This is a very sad day for sumo, as is any day that one of its grand champions and longtime stars steps away from competition. However, I'm sure many will agree that this development has been a long time coming.
The 32-year-old, who went into the 15-day tournament at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan with his career in jeopardy, decided to close the curtain on his career after posting a 0-3 record to start the basho.
"Kisenosato is retiring as of today," his stable master Tagonoura announced to a large media contingent. "Kisenosato and I spoke for 30 to 40 minutes last night and he said, 'Please, let me retire, I am retiring.' "
"Outwardly, he looked composed like he always does, even though I am sure a lot was going through his mind."
"While I was happy to see him promoted to yokozuna, I could tell from seeing him up close that he was struggling," Tagonoura said. "His two years as Yokozuna passed so quickly."
Kisenosato competes in the last few basho, what you saw was only the ghost of a man who lived and breathed this incredible sport. Yet for much of his nineteen-year career, Kisenosato was an incredibly successful athlete, as well as one of the sport's most dedicated proponents.
Despite saying he was "close to his ideal shape" before the tournament, Kisenosato lost to komusubi Mitakeumi on opening day. He was handed his second and third upsets by top-ranked Maegashira Ichinojo and Tochiozan.
Not counting his forfeit on Day 5 of November's Kyushu meet, Kisenosato has posted eight straight losses since September, the worst run for a yokozuna since the 15-day grand tournament format began in the summer of 1949.
In March 2017, Kisenosato became the first Japanese-born wrestler in 19 years to gain promotion to yokozuna. He won his second straight championship on his yokozuna debut at the following tournament.
Nagging injuries to his knee, ankle, chest, and arm, however, forced him to withdraw from a yokozuna-record eight straight grand tournaments between May 2017 and July 2018, raising questions over his ability to continue his career in the sport's top rank.
Kisenosato finished with a 10-5 record at the September tournament to temporarily fend off calls for his retirement but lost four straight bouts to open November's Kyushu meet, the most by a yokozuna in 87 years.
The result in November prompted the Japan Sumo Association's yokozuna council to express their dissatisfaction with his performance and revived commentary that he would be forced to call time on his career depending on his performance in Tokyo.
Though Kisenosato was unable to meet comeback expectations at the ongoing meet, sumo elder Nishiiwa, a former coach at the Tagonoura stable, gave credit to the wrestler for entertaining the fans with his own drama in the sumo ring.
"At the end, people saw him as a weak wrestler but he did enough," Nishiiwa said.
"It was impressive the way he chased that one win. Unarguably strong yokozuna are okay too, but I like yokozuna like Kisenosato who look and act desperate on the dohyo," he said.
Kisenosato made his professional sumo debut in March 2002 at the age of 15 and joined the top makuuchi division in 2004.
