, born 12 November 2000 as , is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture.
Early life and sumo background
Daisuke started sumo in a club in third grade at Miyanoura Elementary School. There, he won the Iwate prefectural tournament without any previous experience of sport. When he was still in primary school, his sumo club was invited to Hakkaku stable to be housed and trained there during a national wanpaku sumo tournament. Daisuke remembers having an excellent impression of the Hakkaku wrestlers, particularly , a wrestler who also comes from Yamagata.
He then continued to do sumo in junior high school and senior high school, leaving his native prefecture to join Saitama Sakae High School, a school with a renowned sumo club. There, he won his first national championship during his junior high school years and won five individual titles in total. In his third year of senior high school, he came out first at the heavyweight category during the World Junior Championship; and won both the team and individual championships at the National High School Tournament, hence becoming the 2018 high-school yokozuna.
He considered to pursue an amateur career at the university level but decided instead to turn pro in February 2019. He attributed this decision to a meeting he had with former yokozuna Kitanofuji in his sister's chankonabe restaurant in Sakata, Yamagata. He's been a Kitanofuji fan ever since he watched yokozuna Kashiwado's (who's from his prefecture) matches against him as a child. Because of his prior connections with Hakkaku stable and the fact that Kitanofuji was the master of Hakkaku-oyakata (former yokozuna Hokutoumi), Daisuke logically joined Hakkaku stable. Thanks to Kitanofuji's role in this recruitment, Kitanowaka is sometimes nicknamed .
Early career
Kitanowaka began his professional career in May 2019, and scored a kachi-koshi record of 6–1 in his first tournament, after suffering an upset defeat in his fourth match. Kitanowaka spent the rest of his first professional year steadily climbing the rankings, reaching the sandanme division for the November tournament. There, he competed for the championship but was defeated on the final day by Naruto stable's Motobayashi. His score of 6–1, however, allowed Kitanowaka to join the makushita division for the first tournament of 2020, where he wrestled throughout the year. In 2021, Kitanowaka once again found himself in a position to potentially win a championship when he recorded 6 consecutive victories in the September 2021 makushita tournament. However, he was defeated again in his final match, losing the championship to Takasago stable's Fukai. Between 2020 and 2021, Kitanowaka came up against the makushita wall, climbing up the rankings thanks to some good results but without registering any championship wins. On two occasions he even suffered make-koshi negative scores, delaying his promotion to the jūryō division. Nevertheless, promoted to the top of his division, during the last tournament of the year he managed to secure promotion to sekitori status by securing promotion to the jūryō division by defeating upper division wrestler Kyokushūhō. At the time, Kitanowaka was promoted along and . He became the first sekitori raised in Hakkaku stable in five and a half years, and the first since Hokutofuji.
During his first jūryō tournament, Kitanowaka, despite a barely achieved positive record, received the compliments of Kitanofuji who praised his progress since his years in makushita. Securing promotion in this division, he was promoted to jūryō 5 for the May 2022 tournament after a good performance in March. Nevertheless, he was injured during that tournament and had to declare himself kyūjō (absent) for the sixth day of the tournament citing a right thigh flexor tendon injury, and allowing Ryūden to win by default. Kitanowaka nevertheless returned on Day 12 to avoid demotion to the makushita division, and won two of his four matches to stay in the jūryō division.