Early career In his fourth year in university he made the decision to join
Kise stable and first stepped into the ring for the January 2009 tournament, along with other contemporaries such as Takarafuji,
Kimikaze and
Takanoiwa. Despite his successes in amateur sumo, he never achieved student
yokozuna status so was not allowed to enter professional sumo at an elevated rank (see
makushita tsukedashi) and had to start at the bottom of the ranks. His skill and experience gave him a string of winning tournaments from his entry into sumo, and he also took the bottom division
jonokuchi championship in his debut tournament, with a 6-1 score without a playoff (which is very rare in sumo), followed by a perfect 7–0
sandanme championship in September of that same year. He was promoted to the
makushita division in the November tournament following his championship. He spent all of 2010 in
makushita and had only two losing tournaments until reaching
makushita 2 in November of that year. Though on the cusp of being promoted to the salaried ranks of
jūryō, he only managed a 1–6 record. He changed his
ring name from his surname to Tokushōryū in January 2011. He spent most of 2011 working his way through
makushita much as he had in 2010. On reaching
makushita 1 in the September tournament he put in an impressive 5–2 record and achieve promotion to
jūryō on his second chance. In his first
jūryō tournament in November 2011 he garnered a lot of attention by winning his first seven bouts, however he lost four in a row after that, ending with a 10–5. This was followed by a disastrous 2–13 record for the January 2012 tournament, largely due to a knee injury, which dropped him back to
makushita. He fought back with a 4–3 record in the following March tournament and earned re-promotion to
jūryō. From this point on he managed to work his way through
jūryō posting mostly winning records. This continued up until the May 2013 tournament, where he achieved a strong 12–3 record and almost took the
jūryō championship, only losing it to
Kotoyūki on the last day of the tournament. This was still enough to earn him promotion to the top-tier
makuuchi division for the July 2013 tournament.
Makuuchi and later career , April 2014 In his first top-tier tournament Tokushōryū managed a 9–6 record, making him the first
makuuchi debut wrestler in 2013 to achieve a winning record. In the following two tournaments however, he would get two consecutive losing records, just barely managing to avoid demotion. He dropped to the second division in 2014 but was immediately promoted back to
makuuchi after posting a 12–3 record. Fighting from the low rank of
maegashira 16 in the January 2015 tournament he scored 11–4 and was runner-up to
Hakuhō, who won a record-breaking 33rd
yūshō. He remained in the top division for the next two years, reaching
maegashira 4 in May 2015. He then dropped down the
banzuke and was relegated again after the September 2016 tournament. Tokushōryū returned to
makuuchi in March 2017, but a record of only 4–11 in consecutive tournaments in July and September saw him demoted to
jūryō once again. In September 2018 he won his first
jūryō division championship after a playoff win over
Daiamami. He returned to the top division in May 2019 but only for one tournament as he recorded four wins against eleven losses, a failure he later attributed to a "lack of appetite for victory" because he was content simply to be in
makuuchi again. After recording eight wins in November 2019 he earned his sixth promotion to the top division and started the January 2020 tournament at west
maegashira 17, making him the lowest-ranked of the 42 entrants. He defeated
Chiyoshōma in his first bout before losing to
Kaisei on the second day but then recorded eleven straight wins to enter the penultimate day in a tie for the lead with
Shōdai. He was then matched against Shōdai and won by
tsukiotoshi to take the sole lead. The final match on the last day of the tournament saw Tokushōryū pitted against
ōzeki Takakeishō and needing to win to take the title: if he lost he would have to face Shōdai again in a play-off. Tokushōryū secured a right hand outside grip on Takakeishō's belt and forced his opponent out of the ring to win by
yorikiri. He became the first wrestler from
Nara Prefecture to win a top division championship in 98 years and the first to do so from the bottom rank in the division since
Takatōriki in March 2000. In addition to the
yūshō, Tokushōryū also received his first ever
sanshō or special prizes, for Outstanding Performance and Fighting Spirit. Referring to his visible display of emotion upon clinching victory, rarely seen on the
dohyō, he said, "I might have cried too much, but at that moment I felt relieved from all the pressure." Araiso-
oyakata (former
yokozuna Kisenosato) commented, "People are always telling him to lose weight. But the weight that had been a shortcoming is now an asset." He managed to earn a
kinboshi by defeating
Kakuryū on Day 6, his first win over a
yokozuna, but ended the tournament with a 4–11 record. After maintaining a position in the mid-
maegashira ranks for the rest of 2020, a 3–12 record at the rank of
maegashira 8 in January 2021, five tournaments after his championship, saw him demoted to
jūryō for the March 2021 tournament. This was the quickest demotion to
jūryō ever after winning a
makuuchi championship, surpassing
Wakanami who was demoted after seven tournaments. Following the November 2022 tournament he was demoted once again, to
makushita. During this tournament he had lost to
Asanoyama in the first ever match in the
jūryō division between two former
makuuchi division tournament champions. Tokushōryū earned immediate promotion back to
jūryō after the January 2023 tournament, but garnered a poor 4–11 record in the next one. ==Retirement==