Wakaichiro Ken

Ichiro Kendrick Young was born in 1998 in Houston, Texas to an African-American father and Japanese mother. Young did not have a sumo background before joining the professional sport. Although he played football at school he did not regard sport as a possible profession and was considering becoming a pilot or joining the armed forces after graduation. However, his mother urged him to give sumo a try. He joined Musashigawa stable in November 2016, and was given the shikona of Wakaichiro, a literal translation of his real name Young Ichiro. As he has Japanese nationality, Wakaichiro does not count against the one foreigner per heya quota set by the Japan Sumo Association, which in Musashagawa stable is taken by stablemaster Musashimaru's nephew Musashikuni. Wakaichiro lists his place of birth on the banzuke ranking sheets as Nagasaki, where he has also lived.

Wakaichiro made his first appearance on the dohyo in November 2016, winning his three maezumo bouts. On his first official banzuke appearance in January 2017 at the rank of jonokuchi 17 he scored three wins against four losses. After a 5-2 result in March he was promoted to the jonidan division in May 2017 and had reached jonidan 4 by September.

With a high-profile ex-yokozuna as its stablemaster Musashigawa stable has had many visitors from other sports and as a consequence Wakaichiro has met Max Holloway of the UFC and Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks. Wakaichiro himself is a Houston Texans fan.