Kakuryū Rikisaburō

I've always had a soft spot for Kakuryū, honestly. Picture it: a slender kid from Mongolia who writes a letter begging his way into Japanese sumo, then claws all the way up to yokozuna in an era stacked with monsters like Hakuhō and Harumafuji. He never won by sheer brute force, which is exactly why I love watching him. He was the thinking wrestler, all timing and balance, sliding out of trouble at the edge of the ring with this unshakable calm. Off the dohyō he came across quiet and gracious, no chest-thumping theatrics, just relentless quiet grind. There's something deeply admirable about a guy who left his whole world behind and grafted his way to the top on craft instead of muscle. Pure respect from me.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kakuryū Rikisaburō (born August 10, 1985) is a former professional sumo wrestler from Sükhbaatar, Mongolia, and the 71st yokozuna. He held the rank from May 2014 until he retired in March 2021, and he now runs Otowayama stable as an elder of the Japan Sumo Association.

Name (English)

Kakuryū Rikisaburō

Name (Japanese)

鶴竜力三郎

Reading

かくりゅう りきさぶろう

Real name

マンガラジャラブ・アナンダ

Born

August 10, 1985 (age 41)

Origin

Mongolia

Occupation

Sumo wrestler

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Ox

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%B6%B4%E7%AB%9C%E5%8A%9B%E4%B8%89%E9%83%8E
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2353281

Tags

• sumo wrestler

Last updated

September 26, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.