Sumo!

[neil]

On 1/25/2025 at 2:07 PM, neil said:

If Oho wins and Hoshoryu wins then we'll get a very rare 3-way playoff!

Wow so this happened and Hoshoryu just went beast mode and handled Kinbozen (for the 2nd time) and Oho, the latter of which was a great match. Definitely added weight to Hoshoryu's yokozuna promotion, but I still question those soft losses he had. The JSA can't be handing out those kinboshi like candy!

Awesome tournament though, the Juyro division was really great too.

[BigJag]

There's a really fun match on Day 10. Wakamotoharu V Ura at about 21mins of the NHK video. Ura is super speedy and agile. Making for an exciting few seconds of action. He also seem to have a plucky underdog charisma.

 

[neil]

Big Hosh is yokozuna! 

https://www.nippon.com/en/news/yjj2025012900181/

[BigJag]

I've been watching a few of the Sumo Stew videos. Useful for filling in gaps of knowledge. Mongolian wrestlers are very much in the ascendency. With wrestlers like Asashōryū and Hakuhō Shō being classed as all time greats.

May try and get tickets for the Royal Albert Hall show.

[Statto]

Waited about an hour in the queue for Albert Hall tix this morning, £80 for restricted view a bit rich for my blood for this so decided against. 

[neil]

Haru Basho starts today!!

I'm very interested to see how new Yokozuna Hoshoryu does, from reports he has a bit of an elbow injury coming from the insane playoff run he had last tournament. His first match is against well-known upset maker Abi, so should be a good test for Hoshoryu.

Also keep an eye on Kotozakura who is allegedly back in good health but due to his previous losing record is now on KADOBAN~! meaning if he gets a losing record this tournament he'll be demoted from Ozeki!

[neil]

8 days down in the Haru Basho and so far it has been interesting, but not wildly exciting.

Hoshoryu is middling, which for a Yokozuna isn't great and especially when people already thought his promotion was too soon. He is 5-3 with 2 loses to maegashira ranked wrestlers meaning the JSA is gonna have to give out $$$ (kinboshi)...eek.

Top of the leaderboard at 7-1 right now are Ozeki Onosato who has been looking very dominant and has already faced higher ranked wrestlers, hairy beast Takayasu who will have a harder schedule coming up, and Churanoumi who is definitely likely to fall off as he will be facing the top ranks as he hasn't faced anyone ranked higher than M12.

Kadoban faced Ozeki Kotozakura is hanging in there, had a rough start but has won his last 3 to bring him to 5-3. He needs 3 more wins to avoid demotion.

[neil]

Breaking news today is that Hoshoryu has withdrawn from this tournament. He lost yesterday so was at 5-4, it is common for yokozuna's to withdraw if they aren't doing well, but this is something he said he would not do. He did have an elbow injury, but that seemed to not be bothering him, so unclear whether this is pressure due to losing or a legit injury.

Either way not good for Hoshoryu who already had questions over his promotion.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Is there an amount of time he will get to stay a yokozuna or can you be demoted really quickly?

[neil]

Yokozuna's can't get demoted, but if they end up sucking they will be "encouraged" to retire. Too early to say if this will be the case for Hoshoryu, we'll have to wait and see how he does next tournament at least. Personally I was a bit iffy on the promotion for him, he did have an excellent tournament in January, but if you look at his record it wasn't really dominant, he'd often end up with a winning record but along the lines of 10-5 or 8-7.

[westlondonmist]

On 3/18/2025 at 3:05 AM, neil said:

Breaking news today is that Hoshoryu has withdrawn from this tournament. He lost yesterday so was at 5-4, it is common for yokozuna's to withdraw if they aren't doing well, but this is something he said he would not do. He did have an elbow injury, but that seemed to not be bothering him, so unclear whether this is pressure due to losing or a legit injury.

Either way not good for Hoshoryu who already had questions over his promotion.

Was he promoted purely because the only other Yokozuna retired? 

[neil]

3 hours ago, westlondonmist said:

Was he promoted purely because the only other Yokozuna retired? 

It may have played a part. They have a kind of standard in order to promote someone, which is to be ozeki and to "win" two consecutive tournaments, but one of them can be runner-up. Still goes via the yokozuna committee as a recommendation to the JSA.

But yeah, I'm sure they wanted to avoid having no yokozuna especially with the big London show this year.

[Tamura]

Here's the potential promotion worthy performances by ozeki since 2020.

Takakeisho
Won November 2020 with 13-2 record, 2–8–5 in next tournament
Won January 2023 with 12–3 record, 3–4–8 in next tournament
Won September 2023 with 11-4 record, 9-6 in next tournament
Runner-up in May 2021 with 12-3 record, 1-2-12 in next tournament.
Runner-up in December 2021 with 12-3 record, 1-3-11 in next tournament.
Runner-up in September 2022 with 11-4 record, 10-5 in next tournament.
Runner-up in November 2022 with 12-3 record, won in January 2023 with 12-3 record. 3-4-8 in next tournament.

