	East Maegashira #7 8–7	West Maegashira #3 5–10	West Maegashira #6 5–10	East Maegashira #10 7–8	West Maegashira #10 10–5	West Maegashira #5 4–11
2008	West Maegashira #11 8–7	West Maegashira #9 8–7	East Maegashira #9 3–6–6	x	x	x
Record given as win-loss-absent Championship Retired Demoted from makuuchi Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique Also shown: ★=Kinboshi Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira