This page will be updated bimonthly with rikishi who had outstanding tournaments in some way, as well as a brief mention of the yusho winner of each division.
The Match of the Basho Award is given to the participants in the best match of the basho, specifically from the Top Division.
Past Recipients [Winners Only]: Onosato, Aonishiki x2
The Kimarite of the Basho Award is given to the executor of the best kimarite of the basho, specifically from the Top Division.
Past Recipients [Winners Only]: Fujinokawa, Midorifuji x2
The Veteran Award is given to a veteran sekitori with an outstanding performance.
Past Recipients: Shodai, Daieisho, Kirishima
The Up-And-Comer Award is given to a newer sekitori with an outstanding performance.
Past Recipients: Shishi, Fujinokawa, Oshoumi
The Distaster Basho Award is given to the Makuuchi rikishi with the worst performance, either in terms of terrible bouts or a terrible record, or both.
Past Recipients: Gonoyama, Shonannoumi, Hatsuyama
The Miracle Basho Award is given to one or more Maegashira with the best performance, either in terms of great bouts or a great record, or both.
Past Recipients: Takanosho, Tokihayate, Atamifuji
The Pink Heart Award is given to one or more wrestlers who fought through the basho despite injuries, or pulled out after doing their best.
Past Recipients: Daieisho, Meisei, Onosato
The Pink Star for Effort is given to one or more rikishi who, despite a losing record, fought well throughout the tournament.
Past Recipients: Atamifuji, Fujinokawa, Hiradoumi, Ura, Ichiyamamoto
Additional awards may be given each basho to rikishi with other outstanding performances for other reasons, such as a stellar performance for one week or a pat on the back for a rikishi who needs one.
Hatsu 2026
The Match of the Basho Award, as usual, goes to what was simply the most atmospheric and climactic match of the basho: and what could that be except the playoff between two gifted young rikishi, Aonishiki and Atamifuji? Atamifuji poured his heart into the bout, but once Aonishiki gets his hands on the belt, it’s hard to get him off. Atamifuji forced Aonishiki to the edge but Aonishiki spun out of the way and grabbed Atamifuji’s head, forcing him to the clay with a brilliant kubinage. They both showed up in great form and ready to rumble, and rumble they did. What a great match. Congratulations to Aonishiki, who will definitely be getting this one a lot, and gets his second consecutive MotB Award.
The Kimarite of the Basho Award, as usual, goes to what I thought was both the rarest and best executed kimarite of the tournament. Like Aonishiki, Midorifuji has already had a KotB Award, but his kimedashi victory over Hatsuyama on Day 10 is both a rare kimarite and just a brilliantly executed victory. Hatsuyama had a terrible tournament, but this was one of the few bouts where he seemed actually awake and concentrated, and Midorifuji had a rough go of it. They went back and forth for quite some time, with Hatsuyama using Midorifuji as a chinrest, and then Midorifuji danced Hatsuyama to the edge, struggled, and forced the much larger rikishi out by kimedashi. Congrats, Midorifuji.
The Veteran Award often makes me very nostalgic for days past, which was not helped by spending time looking at the March 2022 banzuke earlier today. I will say that our veterans weren’t doing too hot this tournament, but I want to say that my definition for the purpose of this award is an experienced rikishi, not necessarily a very old one. And in that case, the award is without a doubt Kirishima‘s. The ex-Ozeki performed brilliantly and blew most of his opponents out of the water to finish 11-4. Well done, sir, well done. He was also the only rikishi on the East side of the banzuke with double digit wins, besides Hoshoryu. The honorary mention is definitely Asanoyama.
The Up-And-Comer Award is probably my overall favorite each time, just because I love it when our young rikishi really prove themselves. And because I don’t think Atamifuji counts as a young up-and-comer anymore, there could be no other recipient but Oshoumi. I’d like to think that I usually have a pretty good idea of who’s going to do well or do terribly, but Oshoumi really surprised me. I’ve liked Oshoumi for a while, but I did not expect him to do so well in this tournament. 10-5 is a very strong record for someone so new to Makuuchi, and all of his individual bouts were interesting in their own way. I am so happy for him and so proud of him for that basho. Congratulations, Oshoumi!
The Disaster Basho Award is, I’ll admit, partially from the fact that I drafted the same guy in two separate fantasy tournaments and… he went 2-13. Hatsuyama was a rikishi that I had very, very high hopes for. I truly did. I thought he might even be in the yusho race. But no. He showed up every day with lackluster and weak sumo, and only managed to scrape together two wins before slinking off back to Juryo. I know I’m being hard on him, and this was his Makuuchi debut. But he was very strong in Juryo and something was just not right with him this tournament. He didn’t look injured, which people who go 2-13 usually do; he just looked.. exhausted. It’s okay to have an off basho, Hatsuyama, but did it have to be the one I drafted you for? Rest up, and good luck in Juryo.