Terunofuji
Won May 2020 with 12-3 record, runner-up with 14–1 in next tournament. Promoted to yokozuna.

Asanoyama
Runner-up in July 2022 with 12-3 record, 10-5 in next tournament
Runner-up in January 2021 with 11-4 record, 10-5 in next tournament

Shodai 
Runner-up in January 2021 with 11–4 record, 7–8 in next tournament

Kirishima
Won November 2023 with 13-2 record, 11-4 in next tournament

Kotozakura
Won November 2024 with 14-1 record, 5-10 in next tournament

Hoshoryu
Runner-up in in November 2024 with 13–2 record, won 12-3 in next tournament. Promoted to yokozuna.

Other than Kirishima falling a couple of wins short in January 2024, nobody other than Terunofuji and Hoshoryu (who were both promoted) has even come close to forcing the Yokozuna Deliberation Council to make a recommendation to the JSA. I don't remember Asanoyama or Shodai even being talked about as yokozuna candidates at the time of their runner-up performances, especially the 11-4 wins, and only included them for thoroughness. So while it's obviously right and proper that promotion to yokozuna is difficult to achieve, it's understandable why Hoshoryu was promoted since we might be waiting a long time for the next candidate. If people want to say it was too early for Hoshoryu then they have to apply the same standard to Onosato and potentially Takerufuji. Ignoring them and Kotozakura, who else is there that looks even remotely likely to become a yokozuna? Certainly none of the people that have been in the top division for years and years and never looked consistently dominant, so that only leaves the newcomers, and it has to be too early for them too. 

Just added Takakeisho's runner-up finishes which I forgot to include, which includes him being close to consideration in early 2023, but his 12-3 record wasn't seen as a strong enough win. 

Edited March 20, 2025 by Tamura

[neil]

On 3/16/2025 at 10:58 AM, neil said:

8 days down in the Haru Basho and so far it has been interesting, but not wildly exciting.

Hoshoryu is middling, which for a Yokozuna isn't great and especially when people already thought his promotion was too soon. He is 5-3 with 2 loses to maegashira ranked wrestlers meaning the JSA is gonna have to give out $$$ (kinboshi)...eek.

Top of the leaderboard at 7-1 right now are Ozeki Onosato who has been looking very dominant and has already faced higher ranked wrestlers, hairy beast Takayasu who will have a harder schedule coming up, and Churanoumi who is definitely likely to fall off as he will be facing the top ranks as he hasn't faced anyone ranked higher than M12.

Kadoban faced Ozeki Kotozakura is hanging in there, had a rough start but has won his last 3 to bring him to 5-3. He needs 3 more wins to avoid demotion.

Funny to look back on this from day 8 and see that...well it pretty much continued in that way. Winning after a playoff bout against Takayasu was the Ozeki Onosato. That is going to mean next tournament will be hype around whether he can get that second yusho/jun-yusho to get a yokozona promotion!

Felt bad for Takayasu, who has never won a tournament, and at age 35 you have to wonder how many more chances he'll get. But great showing from him.

Kotozakura hung on and secured his kachi-koshi on day 13. Ended up 8-7 and it will be interesting to see how he recovers from a clear injury.

Elsewhere, the newly promoted Ukranian Aonishiki did incredibly well finishing 11-4 and if things had gone differently on the final day may have been in a playoff.

[Tamura]

1 hour ago, neil said:

Felt bad for Takayasu, who has never won a tournament, and at age 35 you have to wonder how many more chances he'll get.

Takayasu falling at the final hurdle when in a strong position is something you'll get used to. He's often been sole or co-leader with a few days to go and lost out, it's what he does. In March 2017 he was 10-0 before losing three of his last five. In March 2021 he was 9-1 and two wins clear of the chasing pack, only to lose four of his last five. Similarly in March 2022 he was 10-0 before losing three of his list five and the yusho playoff to Wakatakakage. Then runner-up again in September 2022 after losing on the final day to Tamawashi which would have forced a playoff. Same again in November 2022, he lost on day 15 to Abi which would cost him the outright championship, then lost to Abi again in the playoff (from what I remember the first loss was the Abi henka that Murray Johnson alluded to on commentary). Speaking of Murray Johnson he was particularly bad on commentary this time. I have no idea why, but every time there's a white person in a crowd shot at the srart of each show Murrary likes to remind us that visitors to Japan attend sumo. You'd think as a white man living in Japan with at least one white colleague (John Gunning, who doesn't do commentary but appears on the preview show every two months) he might be able to comprehend that not every white person is a "visitor"...