, born April 24, 1996, as Byambachuluun Lkhagvasuren () is a professional sumo wrestler from Mongolia. He made his debut in March 2015 under the name , and reached the top makuuchi division in January 2020. He wrestles for Michinoku stable. His highest rank has been ōzeki. He has won the makuuchi championship once along with one runner-up performance and four special prizes in his career to date.
Upon his promotion to ōzeki in May 2023, Kirishima changed his ring name from Kiribayama, adopting the ring name of his stablemaster Michinoku (former ōzeki Kirishima).
Early life
Byambachuluun was born into a nomadic community in Dornod Province, near the border between China and Russia. His given name, Lkhagvasuren, is a reference to his grandfather, Yatamsuren, who was a renowned bökh wrestler. His father was in charge of a vast herd of sheep, and from a young age, Byambachuluun rode horses to help his father at work, which strengthened his legs and waist – an advantage for sumo. At the age of 17, he moved to Ulaanbaatar and began practicing judo and bökh in a club, where he was joined later by future Ōzeki Hōshōryū. In 2014, he was invited by an acquaintance along with four other Mongolians to Japan to try out sumo at Michinoku stable with no previous experience of the sport. At that time, he was over tall, but weighed less than . Michinoku stablemaster, former ōzeki Kirishima, thought Byambachuluun was the best of the five, but was reluctant at first to take on a foreign recruit. The stable had not had a foreigner since Hakuba was forced to retire over match-fixing allegations in 2011. He eventually relented after Byambachuluun committed to staying in Japan, and let him take the new recruits examination in February 2015. As he entered his stable, his slight stature drew a comment from a wakaimonogashira in his stable, who commented that he would be too thin to hold his own in sumo.
Byambachuluun received the shikona, or ring name, to evoke his master, with the kanji 霧 derived from his former wrestling name, , his nomadic past with the kanji 馬, for 'horse', and finally the kanji 山 to evoke Yokozuna Futabayama, a great wrestler who belonged to the same ichimon, or clan, as his stable.
Sumo beginnings
He officially began his career in May 2015. At the time, he was in the same class as Homarenishiki, the first Canadian sumo wrestler (rikishi) in 30 years. During the first years of his stable life, he had difficulty adapting, mastering very little of the language and mentioning his lack of sleep when his stablemates snored too loudly in the stable dormitory.During his debut in maezumō, he faced (then called Hamamachi), a former vice-captain of Nippon Sport Science University sumo club, with whom he also shared the same debut promotion. Hamamachi handed him his only defeat in four matches to determine his future position in the jonokuchi division. In his first match in this division, he lost again to Hamamachi, who won the tournament that year, but finished with a score of 5–2, securing promotion to the next division. In jonidan, he was among the wrestlers competing for the championship (yūshō), but was nevertheless beaten by Sakae, who then lost in the playoff to Hamamachi, during the last day of competition. however, his 6–1 score allowed him to enter sumo's third division, sandanme, for the November 2015 tournament. There, he won the tournament with a perfect score of 7–0. Logically promoted to the makushita division for the January 2016 tournament, he nevertheless suffered the first negative record (make-koshi) of his career and was demoted back to the sandanme division. Despite being promoted back to makushita for the Nagoya tournament, he suffered a left knee ligaments injury duringa practice session and had to withdraw from the tournament (kyūjō), only to be demoted back to the lower division. Following this injury, Kiribayama gradually changed his fighting style, moving from an overuse of throwing techniques and back-dropping techniques to a style based more on forward momentum. At the time of his injury, he was also suffering from severe homesickness, but thanks to his master's efforts he hung on, motivated in particular by the prospect of returning to his homeland for a visit in the event of promotion to jūryō. In November 2017, he was competing for the makushita division championship but failed after being defeated by former jūryō wreslter on the final day. However, he bounced back the following year by winning the championship at the May tournament, despite injuring his elbow during a training session.