This was a killer basho.
All things considered, some of it resulted in an anticlimax; Onosato’s kyujo threw a bit of a wrench in the yusho race, and the way it played out did not give us a three-way playoff. It did, however, give us something even better: an Ozeki.
Heading into the final weekend, Onosato was fresh off his defeat of Aonishiki with a shaky shoulder, and Hoshoryu had just crushed Kotozakura. Kotozakura beat Onosato just before Aonishiki bested Hoshoryu on Saturday, and on the final day, the early-morning news was that Onosato had pulled out of the tournament with a dislocated shoulder. Thus, Hoshoryu earned a fusen victory, and the musubi-no-ichiban was Ozeki Kotozakura against Sekiwake Aonishiki. Aonishiki grabbed the thigh for an uchimuso victory and went into a playoff bout immediately after. Aonishiki and Hoshoryu fought back and forth before Aonishiki nearly forced the Yokozuna out, then squatted and threw to win by okurinage. Aonishiki became the first Ukrainian to win a yusho and only the second European, behind Kotooshu. He has a whole separate post to talk about that.
Before I get into talking about anyone else, let’s congratulate the JSA prize winners!
As announced by Battle Hamster/Ozeki ex-Takakeisho, only 2 prizes were for certain at the beginning of Day 15, with 3 more on conditional victories. Yoshinofuji and Aonishiki were both given the Technique Prize, and Aonishiki had a conditional Outstanding Performance. Kirishima and Ichiyamamoto both had conditional Fighting Spirit prizes. I would probably have swapped the Technique and Outstanding Performance awards, because as much as I love Yoshinofuji, he’s outstanding, not technical. Still, all three conditional prize candidates won their bouts, so 5 total prizes were awarded.
Kirishima, unfortunately, beat Ura, and Ichiyamamoto took down the brother of his idol, Wakaktakakage. And Aonishiki, of course, got his Outstanding Performance prize, quite possibly for the last time, when he won the yusho. Let’s take it one by one.
Yoshinofuji, as I said above, is a wonderful rikishi, and I’ve been watching him improve since his debut in May 2024. This guy only broke into the sekitori divisions this year with back to back yusho in Juryo, followed up by a 11-4 performance with a Fighting Spirit Prize and a Technique Prize. Then in September he went 8-7 and sat out the London koen with some rough injuries. He went 9-6 this basho, but more than that, he beat Yokozuna Onosato and yusho winner Aonishiki. He was actually Hoshoryu’s greatest ally, losing to the Yokozuna and beating all of his competitors (I don’t actually think Yoshinofuji was helping Hosh win, but it did end up that way). I love this guy–and in his interviews, he showed a surprising amount of personality. He kept laughing, and I couldn’t tell if it was a nervous reaction or genuine happiness. But he deserves to be happy–he beat the best of the best. And who knows, maybe 2026 will see more than one new Ozeki!
Aonishiki won a whole lot of things, so we’re not going to talk about him now. For more info on the young Ukrainian, read his profile, a special post to celebrate his promotion. All in all, he won the yusho, Ozeki promotion, and because of his win, both the Outstanding Performance and Technique Prizes. Well done.
Kirishima had a fantastic basho that went mostly under the radar. He was never 100% in the yusho race, considering he lost three out of his first four days–understandable when I say that he lost to Aonishiki, Hoshoryu, and Onosato, the three best active rikishi in sumo. He also randomly lost to Takanosho on Day 8. But he won all of his other matches, which got him the prize in the end. That’s a seriously impressive basho from Maegashira 2; he’ll be back in sanyaku in January. Kirishima has lacked consistency ever since he almost made it to Yokozuna; it’s good to see him having another sanyaku-quality basho. He earned this prize (Fighting Spirit) and congratulations to him!
Ichiyamamoto, astonishingly, got a Fighting Spirit Prize. What a delightful rikishi he’s come to be; he’s extremely likable due mostly to his size and sense of humor, and his interviews are always very funny. However, he’s also grown tremendously as a rikishi. Ichi is 32, the same age as Wakamotoharu and Daieisho, but he’s been in the top division for four years. He has had a very interesting journey as a rikishi and really grew into his Makuuchi status this year in particular; he had a couple rough basho, specifically in September. But we’ve seen him pulling away from his usual pusher-thruster nodowa style and became far better on the belt. He’s not a master, but he’s growing into his brand of sumo still, which is great to see. He also was under the radar, losing to some… less than incredible oppononents in the early days but winning out for the last eight. What a comeback–he really did show his Fighting Spirit this basho. Great job, Ichi.
