Sumo!

[Tamura]

Getting down to the vinegar strokes now. Spoilers below...











Co-leader yokozuna Onosato scraped a win against fellow co-leader Aonishiki. Fellow co-leader and fellow yokozuna Hoshoryu beat neil's favourite Kotozakura. Hoshoryu fights Aonishiki in the first key match tomorrow, the latter needing to win to keep his championship hopes alive. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, the yokozuna showdown in the final match on day 15 will be the one to watch, as it'll be either for outright championship, or to force another playoff against each other with Aonishiki potentially being able to sneak into a playoff if results go his way (he needs to win both days then for Hoshoryu to beat Onosato), which will be a thre-way playoff unless Onosato loses on both days in which case it'll be Hoshuro versus Aonishiki. 

[neil]

I'm calling it now...Aonishiki beats Hoshoryu tonight.

[neil]

Well...that tournament ended with a few twists and turns. Will post more tomorrow 

[neil]

Well that was an incredible few days at the end of the tournament. And sure enough this absolute ledge called it:

On 11/21/2025 at 11:22 PM, neil said:

I'm calling it now...Aonishiki beats Hoshoryu tonight.

That made everything REAL interesting because Kotozakura managed to defeat Onosato pretty easily...which seemed odd.

But all was revealed on the last day with Onosato pulling out due to injury, apparently from the somewhat controversial win over Aonishiki, which explained the relative ease Kotozakura had in beating him. This set Hosh up with the automatic win on the last day meaning that Aonishiki had to beat Kotozakura to force a playoff for the cup.

Aonishiki hit Kotozakura with his rare uchimuso move (that he got him with in the tournament before) and then defeated Hosh in the playoffs. Spectacular stuff from the Ukrainian and to force his promotion to Ozeki (the JSA said he'd have to win to get promoted or go another tournament with 11+ wins to secure promotion). Amazing to think he started the year in Juryo!

[Tamura]

8 minutes ago, neil said:

This set Hosh up with the automatic win on the last day meaning that Aonishiki had to beat Kotozakura to force a playoff for the cup.

Aonishiki always had to win on the final day though. Aonishiki, Onosato and Hoshoryu were all 11-3 going in to day 15, so as Onosato or Hoshoryu were supposed to fight each other it was guaranteed that one of them would end up 12-3. 

Definitely an exciting end to the tournament, and definitely interesting to see what Aonishiki will do in 2026. Mind you, we thought the same about Kotozakura after he won the November 2024 tournament with a 14-1 record and achieved the most wins by anyone in 2024. And look how that worked out! Totally mediocre year scraping through four tournaments with an 8-7 record, a losing record in January and his best result being nine wins in November. Ozeki are supposed to be challenging for titles with 10+ wins, not struggling to get a winning record.

[Tamura]

Days 1-4 spoilers.
 

Spoiler

Well it's been a war of attrition so far. Midorifuji pulled out before day 1 due to a cardiac arrest. Apparently he'll only be out for a month (well technically two, since the next basho won't be until May) which seems a remarkably quick recovery, but I am not a doctor. Onokatsu and Hakunofuji pulled out after picking up injuries on day 1, followed by Abi pulling out on day 2. And after losing on days 1, 2 and 3, Yokozuna Onosato pulls out prior to day 4, he's been struggling with a shoulder injury since November. Hopefully he'll take sufficent time to heal properly. Day 3 saw plenty of upsets, with yokozuna Hoshoryu and both ozeki (Aonishiki and Kotozakura) all losing. Aonishiki came into the tournament looking strong. He went 11-4 in his first four tournaments in the top division, before winning the last two with 12-3 records. With a tournament win (or equally strong performance) this time he'd almost certainly be promoted to yokozuna, however he's now languishing at 2-2 so needs to improve. 

 

Edited March 12 by Tamura

[neil]

May Basho just over a week down...and it is a bit of a dud. Onosato and Aonishiki both pulled out before the start, meaning Aonishiki is going to lose his ozeki rank due to his losing record in the last basho - ozeki go kadoban when they have a losing record and have to get a winning record next basho to stay at that rank...no injury excuses allowed in sumo!

