Wow. Wow. Wow. What a great tournament.

The 2026 Nagoya basho is a wrap and I loved what went down on the final night of matches. I’ve got my write ups below on all the drama from makuuchi, juryo and makushita (you won’t want to miss that one!).

Before you get down there, though… a sales pitch, if you don’t mind.

These daily top division updates are free for everyone and I don’t plan on changing that. In the last tournament, I introduced juryo and makushita coverage for paid subscribers.

I currently have around 1,275 total subscribers. That’s incredible and way more than I thought I would have, being that I cover such a niche sport. Around 125 of those subscriptions are paid. That translates to just under $3,000 in annual revenue from this humble little blog. I’m really blown away that so many of you decide to pay for my writing. Please know that this means the world to me and it helps make this place a reality. The 125 of you with paid subscriptions are essentially funding this for the 1,150 other folks here. Thank you all so much.

If you’ve enjoyed the coverage during this tournament, and you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider upgrading your subscription. Paid subscribers get results and analysis of juryo and makushita, premium pieces (including report cards, spotlights and prediction posts) and increased chances of winning my giveaways.

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The bonus gif today is my favorite moment from this basho.

SPOILERS BELOW

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Kazuma (5-10) def. Sadanoumi (5-10) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Kinbozan (9-6) def. Mitakeumi (2-13) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Nishikifuji (10-5) def. Chiyoshoma (5-10) by oshidashi

• Asakoryu (9-6) def. Fujiryoga (10-5) by okuridashi (rear push out)*

• Roga (9-6) def. Shishi (10-5) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Asahakuryu (7-8) def. Wakamotoharu (6-9) by yorikiri

• Takayasu (11-4) def. Asanoyama (9-6) by oshidashi*

• Kotoeiho (11-4) def. Takerufuji (10-5) by oshidashi*

• Shodai (5-10) def. Daiseizan (6-9) by yorikiri

• Oshoma (7-8) def. Onokatsu (4-11) by oshidashi

• Abi (7-8) def. Ura (5-10) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)

• Ichiyamamoto (6-9) def. Tobizaru (5-10) by tsukidashi

• Gonoyama (7-8) def. Hiradoumi (4-11) by oshidashi

• Churanoumi (7-8) def. Takanosho (6-9) by hikkake (arm grabbing force out)

• Fujinokawa (8-7) def. Fujiseun (7-8) by yorikiri*

• Hakunofuji (9-6) def. Oho (2-13) by yoritoashi

• Daieisho (10-5) def. Yoshinofuji (6-9) by yoritoashi

• Atamifuji (12-3) def. Aonishiki (12-3) by oshidashi*

• Kirisihima (12-3) def. Kotozakura (8-7) by yorikiri

• Onosato (9-6) def. Kotoshoho (6-9) by oshitoashi (frontal push down)

*Must see bouts!

Play-off

• Atamifuji def. Kirishima by oshidashi

• Aonishiki def. Atamifuji by yorikiri

• Aonishiki def. Kirishima by yorikiri

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Final Results

• Makuuchi Champion: S2w Aonishiki (12-3)

• Outstanding Performance Prize: M1e Fujinokawa (8-7)

• Fighting Spirit Prize: S1e Atamifuji (12-3), M7e Kotoeiho (11-4), M7w Takayasu (11-4)

• Technique Prize: S2w Aonishiki (12-3)

Analysis

Aonishiki is our top division champion at the 2026 Nagoya basho after a sensational senshuraku (final day of performance) in the top division. He clinched his third career yusho (championship), days after securing his promotion back to the rank of ozeki.

Things weren’t easy for the Blue Whirlwind, though.

Here’s what happened in the championship race; in chronological order.

Aonishiki’s scheduled bout on day fifteen was with Atamifuji. Atamifuji had surged up the leader board with a strong second week, which included wins over both yokozuna and surprising title challengers Kotoeiho and Shishi.

During that stretch he fought with a tremendous amount of confidence. That’s something he lacked during his first few cracks at a yusho. He came into the Aonishiki match feeling confident, too, having beaten him in their previous bout (in March).

It’s hard to tell whether Aonishiki gets nervous. He might have one of the best poker faces in the sport. As he got set for this match, you would have never guessed that a win would have meant a yusho there and then.

Aonishiki approached this bout like many of his previous matches in this tournament. He came off the line looking to get his left hand grip on the outside of his opponent’s belt.

In the tachiai he faked that he was going high with his hands.