The Miracle Basho Award seriously could not go to anyone but Atamifuji. No one came close to touching the brilliant performance that Atamifuji put up, except, of course, the yusho winner Aonishiki. But among the Maegashira, Atamifuji clearly stood out as the best candidate for san’yaku, and he will be making his san’yaku debut in March as a Komusubi opposite Wakamotoharu. Best of luck to him and congratulations on a beautiful basho.
The Pink Heart Award goes to an unlikely candidate, but I’ve really thought this through. Onosato has more than proved himself as a rikishi, but this basho, he proved something else: character. He looked to be in a lot of pain after most of his bouts and seemed to have both back and shoulder troubles, and I spent most of the basho trying to telepathically get him to go kyujo. But he didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because Hakkaku or Nishoneski wouldn’t let him, but they weren’t the ones fighting, Onosato was. And he just kept fighting. That shows both tenacity and resilience, which I know all of the rikishi possess, but I still think it’s great when they really show it. For Onosato, who has barely struggled with injuries or even losing in his career, it really impressed me to see him taking failure and difficulty so well and fighting so hard. This is the first basho where he’s seemed more human than kachi-koshi machine, and I thought that was very interesting.
The Pink Star for Effort has gone to more than one rikishi in the past and unfortunately, I think it’s time to do so again. Ura and Ichiyamamoto can only be described as endearing and fun rikishi. If sumo was a popularity or even a personality competition, Ura would be a Yokozuna and Ichiyamamoto would be an Ozeki. But it isn’t. And they both went 4-11. Ura seemed to just be a bit overranked, and Ichiyamamoto seemed to both be nursing a neck problem and also up higher than he’s used to. But this isn’t an unusual situation for either rikishi and I wish them the best in the future.
The Best Pink Mawashi Award is given to Ura for having a pink mawashi.
Now on to one of my favorite parts of the day… A Look at the Champions!
Aonishiki did Aonishiki things. I like him, I really do, but I’ve spent so much time talking him up already that I want to spend my attention on other things. Aonishiki, you are fantastic, and I wish you the best. Let’s move on to Juryo.
The Juryo yusho winner was Wakanosho! I was expecting the win to go to either Kazuma or Fujiryoga, young prodigies making their sekitori debut this basho, but Wakanosho was on my list of “Eh, maybe this guy, if Kazu and Fujiryoga are hurt.” And Kazuma might have been hurt–he did finish kachi-koshi, but he started off with a string of losses and didn’t really look as sure as he could have in his bouts. Fujiryoga went 9-6. So neither of them sucked too badly. But Wakanosho! He and Fujiseuin, another on-the-young-side-but-not-really-that-impressive-up-until-now rikishi, battled up until Day 15, where Wakanosho took the victory. Some Juryo yusho aren’t impressive because all the good people went up to Makuuchi or got hurt and went down to Makushita. That wasn’t one of those basho. He had a slate of strong opponents and still managed to come out on top; congratulations to Wakanosho for his first career yusho!
Down in Makushita, Nobehara emerged as our champion. The sumo world, as far as I know, has no reason to hate Nobehara, except for the fact that the rikishi he beat for that yusho was Enho, the small and wildly popular ex-Miyagino Isegahama transfer. I freely admit that although I follow his stable’s YouTube channel, Nobehara did not make much of an impression on me until this basho. He is 23 and had been pretty consistently not so good until this basho. EIther he’s taking anabolic steroids, he had a breakthrough, or he just had a really good tournament. Hopefully it’s the second and we’ll see another great performance from him from far higher up the banzuke. Congratulations to Nobehara for also his first career yusho!
The artist formerly known as Kawazoe likes to mess with everyone by changing his name so that we don’t recognize him when he comes back after one of his 400 injuries. To me, he will always be Kiho, but he took the name Hananofuji for his Sandanme yusho after sitting out for two basho and doing well in Jonidan last time around. Kiho/Kawazoe/Hananofuji is a strong rikishi and it’s not really the sandanme boys’ fault that they couldn’t beat him. This was his second sandanme yusho. He’s been in Juryo before and I don’t think it’s crazy to see him come back pretty soon, as long as he keeps his ankle out of trouble.
Koseiryu, I was only aware of because he’s from Otowayama-beya, whose heyagashira is Kirishima and whose coach is Kakuryu. That was the only reason. But now I know him because he won a Jonidan yusho, so that’s nice. Koseiryu debuted one year ago and has already been pretty badly hurt, which is rough. It’s also his first career yusho. Great job, kid, and stop getting hurt.
