July 16, 2026
SAITAMA – A 17-year-old from Britain is set to make his professional sumo debut at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, which opens Sunday.
Nicholas Tarasenko of Minato Stable in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, will wrestle under the ring name Eisei. Blessed with a powerful frame — 1.87 meters tall and 125 kilograms — he passed an interview conducted by the Japan Sumo Association, which tests Japanese-language ability, less than a year after arriving in Japan.
Tarasenko is the first British-born wrestler in 36 years after Hidenokuni, who reached the jonidan division, the fifth of professional sumo’s six divisions.
“I want to become a yokozuna one day and help more people in my home country learn about sumo,” Tarasenko said, setting his sights high.
In mid-June, during morning practice at Minato Stable, Tarasenko repeatedly joined moshiai-geiko, a practice session in which wrestlers take turns facing one another. “Gocchan desu,” he called out to his senior stablemates, using a sumo expression to ask for a bout.
Despite being thrown to the clay again and again, there were also moments when he seized both sides of an opponent’s mawashi and drove him out forcefully.
“He still has a long way to go technically, but he has the strength and the motivation,” said stablemaster Minato, the former top makuuchi division wrestler Minatofuji. “He is definitely going to become strong.”
Tarasenko is from Hull, in northeastern England. Influenced by his father, an avid sumo fan, he grew up watching the sport on television. He was captivated by the wide variety of winning techniques and came to admire the wrestlers.
The opportunity to pursue his dream came during his first visit to Japan in May 2024. After watching a tournament at Ryogoku Kokugikan, he attended a final-day party at Minato Stable through an acquaintance of his father’s and appealed directly to stablemaster Minato, saying he wanted to become a sumo wrestler.
Under sumo rules, each stable may have only one foreign-born wrestler. But stablemaster Minato was impressed by Tarasenko’s earnest effort during a summer vacation training experience and accepted him as a trainee the following June. As a foreign-born recruit who came up after completing junior high school, he is an unusual example of a wrestler trying to rise from the ground up.
To take the new-recruit physical examination, the first hurdle to becoming a professional wrestler, Tarasenko had to pass a Japanese-language interview conducted by the association. He studied intensely with flashcards and other tools, passing on his second attempt in April. The following month, he cleared the new-recruit examination, which evaluates candidate’s physique, athletic ability and other qualifications.
“He likes to talk, and that gradually helped him become able to speak Japanese,” said Makoto Miura, the stablemaster’s wife.
More than a year has passed since Tarasenko began an unfamiliar communal life in a foreign country. “It’s fun being able to do sumo,” he said.
His debut will come in maezumo, preliminary bouts for wrestlers who are not yet listed on the ranking sheet. Tarasenko is eager to show his own style.
“I want to use thrusts and pushes so my opponent can’t grab my mawashi,” he said. “I want to wrestle my own brand of sumo.”