It’s already November and the last basho of the year is kicking off!
Onosato narrowly won the last yusho over Hoshoryu, and the two Yokozuna are sure to fight again in this month’s Fukuoka tournament. The biggest recent news between the basho was the retirement of popular (but injured) ex-Makuuchi Endo. He will be staying with the JSA as Kitajin-oyekata, so good luck to him. Additionally, young star Kusano has changed his shikona, the name he performs under as a sumo wrestler, to Yoshinofuji. More on him later. Ex-Makuuchi Aoiyama and Myogiryu, as well as beloved Battle Hamster and Ozeki Takakeisho, had their danpatsu-shiki (ritual hair cutting ceremonies) in early October. These three are all staying in the JSA and we’ll be seeing Takakeisho ringside soon enough. His weight loss since resigning his position is incredible as well.
Likely the most exciting thing that’s happened since September was sumo being performed in London’s Royal Albert Hall in a five day event. While the sumo may or may not have been staged, Hoshoryu won the winner’s prize, Tobizaru got an outstanding performance award, Takayasu earned a fighting spirit prize, and everyone’s favorite pink man took home both the technique prize and the Audience Award specifically for the London koen…
… which he was clearly happy about. Some other photos:
All in all, it looks like they enjoyed their vacation. Kusano (Yoshinofuji!) and Kotozakura were both noticeably absent, both having suffered from injuries. Kotozakura announced that he wasn’t going to go at the end of the September basho, but slightly more surprising was the young Maegashira, who hadn’t displayed any signs of being injured, but maybe that’s why he hasn’t exactly been up to par lately. Yoshinofuji said that he had a serious injury to his right ankle and calf to the point that he ostensibly couldn’t walk, and he canceled his flight to London because he didn’t want to be a burden to his fellow rikishi. Hopefully they’re both okay, as well as Wakatakakage, who’s suffering from a neck injury. WTK and Kotozakura are both injured enough already, and hopefully, whatever Yoshinofuji hurt heals up quickly, as it would be terrible to have a serious injury at this point in his career.
Starting the actual banzuke, we have Yokozuna East Onosato, fresh off his first tournament win as a Yokozuna and looking ready to face a new batch of opponents. He looked great in London, of course, but we’re basically going to ignore those results, since they did look a bit fake. Opposite him is the London champ Yokozuna West Hoshoryu, who is no doubt looking to beat Onosato in Fukuoka. The two young Yokozuna both looked brilliant in Aki and are, as of yet, a credit to their rank. Right beneath them is lone Ozeki Kotozakura, who, as we said above, may or may not be performing in Fukuoka–hopefully he’s all right and we’ll see him on the dohyo? I guess we’ll see on day one.
Young Sekiwake Aonishiki and Oho bring up the next rank, with Aonishiki really on his Ozeki run now and Oho looking to hopefully start his own. Aonishiki is just incredibly fun to watch, and he’s looking like a fair bet for the next Yokozuna. Oho is Oho; sumo legacy, eye injuries and all, I hope he makes it up to that next rank someday, but he’s inconsistent so far… time will tell if Kyushu will be the start of his promotion run alongside the young Ukrainian.
The Komusubi are Takanosho and Takayasu, two popular rikishi whom I have no loyalties to. Takanosho is one of the more fantastically inconsistent Maegashira who’s made it back up to Komusubi and has reached Sekiwake before, so I guess we’ll see if he has a strong future. Takayasu was on fire in March and has had several mediocre tournaments since then, but will the spark be back for Kyushu?
Youth protégé Hakuoho and ex-Sekiwake Wakatakakage begin the Maegashira ranks, with Hakuoho coming off beating two Yokozuna and getting a ridiculous 8-7 prize after beating Ura on Day Fifteen of the Aki basho, and Wakatakakage possibly injured coming off of the ashes of his Ozeki run. Unfortunately, neither seems to be in wonderful form, but Hakuoho has a lot of potential and is the favorite of legendary Yokozuna Hakuho, and Wakatakakage is the best performer in one of the world’s best active sumo families. We’ll see how far they’ll go in Kyushu.
Kirishima and Wakamotoharu are usually san’yaku mainstays, and it’s… slightly depressing to see them down here together. Maegashira 2, however, is not a bad place to be, coming off of a 6-9 demotion for Kirishima and a 9-6 promotion for Wakamotoharu. Neither is quite a young star anymore, but both still have room for growth and a lot of potential. Kirishima almost got all the way up to Yokozuna! Crazy to think about… maybe one of these two can take advantage of being a little down the banzuke and be in the yusho race for November, which would certainly be great to see.
The Maegashira 3 rank gets the star of cuteness this basho, with Hiradoumi and Ura side by side at around their usual rank. Hiradoumi had a solid 8-7 in September and Ura had a lovely 10-5 and a long stay in the yusho race. It’s great to see both of them here and maybe they can get up into san’yaku with a great performance in Kyushu. Hopes are high!
Tamawashi, Oshoma, Yoshinofuji, and Shodai are the next few ranks, with Tamawashi and Oshoma coming off 6-9 and 9-6 respectively, and Shodai with a 10-5 and a great start in Aki. Yoshinofuji is the big question here (remember, he just changed his name from Kusano!) as he clearly has the power and potential to be a star but just didn’t seem to have it in Aki. From his report, it seems like he’s pretty injured, but it also seemed like he only got injured in late September or October. I’m not 100% sure what his diagnosis actually is, but I hope he’ll be okay and back to his usual tricks in Kyushu.