And then went low.

Atamifuji didn’t bite, though. He brought his arms down looking for the belt, too — likely confident that he could beat Aonishiki in a battle of strength there.

Aonishiki agreed. He withdrew his hand from Atamifuji’s belt so he could defend his own.

The pair were then locked in a forearm battle, with Atamifuji pushing to get his right hand low and on the belt and Aonishiki pushing to keep it high and out of range.

This battle ended when Aonishiki decided to hop back and attempt a slapdown.

That allowed Atamifuji to use his undefended forearm to push Aonishiki in the chest.

That prevented Aonishiki from getting any purchase on the slap down attempt and resulted with him in a flat footed position, with Atamifuji’s hands on his shoulders.

Atamifuji pushed Aonishiki back. Aonishiki responded with a last ditch tottari (arm bar throw) attempt.

But Atamifuji did a great job of spotting the straw, planting his feet and then finishing the job.

That win tied Atamifuji and Aonishiki on 12-3 records, guaranteeing a play-off for the cup.

The only man who could join Aonishiki and Atamifuji’s party was Kirishima. He had his fellow ozeki Kotozakura last night.

And he beat him, easily.

Kirishima got his left arm on the outside during the tachiai and moved Kotozakura around and over the straw. Kotozakura, having gotten his kachi-koshi two days ago (and saved his ozeki skin), was just going through the motions here. He was ready for the tournament to be over.

Kirishima would have been delighted to secure the victory, but even his most ardent fans (me!) can agree that this win over Kotozakura and the fusensho (default win) over Hoshoryu weren’t the most glorious ways one could carve out a path to a yusho.

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Regardless how he got there, Kirishima had the chance to finish things with style. He and Atamifuji were drawn first in the three-way play-off (where you have to win twice in a row to become champion).

This was a bit of a grudge match, too (see my gif at the top of the post). On day eight, Kirishima forced Atamifuji out. But, as Atamifuji was on the way out, he bashed the back of Kirishima’s head/neck. Kirishima came up looking mad, which is a pretty rare sight. He was likely angered because he’s endured some bad neck injuries in the past (including one which ruined his first reign as an ozeki).

Kirishima stared daggers at Atamifuji, but Atamifuji looked right back at him. I love Kirishima, but I was impressed that Atamifuji didn’t shrink away from that confrontation. I also don’t think Atamifuji meant any malice by his late slap down attempt on day eight.

Either way, though, that flash-point added some interesting history and spice to this first play-off bout. That added spice might have unsettled Atamifuji. He false started in this bout (something he did a lot back when he and Kirishima faced off with a yusho in 2024).

Once the bout finally got underway Atamifuji, was caught napping at the tachiai.

Fortunately, for him, he’s a brick wall. So even with a better start, Kirishima couldn’t push him back.

After collecting Kirishima, Atamifuji started moving his feet forwards and Kirishima wasn’t strong enough to stop him.

During his march forwards, he gave Kirishima a moro-zashi (double inside position). That’s not a good move, normally. The wrestler with the moro-zashi has a lot of potential leverage to turn or tip over an opponent. Atamifuji had a weapon, perfect for this situation, that not many other wrestlers possess, though.

A big beautiful belly.

Atamifuji used gaburi-yori (torso thrusting) to nullify any benefits Kirishima had from the moro-zashi and was able to bounce his rival over the straw.

This win put Atamifuji in pole position. Now he just needed to beat Aonishiki, for a second time that night, to secure his first career top division championship.

I think the best aspect of sumo is how often wrestlers face each over. We are lucky that we are able to measure wrestlers against each other pretty accurately, because of how often we see them do battle. That aspect of the game means we also get to see how wrestlers respond and react to each other on a match-by-match basis.

In this match, a rematch from a few hours earlier, Aonishiki opened the bout in an identical fashion to the first one.

A feint with his hands high and tight…

Before dipping them low, looking for the outside left grip.

Atamifuji did what he did in the last bout, too… keep his right arm inside and look for the belt himself.

Aonishiki got his grip in this bout, just like in the first one, but this time he didn’t let go when Atamifuji reached out for his belt and then look for distance (for a slapdown). This time he held the belt tight and brought Atamifuji closer to him. Instead of using his forearm to fight Atamifuji’s forearm, he put his whole shoulder into it.

Atamifuji was still able to reach down and go for the belt. But he didn’t have any space to extend that arm and start pushing with it.

