Daidō Kenji (大道 健二) (born August 21, 1982 as Kenji Nakanishi) is a former professional sumo wrestler (rikishi) from Katsushika, Tokyo, Japan. He made his debut in 2005, reaching the top division six years later, debuting in the July, 2011 tournament. His highest rank was maegashira #8. He is now a sumo coach. Early life and sumo background At the behest of his older sister, Nakanishi started participating in a sumo club in his neighborhood from 4th grade. He later participated in inter-high school tournaments. As a student at Senshu University he won the open weight division championship. Upon graduating he joined Onomatsu stable and entered the professional sumo ring in March 2005. Professional career Nakanishi had a relatively trouble-free rise through the lower ranks. He took a 7-0 championship in both the jonokuchi and jonidan divisions in his first and second tournaments. He continued to post mostly winning records through 2005 and well into 2006, but began to struggle after reaching the higher ranks of the makushita division. He would then bounce back and forth between mid to high level makushita ranks, posting alternating winning and losing records, for the next two and a half years. He finally began to find some equilibrium in mid 2008, posting several consecutive winning tournaments. This streak was interrupted by a broken jaw that would force him to sit out the March 2008 tournament at what had been his highest rank to date at makushita #5. Though missing this tournament would send him back to makushita #45 in the next tournament, he did not let this slow him down and upon returning proceeded to post five consecutive winning tournaments, including one playoff loss for the championship in July 2009. As is often the custom, he chose his entry into jūryō to change his ring name from his family name to his current ring name of Daidō. The name he said comes from what he sees as the starting place of his way of sumo, his old junior high school, which is named Daidō. He entered the second tier jūryō division at the same time as Onomatsu stablemate in March 2010. This was the first time that two wrestlers from the same stable had been promoted to jūryō simultaneously since Kimurayama and Tochinoshin from Kasugano stable were promoted in January 2008. Daidō was the third wrestler from Senshu University to achieve sekitori status, following