Hoshitango Imachi

Hoshitango Imachi
星誕期 偉真智
Imachi in 2016
Personal information
BornImachi Marcelo Salomón
(1965-09-05) 5 September 1965 (age 59)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in)
Weight167 kg (368 lb)
Career
StableMichinoku
Record430-388-11
DebutMay, 1987
Highest rankJūryō 3 (January, 2000)
RetiredJanuary, 2004
* Up to date as of July 2007.

Hoshitango Imachi (星誕期 偉真智, born Imachi Marcelo Salomón; September 5, 1965) is an Argentine-born Japanese former professional sumo wrestler and professional wrestler. His highest rank was jūryō 3.

Life and career

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A former swimming instructor, Salomón was spotted by a visiting Japanese coach at a gym in Buenos Aires who encouraged him to try sumo.[1] After studying at Chuo University,[2] he joined Michinoku stable in May 1987 at the age of 21 to support his family. He was the first, and to date only, Jewish professional sumo wrestler.[3] He was given the shikona (ring name) of Hoshitango, with "Hoshi" (star) a common prefix in Michinoku stable, and "tango" a reference to the popular dance.[3] He reached the second highest jūryō division for the first time in September 1992, but lasted only one tournament there before being demoted back to the unsalaried third makushita division. He managed another three tournaments in the second division in 1994 but once again fell back. In September 1998, at the age of 33, he demonstrated his fighting spirit by once again returning to jūryō, this time remaining for 12 straight tournaments. He was not able to break into the top makuuchi division, peaking at jūryō 3 in January 2000. In July 2000 he lost every one of his fifteen bouts and fell, once more, to the third division where he remained until his retirement in January 2004. His retirement ceremony or danpatsu-shiki was attended by around 150 people including stablemates Jūmonji and Toyozakura as well as the former Terao and Kirishima, who as his stablemaster made the final cut of his topknot.[4]

Hoshitango was joined at Michinoku stable in 1988 by another Buenos Aires native, Hoshiandesu, who reached a highest rank of jūryō 2 before retiring in 2000.

Hoshitango became a Japanese citizen in October 2000. His Japanese name was registered as Tango Hoshi.[4]

Retirement from sumo

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After retiring he opened a sports bar and restaurant called Tan & Go Dining which specialized in Japanese and South American fusion cuisine.[5]

Fighting style

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Hoshitango was an oshi-sumo specialist who preferred pushing and thrusting techniques to fighting on the mawashi. His most common winning kimarite were hataki-komi (slap down), hiki-otoshi (pull down) and okuri dashi (push out from behind).

Professional wrestling career

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Salomón is currently a professional wrestler for the Japanese company DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT), debuting on December 29, 2006, under his shikona Hoshitango,[6] and has also wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, Ice Ribbon and Wrestle-1. As a finishing maneuver, Hoshitango uses the Argentine backbreaker and chokeslam.[6] Due to his age and outside activities, he is a semi-regular performer.

He won his first professional wrestling championship on June 3, 2007, when he briefly held the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.[7] He had another brief reign on August 5.[7] On January 24, 2009, he defeated Sanshiro Takagi to win the DDT Extreme Championship. After a successful title defence against Poison Sawada Julie in March, he lost the title to Danshoku Dino in a three-way match that also included Masa Takanashi on May 31. In 2010, Hoshitango was involved in a storyline to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Gundam. Yago Aznable (dressed in Char Aznable cosplay) and Abnormal debuted for DDT in early 2010 and proved themselves to be an annoyance to DDT owner Sanshiro Takagi. Known as the Yagō Kōkoku-gun (ヤゴウ公国軍, lit. "Principality of Yago"), Abnormal was kicked out of the group and replaced with DJ Nira and joined by Ace Pilot X. On June 13, Hoshitango joined the group, debuting as Mobile Armour Hoshitango, dressed in Big Zam cosplay.[8] The storyline came to a close at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2010 when Yagō Kōkoku-gun lost a no disqualification Captain's Fall six-man tag team match.[9][10]