After the injury news it seemed like this was Hoshoryu's for the taking, he hasn't won a basho since becoming yokuzuna, and has been close but faltered. Aaaaand he injured his hamstring on a day 1 loss

So we've basically had no yokozuna, one ozeki out, the other ozeki Kotozakura looking really bad and so up steps last basho winner Kirishima, newly minted and returning to ozeki. He was 7-0 coming into today (well yesterday I suppose) and looking very strong. But it's gotten a lot more interesting now because he lost to Gonoyama in a very good fight! That's giving us a leaderboard of:

Kirishima, Wakatakakage, Tobizaru  (7-1)

Gonoyama, Kotoeiho, Fujiryoga (6-2)

I expect Tobizaru to start falling off and will be interesting to see how Waka holds up into the final week, those at 6-2 could provide some spoilers too!

[Tamura]

July tournament starts tomorrow. Haven't watched the preview show on NHK World yet, but here's what's going on.

Yokozuna - Hoshoryu and Onosato seem to be good to go, after only managing one bout between the pair of them in May.
Ozeki - Kirishima is looking at potential promotion to yokozuna, after finshing runner-up in May after losing a play-off. Probably needs a tournament win rather than another strong runner-up. Kotozakura is kadoban after a medicore performance in May, so he needs eight wins or more or he'll be demoted.
Sekiwake - Atamifuji makes his debut at the third highest rank after a successful 9-6 tournament in his debut at komosubi, which is pretty impressive as komosubi is the toughest rank to be at as they have to fight all the guys abbve them in the ranks for most of the tournament.  Kotoshoho is there too, he's been steadily improving but not sure where his ceiling is. Wakatakakage won in May and while still technically a sekiwake he won't be after this tournament as he's out injured. Aonishiki rounds out the sekiwake. He's just been demoted from ozeri after sitting out May injured, if he gets ten wins he'll be promoted straight back to ozeki. 
The rest - Not much else going on. "Iron Man" Tamawashi (who's never missed a bout in his career, except due to COVID protocols meaning entire stables were forced to withdraw) has been demoted from the top division to juryo. There's been plenty of rikishi who've managed to bounce back and regain their top division status, but after going 2-13 in May and now being 41 years old you have to think he's coming up to the end. He might stick around for a while in juryo but if he drops out of there it's a dead cert he'd retire, as that would mean he's not even allowed to live with his wife and kids but he'd have live in the dojo with the other lower division wrestlers. He's already the record holder for most consecutive career bouts and most top division bouts. If he could someone last another year and a bit he could break the record for most career bouts, but he might have just got to the point every professional athlete gets to, when they just can't compete at the top level any more.

[seph]

A young lad from Hull, Esei, made his debut during the current tournament, just had his second bout. Here he is in the most English possible photo with his dad. (Source - X, soz)

[neil]

Yeah saw his match, not sure if 1st or 2nd, recently. To give the boring explanation no-one asked for and to confirm myself as a sumo weeaboo...he is in maezumo which is the process for new wrestlers to be ranked and "be on the bansuke". In this they have a 3-5 matches, any record counts and they will be ranked in jonokuchi based on it, but they stop fighting once they get 3 wins.

[neil]

Really fun basho so far. Coming down to the last 2 days and it is looking like Ukraine vs Ukraine right now. One of them is, the recently ranked Ozeki who got immediately demoted due to injury, Aonishiki is at 10-2 meaning he'll be back up to Ozeki ranking. Impressive because he looks like his ankle is hanging on by a thread.

Even more shocking is his fellow Ukranian Shishi who is somehow also at 10-2. The big oaf is only ranked at Maegashira 14 and got off to a hot start, I expected him to collapse into the 2nd week but he is holding on so far.

Both the Yokozuna's have been very unimpressive. Onosato still seems to be injured, but Hoshoryu really isn't doing the claims of him not being worthy of the rank any favours.

[seph]

Hosh dropped out of the basho early today with a leg injury and Kirishima was given a walkover, putting him one win behind Aonishki. Shishi lost to Atomifuji who is the only dude standing in the way of Ao winning outright or a potential 3-way playoff, if Kirishima also gets past Kotozakura who was getting hurt in general / gassed until the last few days - three straight wins without much effort (including Hosh) was just what he needed.

Edited July 25 by seph

[Tamura]

On 7/24/2026 at 3:14 AM, neil said:

but Hoshoryu really isn't doing the claims of him not being worthy of the rank any favours.