Congratulations to all our award winners; all four are rikishi I’m fond of! And now on to the objectively more important rikishi earning some objectively more important prizes: the Pink Mawashi Hall of Fame Inductees.
(Disclaimer: Not all of them are actually inductees. Some of them are though!)
The Match of the Basho Award, surprisingly, was kind of a challenge this time. There was no three-minute long snugglefest, and few matches were well executed by both rikishi AND ended in an awesome kimarite. The runner-up is the first match that I thought of, Onosato vs Tamawashi, but I decided to give the award to what I thought was the best match in sheer vibes. Also, it was a great bout. Aonishiki and Kotozakura win this award on Day 15 for Aonishiki’s uchimuso victory. They grappled and fought back and forth, but Aonishiki went for the thigh as he loves to do and Kotozakura touched down, meaning the young Sekiwake (now Ozeki) would go on to the playoff. Spoiler alert: he won that, too.
The Kimarite of the Basho Award goes, probably not for the last time, to Midorifuji for his Day Nine bout against Shodai. Midorifuji has won Kimarite of the Day more than once and he joins Fujinokawa as a Kimarite of the Basho winner. The match went back and forth in a very dramatic fashion; I thought Shodai was about to win when Midorifuji seized his arm in a last-ditch attempt to throw him. Somehow, it worked! Possibly because it was Shodai on an off day, but it was a very powerful throw. He got an amiuchi victory, which is called the “fisherman’s throw” because it ostensibly looks like a rikishi reeling in a fish/rikishi. I guess it could be either, really. I don’t know what that says about Shodai’s lineage, but a hearty congratulations to Green Monster Midorifuji for the great throw.
The Veteran Award was very fun to pick, and this basho, the winner is Daieisho. He didn’t have the greatest performance known to man, but what he did have was a strong showing after a severe injury. At Maegashira 10, this is far below his usual rank, so he fought a slate of opponents a little lower than he’s used to, and ended up with a 10-5. He won the Pink Heart Award for his bravery last basho and was able to follow it up with a solid outing. It will be lovely to see him inch up the banzuke in January.
The Up-And-Comer Award is given to a newer sekitori with an outstanding performance. I should, obviously, give it to Aonishiki, who just won a yusho at age 21. But he has had his blog time in the spotlight. So instead I’m giving it to an even younger rikishi–the only one younger in the top division, actually. Fujinokawa, I’ve decided, deserves this award–in an increasingly depressing (from a Maegashira-forward point of view) yusho race, he stayed strong until Day 8, where things kind of started to slip. He wasn’t the only one, but the fact that he’s 20 years old and set a record for the largest makuuchi age difference recorded in a bout (along with Tamawashi) is pretty incredible.
The Distaster Basho Award was harder this basho than the last, but the victor was our Maegashira 15 Shonnanoumi, who is sure to go down to Juryo in January. The 27-year-old is pretty inconsistent with his sumo; his size makes him a challenging opponent, but he just has nothing on some days. And there were 12 of those days this tournament. He beat both Tokihayate and Asakoryu, who were having very good tournaments, and then last basho’s recipient, Gonoyama. It was a pretty grim tournament. He’ll be down in Juryo to recuperate after this one. Good luck, buddy.
The Miracle Basho Award is hereby awarded to Tokihayate! He had a great basho. Though his finishing record was 9-6, Tokihayate had a strong tournament. He, like Fujinokawa, had a lengthy stay in the yusho race. He was in contention up until Day 9, and ended up losing the last three days of the basho, two of them against prize winners, which barred him from getting a special prize. However, he had a very good basho. He had a strange early loss to Shonannoumi, then a fun bout and narrow loss against Juryo visitor ex-Ozeki Asanoyama, then a weird loss to Chiyoshoma. But I’d like to just give him some credit for that really strong first week: the second is usually tougher. Great job, Tokihayate!