On June 3, 2012, Hoshitango had a third brief Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship reign.[7] On July 8, he formed the Monster Army stable with members Antonio Honda, Daisuke Sasaki Masa Takanashi, Yasu Urano and Yuji Hino.[11] At Budokan Peter Pan, Hoshitango competed in a "5 vs. 5 Soccer match" as part of Tonkatsu SC. The match consisted of two halves of 5 minutes each where each team tried to score the most pins by pinfall (two counts) or submission. The match ended in a 2–2 draw and was decided by an actual penalty shoot-out which saw Tonkatsu SC win 2–0.[12] On June 23, 2013, Hoshitango, Honda and Hino won the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[13] They lost the titles to Danshoku Dino, Kensuke Sasaki and Makoto Oishi on July 21.[14] On January 26, 2014, Hoshitango briefly won the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship for a forth time.[7] On February 23, after Hoshitango, Honda and Sasaki were defeated by Mikami, Sanshiro Takagi and Toru Owashi in a six-man tag team match, Honda announced that the Monster Army had decided to disband.[15][16] At Judgement 2014, Monster Army wrestled their final match together, where Hoshitango, Hino, Honda and Sasaki defeated Gorgeous Matsuno, Gota Ihashi, Sanshiro Takagi and Toru Owashi.[17]

With his stock significantly lowered following the end of Monster Army, in 2015 he began regularly competing for the King of Dark Championship. Contrary to regular professional wrestling championships, the title is awarded to the loser of the match and is a sign of shame. As punishment for holding the title, wrestler are forced to wrestle exclusively in dark matches. On April 2, 2016, Hoshitango "won" the King of Dark Championship after losing to Seiya Morohashi.[18] He held the dubious distinction for 22 days before "losing" the title to Gota Ihashi on April 24.[19]

Sumo career record

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Hoshitango Imachi[20]
Year January
Hatsu basho, Tokyo		 March
Haru basho, Osaka		 May
Natsu basho, Tokyo		 July
Nagoya basho, Nagoya		 September
Aki basho, Tokyo		 November
Kyūshū basho, Fukuoka
1987 x x (Maezumo) West Jonokuchi #47
6–1
 		 East Jonidan #124
6–1
 		 West Jonidan #53
4–3
 
1988 East Jonidan #32
4–3
 		 West Jonidan #6
5–2
 		 East Sandanme #72
4–3
 		 East Sandanme #51
4–3
 		 West Sandanme #31
5–2
 		 East Sandanme #3
1–6
 
1989 East Sandanme #34
4–3
 		 East Sandanme #20
6–1
 		 East Makushita #45
2–5
 		 East Sandanme #7
5–2
 		 West Makushita #41
5–2
 		 West Makushita #21
3–4
 
1990 West Makushita #28
3–4
 		 West Makushita #40
5–2
 		 East Makushita #22
4–3
 		 West Makushita #16
2–1–4
 		 West Makushita #37
Sat out due to injury
0–0–7		 East Sandanme #17
5–2
 
1991 West Makushita #51
5–2
 		 East Makushita #36
5–2
 		 East Makushita #18
5–2
 		 West Makushita #7
2–5
 		 West Makushita #23
3–4
 		 West Makushita #30
5–2
 
1992 East Makushita #19
4–3
 		 West Makushita #12
4–3
 		 West Makushita #8
5–2
 		 West Makushita #1
4–3
 		 East Jūryō #12
5–10
 		 West Makushita #7
3–4
 
1993 East Makushita #14
2–5
 		 West Makushita #29
5–2
 		 West Makushita #15
5–2
 		 West Makushita #7
4–3
 		 West Makushita #3
4–3
 		 East Makushita #2
4–3
 
1994 West Jūryō #13
10–5
 		 West Jūryō #5
5–10
 		 East Jūryō #10
2–13
 		 West Makushita #10
2–5
 		 East Makushita #25
6–1
 		 East Makushita #10
2–5
 
1995 West Makushita #25
4–3
 		 East Makushita #18
2–5
 		 West Makushita #33
6–1
 		 East Makushita #14
5–2
 		 West Makushita #8
3–4
 		 East Makushita #12
2–5
 
1996 East Makushita #26
3–4
 		 West Makushita #41
3–4
 		 West Makushita #53
3–4
 		 East Sandanme #6
5–2
 		 East Makushita #43
6–1
 		 East Makushita #20
3–4
 
1997 East Makushita #31
5–2
 		 West Makushita #20
5–2
 		 West Makushita #8
6–1–P
 		 East Makushita #2
2–6
 		 East Makushita #14
5–2
 		 East Makushita #7
2–5
 
1998 West Makushita #22
5–2
 		 West Makushita #9
4–3
 		 West Makushita #5
5–2
 		 East Makushita #2
6–1
 		 East Jūryō #13
9–6
 		 West Jūryō #10
8–7
 