As Atamifuji strained to reach down for the belt, Aonishiki then triggered his slap down attempt. He slid to his left and brought his right hand up for the slap down. He thought that, with Atamifuji reaching down so hard, that he could drive him down in that direction.

Atamifuji defended well, though, stepping out wide to make himself too sturdy to get slapped down.

Aonishiki was ready for this, though. As insurance, he had kept his left grip (his iron claw) locked. He then lowered his shoulder and started to smash into the flat-footed Atamifuji. He angled himself like a battering ram as he ran Atamifuji around the ring. This allowed him to keep his tummy back from Atamifuji, to prevent any gaburi-yori.

Atamifuji was in total defence mode during this flight and eventually ran out of room.

With the win, Aonishiki returned to the driver’s seat and now had to beat Kirishima to take the cup.

Aonishiki won their regular tournament bout on day thirteen. In that bout, Kirishima blew up Aonishiki’s opening gambit for the left hand outside grip with a kachiage (forearm strike). That strike allowed Kirishima to get a strong hidari-yotsu (left arm inside position) and get Aonishiki to the straw, only for Aonishiki to then shift his hips and score a reactive sukuinage (beltless arm throw).

In this bout, Kirishima opted against the kachiage and instead lead with a right hand aimed at Aonishiki’s shoulder — designed to push back the left arm and prevent the outside grip.

He missed, though, with his hand sliding off Aonishiki’s shoulder. He didn’t push Aonishiki’s arm back, but he did prevent him getting the outside grip. Instead, Aonishiki had an inside grip with his left arm.

This left both men in a position neither of them really wanted to be in.

Aonishiki would have preferred his left arm on the outside. Kirishima likes to have his left arm on the inside, but he also likes to have that left hand on the belt (preferably with a mae-mitsu [shallow belt grip]).

Kirishima’s desire for a belt grip led him to abandon ottsuke (forearm blocking) with his right arm.

After this both men were still in uncomfortable positions. During this stalemate, the winner would be the person who could improvise the best.

Both Aonishiki and Kirishima are elite creative talents on the dohyo, but on this night it was Aonishiki who would come up with a good idea first. And that’s what won him the cup.

He pushed Kirishima back and then flashed his left foot to the side…

Before hooking it back in for the sotogake (outside leg trip)…

Kirishima knows that move well, so he reared up and untangled his leg.

Aonishiki got two feet on the ground before Kirishima did and took advantage of that, pushing Kirishima back.

Kirishima continued to untangle his leg and then got himself set to brace against the straw.

But he missed…

The bout was over, but Aonishiki didn’t know it. He continued pushing forwards and that resulted in both men taking a tumble. Aonishiki got the worst of it, but I don’t think Kirishima was intentionally trying to make him flip over to the floor.

I think his fingers might have gotten stuck under Aonishiki’s belt and that this inadvertently forced Aonishiki to rotate and take that nasty bump over the edge.

Aonishiki landed very painfully, seemingly taking the entire force of the fall onto his right shoulder. He came up wincing, but also triumphant.

That wasn’t the greatest match in the world, but it certainly counts for Aonishiki. And he deserved the win, too. He broke the stalemate with the sotogake and forced Kirishima into a big mistake. Kirishima’s back was to the straw, but he’s often demonstrated excellent ring awareness in the past. I’m sure he’s kicking himself right now for not getting his foot to the ground sooner and sliding it to the straw (instead of stepping and trying to land right next to it).

Aonishiki is now a three time champ and an ozeki. And we can, again, start to dream about his ascencion to yokozuna (possibly as early as this year). It’s amazing that he won this tournament, despite the division knowing his weaknesses and despite him fighting on a bum ankle. It may be amazing, but it’s hardly a surprise is it? The 22 year-old Ukrainian has done nothing but defy expectations in Grand Sumo and show that he’s a special sumotori and that he might go down as one of the best the sport has ever seen.

The drama of that play-off overshadowed everything else that happened last night. But there were still some other things in makuuchi that are worth pointing out.

Onosato finished his campaign with a win, to go 9-6. He beat Kotoshoho in a bit of a sloppy effort.

The quality of this win doesn’t matter, though. What matters is that Onosato was able to last 15 days and that he was able to show flashes of his most dominant self. Hopefully this means that we’ll see even more of those flashes in September.

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Fujinokawa went into his bout with Fujiseun needing a win to get his kachi-koshi. He also knew a win would earn him an Outstanding Performance award (earned mostly for his two kinboshi wins over Onosato and Hoshoryu). And he got that win, making quick work of Fujiseun.