Somewhat harsh, but understandable. Hoshoryu's promotion to yokozuna was kind of unexpected. Everyone was expecting Kotozakura to be gunning for promotion after winning in November 2024, only for Hoshoryu to sneak in before him. Before that he'd never really demonstrated dominant sumo, other than his July 2023 tournament win. So his 13-2 runner up in November 2024 followed by his 12-3 win in January 2025 were either him punching above his weight or a sudden improvement. However it's easy to understand why the Sumo Association promoted him, as Terunofuji had announced his retirement and they wanted a new yokozuna. And given how frequently the various ozeki shit the bed when it came to winning that elusive second tournament in a row, they probably made the only decision they could rather than wait for someone to show they were worthy of promotion. That said, I don't think his yokozuna run has been that disastrous. Ignoring his tournaments out injured, he's been runner-up four times out of the five he's completed and lost twice in play-offs for the championship. So it's not quite Koji Kitao levels of shitarsery. Kakuryu took nine tournments to win his first championship as a yokozuna, and I don't seen that many people saying he wasn't worthy of the rank. If he hadn't had the misfortune to have his entire career completely overlapping with the GOAT Hakuho he'd probably have won quite a few more championships. Although if he hadn't been such a workshy sicknote he'd probably have won more too...

Edited July 26 by Tamura

[neil]

On 7/25/2026 at 2:32 PM, Tamura said:

Somewhat harsh, but understandable. Hoshoryu's promotion to yokozuna was kind of unexpected. Everyone was expecting Kotozakura to be gunning for promotion after winning in November 2024, only for Hoshoryu to sneak in before him. Before that he'd never really demonstrated dominant sumo, other than his July 2023 tournament win. So his 13-2 runner up in November 2024 followed by his 12-3 win in January 2025 were either him punching above his weight or a sudden improvement. However it's easy to understand why the Sumo Association promoted him, as Terunofuji had announced his retirement and they wanted a new yokozuna. And given how frequently the various ozeki shit the bed when it came to winning that elusive second tournament in a row, they probably made the only decision they could rather than wait for someone to show they were worthy of promotion. That said, I don't think his yokozuna run has been that disastrous. Ignoring his tournaments out injured, he's been runner-up four times out of the five he's completed and lost twice in play-offs for the championship. So it's not quite Koji Kitao leaves of shitarsery. Kakuryu took nine tournments to win his first championship as a yokozuna, and I don't seen that many people saying he wasn't worthy of the rank. If he hadn't had the misfortune to have his entire career completely overlapping with the GOAT Hakuho he'd probably have won quite a few more championships. Although if he hadn't been such a workshy sicknote he'd probably have won more too...

Yeah that is fair and tbh I always forget about the 4 jun-yusho's he has got as yoko. Convert a couple of them and we probably wouldn't behaving this conversation. But still, that is the general take on him so far and he really does look quite "average" at times.

 

ONTO THE SPOILERS

 

Wow what an ending to this basho! Playoffs galore...makushita had a 7 person playoff ultimately won by the very hot prospect Asahifuji who was undefeated until being beaten by Nabatame (also in this playoff) earlier in this tournament. I'm a fan of the Futagoyama boys and they had Nabatame, Mita and Wakamiyabi all in this one. Nabatame and Mita got beaten 1st match, Waka got the bye, and then I was surprised he won his next match. So it was Waka vs Asahifuji...good match but somewhat easily won by Asahifuji.

Juyro also had a 4 man playoff. Pretty good, got to see two of the Isegahama lads face off, but ultimately won by Shonanoumi.

Then finally...Makuuchi...coming in to the final day Aonishiki just needed to win, but he lost to Atamifuji who has been looking very powerful this tournament. That forced a playoff but then Kirishima also won thus putting himself into the playoff as well. For Kirishima if he'd won this may have led to a yokozuna promotion, but alas Atamifuji handled him pretty easily in the 1st round. Aonishiki then took care of Atamifuji and polished it off with a win against Kirishima. Amazing sumo from Aonishiki this tournament especially with his clear injury and strongly cementing his return to ozeki.

Already excited for the next tournament, it is getting really stacked at the top. Atamifuji is on an ozeki run, 21 wins in the last 2 basho so he needs another 12-3 to get ozeki. If he wrestles like he did in this I think he stands a good chance.

[neil]

Reports are that Hoshoryu finally got surgery on his knee, so he'll be out the upcoming tournament but hopefully once he is back he'll be full strength.