1999 East Jūryō #9
7–8
 		 West Jūryō #11
9–6
 		 West Jūryō #7
6–9
 		 East Jūryō #11
8–7
 		 East Jūryō #10
8–7
 		 West Jūryō #8
9–6
 
2000 West Jūryō #3
5–10
 		 East Jūryō #7
6–9
 		 West Jūryō #10
8–7
 		 East Jūryō #8
0–15
 		 East Makushita #8
6–1
 		 West Makushita #1
3–4
 
2001 East Makushita #7
3–4
 		 West Makushita #13
5–2
 		 East Makushita #7
3–4
 		 East Makushita #14
4–3
 		 West Makushita #11
2–5
 		 West Makushita #23
3–4
 
2002 East Makushita #34
5–2
 		 West Makushita #24
3–4
 		 West Makushita #32
5–2
 		 East Makushita #17
3–4
 		 West Makushita #25
6–1
 		 West Makushita #8
2–5
 
2003 West Makushita #23
3–4
 		 West Makushita #34
3–4
 		 East Makushita #42
4–3
 		 West Makushita #34
4–3
 		 East Makushita #28
3–4
 		 West Makushita #39
1–6
 
2004 West Sandanme #6
Retired
2–5		 x x x x x
Record given as wins–losses–absences    Top division champion Top division runner-up Retired Lower divisions Non-participation

Sanshō key: F=Fighting spirit; O=Outstanding performance; T=Technique     Also shown: ★=Kinboshi; P=Playoff(s)
Divisions: Makuuchi — Jūryō — Makushita — Sandanme — Jonidan — Jonokuchi

Makuuchi ranks: Yokozuna — Ōzeki — Sekiwake — Komusubi — Maegashira

Professional wrestling championships and accomplishments

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Grisar, PJ (17 July 2018). "Meet The Greatest (And Only) Jewish Sumo Wrestler". The Forward. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Sumo wrestlers, by Reed Young – in pictures". The Guardian. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b Sharnoff, Lora (1993). Grand Sumo. Weatherhill. ISBN 0-8348-0283-X.
  4. ^ a b Furelaud, Gilles (February 2004). "Hoshitango:Intai and danpatsu-shiki in 11 days". Retrieved 25 March 2009.
  5. ^ madorosumaru (18 April 2006). "Konishiki - "Unbalanced"". Sumo Forum. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  6. ^ a b "Hoshitango DDT Profile". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d "Ironman Heavymetalweight Title (Japan)". Wrestling-Title.
  8. ^ "関本が石川を退け、7・25両国でHARASHIMAの挑戦を受けることが決定！中西の参戦と飯伏vs.丸藤も決定！". Battle News (in Japanese). 13 June 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  9. ^ "両国ピーターパン2010 ～夏休み ああ夏休み 夏休み～". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  10. ^ "両国ピーターパン2010～夏休み ああ夏休み 夏休み～". Weekly Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). 25 July 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  11. ^ a b c "DDT ProWrestling" 星誕期. Dramatic Dream Team (in Japanese). Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  12. ^ "武道館ピーターパン～DDTの15周年、ドーンと見せます超豪華4時間SP～". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  13. ^ a b "What are you doing 2013". Dramatic Dream Team (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  14. ^ "Road to Ryogoku 2days 2013" (in Japanese). Dramatic Dream Team. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  15. ^ "【後楽園リポート】Harashimaが高梨を下してKO-D無差別級V6。Kudoがウラシマクドウ脱退、3・21後楽園で挑戦／G☆Lが墨汁まみれでバラモン兄弟を撃破、KO-DタッグV２／アジャ様ご乱心...チームドリフがKO-D6人タッグ王者に返り咲き／柿本、万感のDDTラストマッチ「100倍強くなって戻ってくる」". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). 23 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  16. ^ "【DDT】Harashimavs高梨のKO-D戦、GLvsバラモンのタッグ戦". Battle News (in Japanese). 23 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  17. ^ "【後楽園リポート】Harashima、ついに陥落。KudoがKO-D無差別級奪取、酒呑童子で酒盛り！ 4・29後楽園で彰人が挑戦／いつどこ権は遠藤、ササダンゴ、平田、高梨が奪取". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). 21 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  18. ^ a b "さいたまースラム！vol.10". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  19. ^ "MAX BUMP 2016". DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  20. ^ "Hoshitango Imachi Rikishi Information". Sumo Reference. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
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