Fujinokawa is now set for a promotion to komusubi in September.

Takayasu also needed a win to get a special prize. He was up for a Fighting Spirit award. If you have a lot of time on your hands, check out his marathon match with Asanoyama below.

Takayasu won that bout and, thankfully, it was over before Asanoyama’s wardrobe malfunction could cause anything obscene.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 16

Tobi trample counter (rows): 6

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If you’d like to read coverage of the second and third division, you’ll need a paid subscription. If you have one, check out the results and analysis below. And, also, thank you for keeping Sumo Stomp! alive.

Don’t miss out on being able to see and read about the play-offs that determined the yusho in these divisions, too!

Jūryō Results and Analysis

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What a journey it has been to get to this point. Last night we had more great matches and also more clarity, when it comes to our title picture. Scroll down to see where we stand now, with just one day to play.

The bonus gif today is Wakanosho, someone I wish was still competing.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Chiyoshoma (5-9) def. Daiseizan (6-8) by uwatenage (over arm throw)

• Kazuma (4-10) def. Tobizaru (5-9) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Onokatsu (4-10) def. Wakamotoharu (6-8) by oshidashi

• Roga (8-6) def. Asakoryu (8-6) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Kotoeiho (10-4) def. Asanoyama (9-5) by yorikiri*

• Fujiseun (7-7) def. Abi (6-8) by kirikaeshi (twisting backward knee trip)

• Ura (5-9) def. Mitakeumi (2-12) by yorikiri

• Oshoma (6-8) def. Kinbozan (8-6) by kotenage (armlock throw)

• Hiradoumi (4-10) def. Ichiyamamoto (5-9) by oshidashi

• Asahaukryu (6-8) def. Gonoyama (6-8) by yoritaoshi (frontal crush out)*

• Hakunofuji (8-6) def. Churanoumi (6-8) by oshidashi

• Fujinokawa (7-7) def. Nishikifuji (9-5) by yorikiri

• Fujoryoga (10-4) def. Takanosho (6-8) by hatakikomi (slap down) after mono-ii (judges’ review) overturns gyoji (referee) decision

• Takayasu (10-4) def. Yoshinofuji (6-8) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)*

• Oho (1-13) def. Shodai (4-10) by yorikiri

• Atamifuji (11-3) def. Shishi (10-4) by yorikiri*

• Aonishiki (12-2) def. Takerufuji (10-4) by yoritoashi

• Daieisho (9-5) def. Kotoshoho (6-8) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)*

• Kirishima (11-3) def. Hoshoryu (7-7) by fusen (default)

• Onosato (8-6) def. Kotozakura (8-6) by yorikiri

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• S2w Aonishiki: 12-2

• O1e Kirishima, S1e Atamifuji: 11-3

Analysis

Aonishiki remains in the driving seat of this basho, after he took out Takerufuji last night.

Takerufuji got in hard and tight off the tachiai, latching his left arm on the inside and grabbing the belt with his outside right hand. That’s game over for most opponents. But the often unshakable Aonishiki widened his stance and then circled as Takerufuji pushed into him. This meant he went to the side instead of backwards and out. As he moved, Aonishiki secured his own grips. Once he got his iron grip on the outside of Takerufuji’s belt he was able to turn him to the straw and then use his right shoulder to knock him back over the line.

During the victory, Aonishiki hopped from the ring and looked to land awkwardly. He limped back onto the dohyo, but he didn’t look especially hurt. He’s managed to be elite over the last fourteen days despite hobbling a little between bouts.

This win knocked Takerufuji down to a 10-4 record, eliminating him from the yusho (since Aonishiki’s worst possible record now is 13-2).

Aonishiki now struts into senshuraku (final day of performance) knowing that a win secures his third career top division championship. A loss puts him in a play-off.

Aonishiki’s possible play-off opponents are Atamifuji and Kirishima.

Atamifuji won that right by beating Shishi, thus eliminating ‘The Lion’ from the yusho. So that means there will be no All-Ukrainian play-off for the cup.

Atamifuji steamrolled Shishi last night.

This is yet another example of Atamifuji shedding the nerves that used to plague him during his early career. During his first few cracks at a yusho, he fell apart in crunch time losing to Takakeisho and Kirishima (in bouts where he took forever to get ready and could not stand to even look at his opponents). Those days appear long gone now, though.