The Pink Heart Award had a pretty obvious winner: Meisei. He kept out of the basho after surgery on his back in October, but he came back on Day 10. He lost to Nishikfuji but then pulled off a fun victory against Mitakeumi. Then he lost the next four days. It happens; I’m not really sure why he came back. I think maybe he was trying to stay in Juryo rather than falling through to Makushita–he probably wouldn’t have anyway, but it was a good effort. This basho was rough for him; hopefully he can rest up that back. He’s already pulled out of the winter jungyo, so he’ll hopefully be recovering over the holiday season.
The Pink Star for Effort, this time, is awarded to Hiradoumi. He does his very best in every bout, which is something that can’t always be said for his compatriots. He had a tough go of it this time. He went 4-11, but he did lose to some of the best rikishi active: Kotozakura, Aonishiki, Yoshinofuji, Hakuoho, and both Yokozuna. He did his best, but it’s the Curse of the Joi: he was ranked Maegashira 3 and ended up with such a difficult slate of opponents, especially for his size. Better luck next time, buddy, along with a slightly lower rank!
The Best Pink Mawashi Award is given to Ura for having a pink mawashi.
Now on to my favorite part of the day: A Look at the Champions!
Aonishiki won his Makuuchi yusho; check his personal profile for updates on that.
Fujiryoga, ex-Goshima and a highly successful makushita-tsukedashi, like Kazuma. He had a lead for a while, with Hakuyozan (surprisingly) and Asanoyama (much less so) being his only losses in the basho. A 13-2 sekitori debut and a yusho win is pretty impressive. More than anything, however, I think his main appealing factor is actually his hair. I couldn’t find a better picture, so I found this one, but I promise it’s a lot more magnificent when he’s on the dohyo. There simply isn’t a way to describe how ridiculous that man’s hair is. Also, he’s really good at sumo! So congrats on both fronts to Fujiryoga.
Looking down at the lower divisions, we have Kazuma as the winner of Makushita. Kazuma was brought up in the last Hall of Fame post as the winner of the Sandanme yusho. This, clearly, shows just how outstanding he is. After his debut, he had four wins and then a bad injury that made him miss four basho in a row. Since then, he’s had one loss in the last four tournaments, which was also the only basho he didn’t win. He will be making his sekitori debut in Juryo in the next tournament. Yay for Kise-beya!
Down in Sandanme, Kaki made it 3 for 3 in tournaments he’s competed in and yusho won. He’s only 23 and was not, by oversight, a Makushita-tsukedashi, but he’s incredible. He’s received one career loss and still won the yusho! Like Kazuma, he also came up in the last Hall of Fame update, since this is back-to-back-to-back. What a career he’s had so far–and we’ll being seeing him in Makushita to maybe make it 4 for 4.
Ryuho from Otowayama-beya won the Jonidan yusho in a surprisingly fun playoff against his stablemate, Kakueizan. They’re both friends of Kirishima, so I’m sure he was very happy with how the basho turned out. Stablemates normally aren’t allowed to fight one another, but the playoff made it a special case for both rikishi. Congratulations to Ryuho, who is just eighteen years old and debuted last tournament with a 6-1 record. And, unofficially, have a nice time in Sandanme!
The jonokuchi yusho went to 23-year-old Goseiryu, who has been pretty consistently… not so great since his debut in May 2021. He’s had a few injuries that caused him to miss some tournaments, meaning he couldn’t go up in rank as much as he could have otherwise. He missed the last three basho, but came back in full force for this one and had a flawless run followed by a yusho. He will be in Jonidan come January.
As well as the big news of Aonishiki’s promotion to Ozeki, the Juryo promotees have been announced. Congratulations to Kazuma (YAY!), Kyokukaiyu, and Dewanoryu. Since that announcement, it’s also been announced that ex-Ozeki and ex-Battle Hamster Takakeisho will be inheriting a stable come January, which is awesome! He’s going to be a great coach. The winter jungyo (tour) kyujo list has been announced: Ura, Hakuoho, Takayasu, Mita, Kotoeiho, Hitoshi, Roga, Meisei, Wakatakakage, and (as we suspected) Onosato will be absent. Their various injuries/illnesses are listed here, since the post is getting a bit long. I wish them all the best of luck and slightly suspect that Ura is pretending to be sick to save his knees, but he’s entitled to do whatever he wants, because he’s Ura!
Congratulations to the winners of the JSA’s Special Prizes and the yusho winners, as well as the Pink Mawashi Award Winners!
See you all in January!