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Hokutōriki Hideki (born October 31, 1977 as Hideki Kimura) is a former sumo wrestler, from Tochigi, Japan. He reached the top makuuchi division in 2002 and was runner-up in three tournaments. He has four special prizes in his career. The highest rank he reached was ''sekiwake.'' ==Career== He was born in Kurobane, a town in the Nasu District of Tochigi Prefecture. Hokutōriki made his professional debut in March 1993, joining Kokonoe stable. In October of that year he transferred to the newly created Hakkaku stable run by former ''yokozuna'' Hokutoumi. It took nearly nine years for him to achieve ''sekitori'' status by gaining promotion to the second ''jūryō'' division in January 2002. However, it took him only two further tournaments to reach the top ''makuuchi'' division. On his debut outing in ''makuuchi'' in May 2002 he made an immediate impression, finishing as runner-up with a strong 11-4 record and the fighting spirit prize. He was also a runner-up in the March 2003 tournament. The highlight of Hokutōriki's career came in May 2004, the only occasion to date when he has recorded a winning score from the upper ''maegashira'' ranks. Ranked at ''maegashira'' 1, he sensationally defeated Asashōryū on the sixth day - his first ever victory over a ''yokozuna''. Asashōryū had won the previous two tournaments with unbeaten 15-0 records and was on a 35 bout winning streak. With Asashōryū suffering another defeat to Kyokutenhō on Day 11, Hokutōriki came into the final day the sole leader on 13-1, his only defeat in the tournament thus far being to Wakanosato on Day 8. However, he lost his ''senshuraku'' bout to Hakuhō, then in his debut top division tournament, being sidestepped by the 19-year-old after two false starts. With Asashōryū defeating Chiyotaikai, both Asashōryū and Hokutōriki were tied on 13-2 and had to meet again in a playoff for the championship, which Hokutōriki lost. Nevertheless, he was rewarded with special prizes for Fighting spirit and Outstanding Performance, and after the tournament he was promoted to sumo's third highest rank of ''sekiwake''. Hokutōriki managed only a 3-12 record in his ''sekiwake'' debut and never managed a return to the ''san'yaku'' ranks, instead bouncing up and down the ''maegashira'' ranks. He won another Fighting Spirit Award for his twelve wins from ''maegashira'' 11 in January 2006, but in November of that year he pulled out of the tournament on the ninth day with no wins at all and was relegated to the ''jūryō'' division. However, a 9-6 record at ''jūryō'' 4 in March 2007 was good enough to earn promotion back to the top division for the May 2007 tournament. Although he remained in ''makuuchi'' he did not manage to defeat a ''yokozuna'' again and had several disastrous openings to tournaments, going 0-10 in July 2008 from ''maegashira'' 2 and 0-12 in March 2009 from ''maegashira'' 1. In May 2009 another poor record of 4-11 saw him demoted to ''jūryō'' for the second time. However, an 11-4 score there returned him immediately to the top division. He withdrew from the September 2010 tournament on the 13th day after suffering a neck injury, which also kept him out of the following tournament in November. Falling to the bottom of the ''jūryō'' division, he was unable to enter the January 2011 ''basho'' as well. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hokutōriki Hideki」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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