Urushihara Yuuji

Urushihara Yuuji (漆原裕治) is a shoe salesman who has attempted SASUKE ten times. In just his fourth attempt, he beat all the obstacles and became the third person and first non-All-Star to achieve kanzenseiha. He is a member of Shin Sedai and is also an Unlimited Cliffer. Urushihara is the only champion to have cleared all four stages twice, having performed the feat for the second time in SASUKE 27. He is also the only champion to wear the number #100 the tournament after his victory, as Akiyama Kazuhiko was absent the tournament after his victory, and Nagano Makoto wore #96 in the competition after his kanzenseiha.

Qualifying

Urushihara had been trying to get on SASUKE since 2003. He first competed in the Monkey Bars event in Taiku Ookoku, a successor to Kinniku Banzuke. (A finish in the top three would have awarded him a spot in SASUKE 11.) He then competed in the SASUKE 13 Trials, but failed the Jump Hang. He also competed (again unsuccessfully) in the SASUKE 19 and SASUKE 20 trials. Before SASUKE 21, he competed in the SASUKE ATTACK course at the BUG IN MIKI Festival, a course set up with several SASUKE obstacles with the last one being the Shin-Cliffhanger. Urushihara and fellow Unlimited Cliffer Tomino Keita completed the course, while none of the SASUKE All-Stars did. Urushihara had the faster time of the two, and was thus awarded a berth in SASUKE 21.

Early Tournaments

In SASUKE 21, he wore #72. Although his run was fully cut during the TBS broadcast, parts of it were shown on SASUKE Maniac. In his run, he showed great speed. On the Flying Chute, he was able to grab onto the rope, but while trying to reach the net, he lost his grip and he fell into the water.

He returned in SASUKE 22 after going through the SASUKE Trials and earning a spot to compete. He wore #77 and completed the First Stage with the fastest time of the day, 7.51 seconds remaining. In the Second Stage, his training at Muscle Park paid off, as he beat the Salmon Ladder with little trouble. While he had some trouble lifting the last wall of the Wall Lifting obstacle, he still completed the Second Stage with 19.27 seconds left. In the Third Stage, his training especially paid off. He was able to fly through most of the obstacles. When he made it to the Gliding Ring, he attacked the obstacle perfectly and became the first person to clear it, thus becoming the first person to reach the redesigned Final Stage. In the Final Stage, he showed great speed on the Heavenly Ladder, reaching the G-Rope with 28 seconds left. Unfortunately, he struggled there, and came up half a meter short of winning. After this failure, he spent most of his training rope climbing.

Because of his near-kanzenseiha, he was granted #99 in SASUKE 23. While it was clear he was under a lot of pressure, he was able to clear the First Stage despite stumbling on the Half-Pipe Attack and Soritatsu Kabe. In the Second Stage, he was able to clear the first few obstacles. Unfortunately, he went out on a new obstacle, the Unstable Bridge, when he failed to get a solid landing.

Kanzenseiha

Vlcsnap-295913 — Urushihara earning kanzenseiha in SASUKE 24

After his failure, he built a replica of the Unstable Bridge to train and returned for SASUKE 24, still receiving a high start position, #93. He blazed through the First Stage with 24.35 seconds left, the fastest time of the day. He then exacted his revenge on the Unstable Bridge but began to run low on time on the redesigned Balance Tank. He powered through the final obstacles and finished with 6.55 seconds to spare. In the Third Stage, he cleared all the obstacles for a second time. Despite the Gliding Ring ring sliding back at the end of the track, he recovered and became just the fourth person to clear the Third Stage on multiple occasions. Five cleared the third stage that day, which hadn't happened since SASUKE 3. Third in the running order, the first two fell short of the goal. He blazed through the Heavenly Ladder in record time but began to struggle on the transition to the G-Rope. He finally regained footing at the bottom of the rope with 21 seconds left. Putting his long hours of rope climb training to good use, he powered up the rope. With ten seconds left on the clock, he picked up his pace. He defeated the Final Stage with 3.57 seconds remaining, and became the third person to achieve kanzenseiha, joining SASUKE All-Stars Akiyama Kazuhiko and Nagano Makoto, who interestingly both failed the First Stage that day.

Kanzen Renewal

After his kanzenseiha, he was granted the coveted #100 in SASUKE 25. He again cleared the first stage with little trouble, but he failed the Double Salmon Ladder in an odd and unlikely fashion. The left side of the bar missed the rung, but the right side somehow latched onto one of the rungs, leaving Urushihara hanging onto the pole vertically, essentially rendering completion of the obstacle impossible. His foot grazed the water after a while, and his day was over.

In SASUKE 26, he once again wore #100. Throughout his run, he was sloppy. On the Rolling Escargot, he nearly lost his footing and had to stop the obstacle halfway to re-adjust. On the Jumping Spider, he was too short on the walls and dove back to the trampoline, giving himself a rare second chance at the obstacle; he completed it on his second attempt. Now in a time crunch, he was forced to rush through the remainder of the course. On the Half-Pipe Attack, he failed to land properly on the mat, but held onto the rope for another try, a mistake he's made multiple times in the past. Now desperate to complete the obstacle with any decent amount of time left, he landed awkwardly on the mat, lost his balance and hopped backwards into the water.