Asahifuji, the greatest rookie of all time, fought his fallen-from-glory stablemate Aoifuji, (his glory was Jonidan 5–to each their own) and beat him soundly. Please take note of their profile pictures on sumo.db and ask which one I wanted to win.
I want to discover why their pictures are so different. Asahifuji looks like someone just took away his favorite teddy bear and ripped it to shreds in front of him, which is sad because his stable is Isegahama, so the closest thing he has to a teddy bear is Atamifuji. Aoifuji, on the other hand, looks like someone sewed the teddy bear back together and gave it to him. Unfortunately, disposition is not what really matters in sumo. But if it was, Aoifuji, you’d be at least in Makushita.
This is Asahifuji’s first career basho and also yusho. He’s on the Kaki path of winning his debut tournaments in the lower three divisions, except he probably won’t go 5-2 in his Makushita debut. (Sorry, Kaki.)
Sorry for the insanely long post… you can tell I’ve got the sumo fever again! And this was supposed to be broken into two posts originally. In the next week, I’ll release my banzuke preview; it is an amazing banzuke and one of my favorite youngstars is making his debut in Makuuchi! But more on that later.
Kyushu 2025
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.
Aki 2025
The Match of the Basho: Basic though it is, the match of the basho has to be the playoff, the second consecutive match between Hoshoryu and Onosato, our two prodigy Yokozuna. I’m still a little upset that part of Onosato’s victory was his fusensho against Kotozakura, but that wasn’t even remotely his fault, so there’s no point in holding his yusho against him. Hoshoryu’s effort in the last match made me tear up–he went straight for the mawashi and twisted, trying to get the bigger rikishi out first, but Onosato twisted back and Hoshoryu went right under him as they both fell. There was a mono-ii by the judges to look at it and it turned out that Onosato had won. Hoshoryu’s failed throw would surely have been something to see had it gone well… but as it didn’t, Onosato’s playoff victory is pretty epic, too.
The Kimarite of the Basho: There were several contenders for Kimarite of the Basho, but nothing clearly won the rarity-of-kimarite competition that was actually the kimarite it was advertised to be, so the award is going to what I thought was a great ending to a great bout: 20-year-old Fujinokawa and 26-year-old Roga, specifically Fujinokawa’s fantastic kakenage after an extended arm-bracing cuddly-looking grapple. He got the inside grip on Roga’s belt and tripped him up with his legs, which made Roga fall neatly down. Kakenage is defined as “a kimarite in which the attacker hooks one leg under those of his opponent, raises the hooked leg up and back forcing the opponent up and over”, which is basically what happened, so good job naming it, JSA, and great job, Fujinokawa, for pulling that off.
The Veteran Award: The Veteran Award of this basho had to be given to the Wall of Daikon, ex-Ozeki Shodai. Shodai is famous among sumo circles for being sort of sad-looking and often, in his later years, seeming to lack the inclination to put a lot of effort into his matches. His career has been relatively injury-free, considering his age. He’s 34 and has earned a soft spot in my heart for his off-the-dohyo antics, including those in London with Takanosho. He gets the award for his 10-5 and a long stay on the leaderboard. He couldn’t finish off his tournament as well as he began it, but isn’t that always the way it goes for the Maegashira? He earned his record and he earned the Veteran Award. Great tournament, Shodai!
The Up-And-Comer Award: This one, I’ll try my absolute hardest not to give to someone obvious, i.e. Yokozuna Onosato or soon-to-be Yokozuna Aonishiki. As such, I’m giving it to this basho’s wildcard, Shishi, who was also considered for the Miracle Basho award. Shishi hit a wall at about the same time his countryman, the other Ukrainian Aonishiki, was setting records for his promotions, but Shishi turned it around and got a 10-5 from Maegashira 18. Any positive record is good from that rank, considering even a 7-8 would have sent him straight down into juryo. Shishi had a great tournament–maybe he’s finally finding his feet in the top division. It seems like a lot of his wins have just been because of his size, so seeing him back that up with technique would make him an extremely capable rikishi.
The Disaster Basho Award: A lot of people really put their hearts into this award–Kotoshoho, Nishikigi, and Abi all did their absolute best to win the prize. However, no one tried quite as hard as Maegashira 3 Gonoyama, who was so thoroughly out of it this basho that his only win came from the aforementioned Abi, who was, at the time, 2-10. Abi is struggling with those elbows, Nishikigi’s back is always an issue, and Kotoshoho was just dramatically overranked, but I couldn’t pinpoint anything that was specifically wrong with Gonoyama. Clearly something was up, however. He was also a little bit overranked, but certainly not enough to merit a 1-14. At least he got that one win. Thanks for giving us something to talk about, Gonoyama! Better luck next time.
