Seiya Kitaharima

is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler. He made his professional debut in March 2002. His highest rank has been maegashira 15. He wrestles for Yamahibiki stable.

Career He was born in Tatsuno, Hyōgo, where there is a shrine to the legendary founder of sumo, Nomi no Sukune. He is a member of the generation born between April 1986 and April 1987 (Showa 61) known as the that also includes Yokozuna Kisenosato, Ōzeki Gōeidō and Sekiwake Myōgiryū. He did judo when he first joined school, but from the fourth year of elementary school he switched to sumo, and participated in national sumo competitions at elementary and junior high school. He had aspirations to go to high school, but was persuaded to join Kitanoumi stable, run by the former yokozuna Kitanoumi, upon graduation from junior high.

He made his professional debut in March 2002, alongside future top division wrestlers such as Kisenosato and Katayama, and also his own stablemate . He reached the third highest makushita division in July 2005, but weighing barely more than he found it hard to make further progress. He had begun wrestling using his own surname of Shimada, but adopted his present shikona in March 2008, formed from combination of his original stable name (Kitanoumi) and an old name for west Hyōgo Prefecture (Harima Province). He finally reached the jūryō division for the first time in January 2012 nearly a decade after his debut. He was the first sekitori from Tatsuno since Banryūyama who had been a stablemate of Kitanoumi and was then a coach at the affiliated Mihogaseki stable. He spent all of 2012 in jūryō but had only two winning records in that time and was demoted back to the makushita division in January 2013. It had taken him 85 tournaments from his professional debut to reach the top division, which is the ninth slowest in sumo history. His promotion came 14 years after leaving junior high school. However he finished the tournament with a losing record of six wins against nine losses and was demoted back to jūryō after just one tournament. Restricted by neck pain, he had two poor performances of 5–10 and 4–11 in the following two tournaments and fell back to makushita in January 2017. Both he and were being promoted to jūryō for the seventh time in this tournament, the second highest ever at the time. He remained in makushita for the next three years before finally getting his eighth promotion to jūryō after the July 2020 tournament at the age of 34. He had been out of jūryō for 17 tournaments. In the September 2020 tournament Kitaharima could manage only five wins against ten losses, losing his last four bouts. He narrowly failed to return to jūryō in November and was ranked at Makushita 1 East in January 2021. He was forced to sit out the March 2021 tournament after a coach at his stable tested positive for COVID-19, but his ranking was protected. In January 2022 he had his poorest record for over a decade, a 1–6 at makushita 15, which sent him down to makushita 40 for March 2022. In May 2022, Kitaharima failed to win the makushita championship when he lost to Ōshōma on the last day.

Relegated to the sandanme division for the first time since 2008 at the September 2023 tournament, Kitaharima nonetheless won all his matches and claimed the division's championship. In doing so, he became, at the age of 37, the oldest wrestler ranked in the makushita division or below to win a tournament since who won the makushita tournament in 2005 at the age of 36. After his championship win, Kitaharima spent two tournaments in the makushita division before it was announced in January 2024 that he was promoted to the jūryō division for the ninth time in his career, hence being tied for the most promotion to the jūryō division along former (repromoted for the ninth time in July 2018). This latest repromotion, at the age of 37 years, 6 months and 29 days, makes Kitaharima the second oldest wrestler to be repromoted to sekitori status in modern sumo history, behind Ōshio (repromoted in May 1987 at the age of 39). On the occasion of this new promotion Kitaharima shared that his inspiration for remaining an active wrestler was his former stablemate Kitazakura, who, as the third-oldest repromoted to jūryō in modern sumo, continued his career even after his demotion to the makushita division. However, Kitaharima suffered an eighth defeat (make-koshi) in his match against Chiyoshōma on Day 11, making it uncertain whether he will remain in jūryō. In the end, he won just 4 victories in the tournament, leaving little chance of staying in the sekitori ranks. However, he declared himself pleased with the public support he received, declaring "It was an experience that gave me goose bumps every day."

Fighting style Kitaharima is a tsuki/oshi specialist, who prefers pushing and thrusting at his opponents rather than fighting on the mawashi or belt. His most common winning kimarite or technique is oshi dashi or a straightforward push out.

He is known for wanting to practice day or night, which led to his stablemaster warning against him over-training. Kitaharima has said he has no real hobbies and on his makuuchi promotion remarked that he was thinking only about sumo. At the age of 37, he confided on the occasion of his ninth repromotion in the jūryō division that he still hadn't changed his training habits, although he also admitted to having to rely more on alternative treatments such as massages or changing his diet on the advice of Takayasu. He reached a highest rank of sandanme 78 and was known as Tatsunoumi. He retired after the September 2022 tournament.

Career record