Kotonishiki Katsuhiro

I have a real soft spot for Kotonishiki. He's the kind of sumo wrestler I find myself rooting for hardest, because he wasn't the biggest body in the ring and never pretended to be. Born in Gunma in 1968, he made his name as a genuine giant-killer, the guy you'd watch square up against yokozuna and ozeki twice his presence and just refuse to back down. What gets me is how clever he was about it, all that nimble footwork and pure stubbornness rather than brute shoving. There's a scrappy, "the bigger you are the harder I'll fight" energy to him that I love. He feels like a throwback to old-school sumo spirit, someone who treated every bout like it was personal. Watching tape of him, I still catch myself leaning forward.

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.

Kotonishiki Katsuhiro is a Japanese former sumo wrestler born on June 8, 1968, in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. He fought for Sadogatake stable, reached the rank of sekiwake, and is now the elder Asahiyama. He competed professionally in sumo, where he was known for his tenacious and technique-driven style rather than relying on sheer size. His birth year corresponds to the Year of the Monkey in the traditional Japanese zodiac, and his Western zodiac sign is Gemini.

Name (English)

Kotonishiki Katsuhiro

Name (Japanese)

琴錦功宗

Reading

ことにしき かつひろ

Real name

松澤英行

Born

June 8, 1968 (age 58)

Origin

Gunma Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Sumo wrestler

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Monkey

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%90%B4%E9%8C%A6%E5%8A%9F%E5%AE%97
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6434180

Tags

• From Gunma Prefecture
• Sumo wrestler

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.