The Miracle Basho Award: The Miracle Maegashira of this basho really couldn’t be anyone besides Takanosho. He rightfully won the Fighting Spirit Prize after what was, simply, a great tournament. Takanosho falls into the same category of Kotoshoho; a big Maegashira whose main struggle is with consistency. He’s made it all the way up to Sekiwake, and had a great basho neck-in-neck for the yusho with Terunofuji right before the Yokozuna’s retirement. Onigiri-Kun, as he’s called, was on fire for all of November and, if it hadn’t been for those pesky Yokozuna, would probably have walked away with a yusho.
The Pink Heart Award: Ah, Daieisho. My heart and knees break for you. He posted strong records until Nagoya, when he hurt that right calf, and he’s fallen through ever since. A 7-8 is to be expected and praised from him upon his return; that injury cannot have been easy. He was discussed as a potential yusho winner from down low but it quickly became clear that he was suffering, and he made it through the whole basho with barely a negative record. Thus, the Pink Heart Award goes to him. Better luck in Kyushu, my friend–rest up!
The Pink Star for Effort: This award (as it may often be) will be given to two winners who demonstrated equal fighting spirit and tenacity: Atamifuji and Fujinokawa, 5-10 and 6-9 respectively. Atamifuji fought above his rank and above his record–he didn’t look like a 5-10 rikishi, that’s for sure. Fujinokawa brought fire to every bout and was also the winner of Kimarite of the Basho on Day 9. These two are the epitome of how young rikishi should act, though maybe not the records they should be getting: they’re just happy to be doing sumo and they’re not going to give up. They are, you might say, the inverses of Shodai.
A Look at the Champions: Onosato, of course, won the top divison as Yokozuna East–no surprise there. 26-year-old Asahakuryu from Takasago-beya, however, was a surprise indeed–his stablemate, Asanoyama, was the favorite to win the Juryo (second division) championship, but Asahakuryu pulled off a 13-2 for the second division victory. Shimazuumi, an injured ex-Makuuchi and one of my favorite wrestlers, had a fantastic 7-0 victory, despite the severe injuries to his knees. Onosato is a brilliant and strong rikishi, which has terrifying implications for the future, considering he’s so young and as of yet, uninjured. He isn’t going anywhere. Asahakuryu came out of left field as a yusho winner, but he had several excellent wins and lost only to two veterans, Takarafuji and Kotokuzan. There was a promotion struggle at the top of juryo, which meant that his yusho didn’t see him enter Makuuchi, but he could debut in the New Year’s Tournament if he performs well again. Shimazuumi is a strong and steady rikishi when he isn’t injured, so we could see him in Juryo in January if he performs well at the top of Makushita.
The Sandamne yusho went to 24-year old Kazuma of Kise-beya, who, like Ura, was born in Osaka and recruited to Kise-beya. Poor Kazuma debuted as a Makushita-tsukedashi in July, was hurt on Day 9, and spent the next four basho out due to injury. He won the Jonokuchi yusho upon his return, almost won the Jonidan yusho, and then won the Sandanme championship. We’ll be seeing him as Makushita #15 and definitely looking for promotion to juryo. It’s safe to say that he’s a fantastic fighter when he’s healthy and, thankfully, he seems to be back at his potential. 23-year-old Kaki was not recruited to be a Makushita tsukedashi but probably could have been, as he won the Jonokuchi and Jonidan yusho back to back and is now debuting in Sandanme. Hopefully, he doesn’t hit a wall and we’ll see him in Makushita in 2026, but he hasn’t 100% proven himself yet. Still, what a career he’s had so far. Tatsubayama was a debutant in Jonokuchi and won the yusho, meaning that as of yet, he has a perfect record in his sumo career–7 for 7! Good for him. He’s from Shodai’s stable, which means he has friends in the top divison cheering him on.
Onosato, of course, is Onosato; this is not the last yusho we’ll be seeing from him, and of course he deserves the praise he gets for his outstanding career. I think it’s safe to say that the two veterans with their yusho–Shimazuumi and Asahakuryu–both had excellent showings on what were once bad knees, which is fantastic to see. The youngsters, Kazuma, Kaki, and Tatsubayama, are probably at the beginnings of their careers, and we might be seeing any and all of them as sekitori in 2026, maybe even in January for Kazuma. These three are all promising and young rikishi in prominent stables, which means they’ll be trained well and looked after by their sekitori counterparts. Good luck to them all!
Also worth noting is a future rival for all of those guys: Ochirsaihan, a young maezumo recruit who is the Next Big Thing for Isegahama-beya. He’s performed brilliantly in amateur sumo and will be setting foot on the professional dohyo for the first time in November.