AOMORI -- Competing in her first international competition in July, 15-year-old sumo wrestler Rio Hasegawa earned the bronze medal in the middleweight class of the Junior Women Sumo Championships in Taiwan, an event that featured wrestlers of high school age and younger.
"I want to be stronger so I can display Japanese wrestlers' strength to the world," she said.
Hasegawa was born in Ajigasawa, Aomori Prefecture, the hometown of many professional rikishi such as Mainoumi and Homarefuji. During her first year of elementary school, she began seriously practicing sumo due to the influence of her two brothers, who were four and six years older and practicing the sport.
Female rikishi wear a mawashi belt over jersey pants, and Hasegawa's training partners are all male. Telling herself "I won't lose to guys," she grits her teeth as she hones her signature oshidashi push-out technique.
As a third grader, she finished second in a national tournament before winning three consecutive championships from fourth to sixth grades. As a sixth grader, Hasegawa forced down male wrestler Rikido Narita, the fifth-grade national champion in the 100-kilogram class from Nakadomari in the same prefecture. Narita was almost twice her weight.
After entering junior high school, however, Hasegawa struggled to win bouts, and could not understand why she kept on losing.
She also injured her big toe in a match in September in her first year of junior high, further adding to her woes. Hasegawa felt discouraged as she coped with these challenges.
"I thought I couldn't enjoy sumo if this kept up and might even start disliking it," she recalled.
As a second-year student, Hasegawa actively practiced with male wrestlers, seeking to recover the passion she felt when she first began sumo. Her practice bouts with male junior high school students required a much higher level of physical fitness.
She grew stronger as a result of her tough training regime and improved her confidence.
That autumn, she finally won another national tournament.
"Psychology plays a big part in sumo. Restoring my mind-set helped me a lot," she said.
In May, she participated in an invitational tournament in Osaka with her eye toward international competition. The tournament attracted talented wrestlers ranging from junior high school students to adults. Hasegawa finished third in the middleweight class. She also competed in the open-weight class to test her abilities and defeated notable opponents en route to winning the class.
At the July world championship, she was thrown out from the edge of the ring in the semifinals. Her opponent from Ukraine would go on to win the title.
"I was agitated, which caused my loss," Hasegawa said with regret. "I could have won the match."
Six students currently belong to Ajigasawa Junior High School's sumo club. Hasegawa is the only female member and wears a mawashi during training sessions that she received from Homarefuji two years ago. She aims to win her second consecutive title in the upcoming national tournament in October.
Outside the ring, Hasegawa is a typical third-year junior high school student who loves YouTube.
"I want to dress fashionably, but my passion to be strong in sumo is greater. I'm totally committed to sumo right now," she said.
Hasegawa was born in April 2003 in Ajigasawa, Aomori Prefecture, and began practicing sumo when she was a first grader at a local elementary school. She currently belongs to the sumo club at the municipal Ajigasawa Junior High School. Taking advantage of her height of 170 centimeters, she competes mainly in the middleweight class. Her hobby is piano, which she has been learning since she was in nursery school. After graduating from junior high school, she plans to enroll in a high school in the prefecture and continue practicing sumo. Her favorite professional rikishi is Onosho from Nakadomari.
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