In SASUKE 27, he wore #99 despite being the current champion. Nevertheless, the starting position change may have been what he needed mentally as he would clear the First Stage in a much more fluid run than the previous tournament. He also conquered his demon on the Double Salmon Ladder, clearing the Second Stage with time to spare (as well as the stigma of failing at #99 in the same stage during SASUKE 23). Despite never attempting any of the obstacles of the Third Stage outside of replicas, he continued his perfect streak of clearing the stage (although there was a small scare of transitioning to the wooden ladder after clearing the Chain See-Saw), making it 3 for 3. On the Final Stage, Urushihara once again proved his rope climbing training paid off as he acheived Kanzenseiha with 6.71 seconds remaining, becoming not just the fastest to complete the Final Stage, but also the first person to acheive Kanzenseiha twice.

SASUKE RISING

In SASUKE RISING (SASUKE 28) he wore #88. He was one of only five to clear the First stage, his speed and strength present as he blazed through the course with 21.37 seconds remaining. In the Second stage he cleared the first four obstacles with ease, but after the Backstream, he seemed to be very tired. He crossed the Passing Wall in a slower pace but still cleared with 13.56 seconds left. In the Third stage he cleared the Rumbling Dice easily, but struggled massively on the Iron Paddler. Urushihara, despite taking more than a minute on the obstacle, still cleared it, showing a profound amount of strength and determination. He then spent more than 30 seconds resting for the Crazy Cliffhanger, showing how difficult the Iron Paddler can be, even for the toughest competitors. On the Crazy Cliffhanger he struggled while gaining momentum on the third ledge and fell on the transition to the opposite side, his first ever third stage failure.

Ιn SASUKE 29, his First Stage run was digested, but it was shown that he cleared with 10.33 seconds left. In the Second Stage his pace was faster than that of any other competitor, completing the Spider Walk with 45 seconds still remaining. He nearly made it near the end of the Backstream that he had trained specifically for, however was pushed back by the water jets causing him to rise to the surface for air. He was too fatigued to attempt it again, and timed out there, even requiring the aid of a lifeguard to help him out.

In SASUKE 30, he was digested, but was shown to have cleared the First Stage. In the Second Stage he got his revenge on the Backstream, but still wasted nearly 20 seconds trying to cross it, leaving him too exhausted and with too little time for the Wall Lifting. He attempted to force himself under the first wall, but got stuck and timed out after getting under.

In SASUKE 31, he managed to blaze through the first four obstacles, but he struggled on the Tackle, spending 20 seconds trying to push it before timing out on the Soritatsu Kabe due to exhaustion, like many that day.

Trivia

Urushihara is one of only three competitors to progress the furthest of any competitor two tournaments in a row, the others being Lee En-Chih and Nagano Makoto.
He is the only person to achieve Kanzenseiha twice.
From SASUKE 22 to 27, Urushihara never failed the Third Stage.
Urushihara failed the Soritatsu Kabe in SASUKE 31 for the first time in his career.
He and Kanno Hitoshi are the only Shin Sedai who have failed the First Stage 3 times.
Urushihara failed a variant of the Cliffhanger in SASUKE 28 for the first time in his career.
Urushihara was the first to pass the Gliding Ring.
From SASUKE 12, Urushihara became one of the only five people to beat the Third Stage on his first Third Stage attempt (along with Shiratori Bunpei, Matachi Ryo, Hashimoto Kouji and Kawaguchi Tomohiro).
He is the only Shin Sedai to have never cleared the Floating Boards at American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. Japan.
Urushihara Yuuji is one of the only five people to make it to the Final Stage more than once (along with Omori Akira, Yamamoto Shingo, Nagano Makoto and Matachi Ryo).
He is the only Shin Sedai who has never attempted the Drum Hopper.
He and Matachi Ryo are the only Shin Sedai to never attempt the Sidewinder R.
He took more than a minute to clear the Iron Paddler in SASUKE 28, most likely leading to his fail on the Crazy Cliffhanger.
He and Matachi Ryo are the only Shin Sedai to never attempt the Salmon Ladder Nobori and Salmon Ladder Kudari.
He has left the most time on the clock in the Final Stage of any Grand Champion (6.71 seconds), achieved in SASUKE 27.
He is the only person to achieve Kanzenseiha without wearing #100 in a previous tournament (only applies to his first Kanzenseiha in SASUKE 24).
He is the only person to not be the Last Man Standing while achieving Kanzenseiha.
He was the lowest number to be the Last Man Standing (#77 in SASUKE 22).
Urushihara lost his father at age seven and lived with his mother since then.
It was revealed that his struggles on the Backstream was due to an incident where he almost drowned in the sea during childhood. He developed a fear to water since then and trained intensively in high school to overcome it, but he still considers himself as a bad swimmer.

Results

SASUKE	#	Result	Notes
21	72	Failed Flying Chute (First Stage)	All Cut. Broadcast on SASUKE Maniac.
22	77	Failed G-Rope (Final Stage)	Time Out. 22.1 meters up. Last man standing.
23	99	Failed Unstable Bridge (Second Stage)
24	93	Kanzenseiha	3.57 seconds left.
25	100	Failed Double Salmon Ladder (Second Stage)	Course Out. His foot skimmed the water.
26	100	Failed Half-Pipe Attack (First Stage)
27	99	Kanzenseiha	6.71 seconds left.
28	88	Failed Crazy Cliffhanger (Third Stage)	First 3rd stage failure.
29	99	Failed Backstream (Second Stage)	Time Out.
30	2993	Failed Wall Lifting (Second Stage)	Time Out.
31	99	Failed Soritatsu Kabe (First Stage)	Time Out.
32	89	Failed Double Pendulum (First Stage)