Atamifuji, Onokatsu, Churanoumi, and Abi bring up Maegashira 6-7. Before I say anything else, I just want to say that sometimes, in sumo, people’s records don’t reflect how well they were fighting or how strong they looked entirely. Atamifuji was that in September. He looked okay, sometimes great, and he went 5-10, but I honestly thought he went 8-7, maybe 9-6. In the first few days, he looked to be in great form but seemed to struggle later on. Everybody makes mistakes, so I hope he can get his act together in Kyushu. Moving on to Onokatsu, whose reliable, slightly-above-mediocrity has been genuinely entertaining. Amidst the other highly successful youths, I’ve enjoyed watching the steady stream of 8s, 9s, and 10s from him, and he will probably be better as he gets older. My boy Churanoumi is coming off two 9-6s and sits opposite Abi, who’s usually around the Sekiwake ranks and suffered a 3-12 disaster basho in September. I have no idea what’s wrong with him, and I hope all is well. He seemed quite pleased with himself in London and learned at least enough English to loudly introduce himself, so that’s good.
The weirdly fun Maegashira 8-9 are Ichiyamamoto, Kinbozan, Midorifuji, and Tobizaru. Kinbozan is a pretty boring guy, all things considered, but I quite like him. The other three are all usually fun to watch–Ichiyamamoto, the smallest of the pusher-thrusters, is a very pleasant human being and a diehard Wakatakakage fan. He’s fun to watch as well, and had an ugly 4-11 in September, though it was one of the Atamifuji situations where I was kind of surprised and thought he had an 8-7 or 7-8. Beneath him are Midorifuji and Tobizaru: the Flying Monkey did great in London and had a solid 9-6 in September, and Midorifuji had a rough middle of the basho last time and ended with a 7-8. Tobizaru is usually a little higher up the banzuke and was pretty clearly hurt last time, but he fought well despite whatever was bothering him. We’ll see if he can repeat that performance.
Beneath them are Daieisho, Kotoshoho, Shishi, and Roga. Daieisho is obviously struggling with that right calf injury–it’s bizarre to see him so far from his usual rank of Sekiwake. He only went 7-8 in September, which is perfectly fine considering the circumstances. He should be a little more recovered in November, which will be exciting. Kotoshoho is also an interesting case, suffering a 3-12 to follow up his incredible yusho in July. I’m certainly not surprised that July seems to be a bit of a fluke, but maybe he’s still got it somewhere? Under him is the Russian Roga, who went 7-8, and Ukrainian Shishi, who had a 10-5 from the rank of Maegashira 18, where a losing record would inevitably send him down into Juryo.
Fujinokawa, Tomokaze, Gonoyama, and Mitakeumi are our Maegashira 12-13. If there was a prize for sheer effort without needing a kachikoshi, Fujinokawa would be the winner: he did go 6-9 in September but it was such a fun 6-9 that it’s basically a 9-6! He’s only 20 and physically small–he has so far to go and it’s sure to be an exciting journey. Tomokaze is his opposite: older, boring, and reliably OK. He went 9-6, which was great for him. I’m used to seeing Gonoyama a bit higher up… but he did go 1-14, so a rank drop isn’t surprising. He pulled off his one win against Abi on Day 12, who was 2-10 at the time. So, not exactly the best basho of all, but maybe it was just to get down low so he can win this one! Mitakeumi had a 7-8 in September, but maybe he’ll pull something amazing together.
Ryuden, Tokihayate, Nishikifuji, and Shonannoumi are next. Shonannoumi and Ryuden both went 9-6 and a stellar 11-4 from Nishikifuji in Juryo got him all the way back up to East Maegashira 15. Tokihayate went 7-8. So, nothing too crazy from these guys: veteran Ryuden might be looking at reitrement in the future if he gets some makekoshi, but he seems strong as of yet. Tokihayate and Nishikifuji are younger and often skip back and forth between the sekitori divisions, so this is nothing out of the usual for them. Shonannoumi is big, strong, and relatively young, but he doesn’t seem to have it all the time. We’ll see!
Oshoumi, Sadanoumi, Chiyoshoma, Asakoryu, and Meisei round out the bottom of the banzuke. Oshoumi is a little Juryo-bound ray of sunshine, and this is his top division debut! It will be exciting to see how well he does. Sadanoumi and Chiyoshoma are veterans used to the bottom of the banzuke and Asakoryu is, like Oshoumi, young, strong, and mysterious as of yet when it comes to where his career is going. Meisei is usually higher up and is part of Hoshoryu’s pre-match ceremony. I hate to say it, but if Meisei gets a losing record and drops down into Juryo, there’s a high possibility that Ura will take over his duties… pros and cons, you know. Well, best wishes to Meisei anyway.
The September basho saw a lot of veterans falling down the banzuke and, of course, some youngsters cementing their positions–Yoshinofuji, Onosato, Onokatsu, Hakuoho. Takerufuji, notably, is down in Juryo this tournament after his injury.
Everything’s always crazy in Fukuoka, so we’ll see how this tournament goes… good luck to all, and remember, the basho kicks off on November 9!
HAKKE-YOI!
