Ozeki Kotoshogiku announced his wedding engagement on Friday at a news conference held at his Sadogatake stable in Chiba Prefecture.

The 31-year-old Kotoshogiku needed eight wins in January to avoid demotion to the sekiwake ranks and finished the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament with a 9-6 record. He is engaged to 28-year-old Yumi Ishida, a former company employee from Tokyo.

The two were introduced by an acquaintance and have been seeing each other for about a year and a half.

“She always supports me with a smile,” said the ozeki. “I want us to overcome things in life together.”

When he suffered a torn right pectoral muscle in the 2013 Kyushu Basho, he said that Ishida helped nurse him back to health.