I think anyone who beats Atamifuji tomorrow will do so because they fought a better fight, not because Atamifuji was feeling any kind of jitters.

Hats off to Shishi for making it this far. I don’t know if we’ll ever see him make a run like this again. But I’m very thankful to him for giving us a very fun storyline to watch over the last two weeks.

Kirishima’s eleventh ‘win’ last night was by default. Hoshoryu has declared himself absent from the tournament, citing the worsening of the hamstring injury he suffered in the last tournament.

Now, hamstring injuries are notorious for re-occurring. However, this feels a little like gamesmanship from Hoshoryu. He has a complicated relationship with Kirishima. They were boys together at the same judo club in Mongolia and have had a friendly rivalry throughout their sumo careers. I have a feeling that Hoshoryu would rather sit out and gift Kirishima a win, than have his old rival take it from him on route to a possible yusho.

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Onosato is sticking around, it seems. He suited up last night and got a win over Kotozakura. He’s now one win away from a kachi-koshi (winning record). That would be his first winning record since January. Kotozakura got his winning record on the previous night, so he was just going through the motions in this bout.

Daieisho pounded Kotoshoho, last night, making his back bend like Neo’s in The Matrix. That loss gave Kotoshoho his make-koshi (losing record) and will cause him to lose his sekiwake ranking in September. The win gives Daieisho a shot of double-digit victories this month. That probably lands him back in the san’yaku for September.

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Yoshinofuji did his best to try and get a win over Takayasu, but he just couldn’t manage it. He got the ornery vet to the straw, but couldn’t finish the job. Takayasu then rumbled forwards and slapped him down, to give himself a 5-0 record against over the youngster.

That loss gave Yoshinofuji a make-koshi. And that will cost him his komusubi rank.

Kotoeiho was eliminated from the yusho on the previous night, but that didn’t stop him going out there and beating Asanoyama.

This was another bout where Kotoeiho showed off his sneaky power; getting inside and under Asanoyama and then rushing out the much bigger man. That was win number ten for Kotoeiho. He’ll be in the joi in September (at least).

At the other end of the division, Daiseizan got his make-koshi after getting thrown down by Chiyoshoma. He will join Onokatsu, Kazuma and Mitakeumi in going down to juryo in September.

Tonight we’ve got Aonishiki vs. Atamifuji. If Aonishiki wins; the cup is his. If he loses; he’s going to have to see Atamifuji again in a play-off.

That play-off will include Kirishima, if he beats Kotozakura.

Aonishiki has a 3-1 record over Atamifuji. Atamifuji did smash him in March, though. In addition to those four bouts, they also did have a play-off against each other in January. Aonishiki won that bout, with a headlock throw.

Kirishima has a 16-9 record over Kotozakura. Kotozakura is already checked out of this tournament, though, so I’m not expecting him to give his best effort against his fellow ozeki.

We have one Darwin Match tomorrow, with Fujinokawa vs. Fujiseun. If Fujinokawa wins that, he’ll likely be a komusubi (for the first time) in September.

Onosato will hope to secure his winning record tonight against Kotoshoho.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 16

Tobi trample counter (rows): 6*

*Tobizaru was pushed out by the giant Kazuma last night.

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If you’d like to read coverage of the second and third division, you’ll need a paid subscription. If you have one, check out the results and analysis below. And, also, thank you for keeping Sumo Stomp! alive.

Jūryō Results and Analysis

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Scroll down to see who is best positioned to do that after day thirteen’s matches.

Our bonus gif today is someone who will not win a yusho this weekend.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Onokatsu (3-1) def. Asahakuryu (5-8) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Mitakeumi (2-11) def. Kazuma (3-10) by yorikiri

• Kinbozan (8-5) def. Chiyoshoma (4-9) by shitatehineri (twisting underarm throw)*

• Tobizaru (5-8) def. Daiseizan (6-7) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Asakoryu (8-5) def. Wakamotoharu (6-7) by tsukiotushi (thrust down)

• Nishikifuji (9-4) def. Fujiseun (6-7) by uwatenage (over arm throw)

• Abi (6-7) def. Shodai (4-8) by tsukitaoshi (frontal thrust down)

• Asanoyama (9-4) def. Oshoma (5-8) by uwatenage*

• Fujiryoga (9-4) def. Ura (4-9) by oshitaoshi (frontal push down)*

• Roga (7-6) def. Ichiyamamoto (5-8) by shitatenage (underarm throw)

• Gonoyama (6-7) def. Hakunofuji (7-6) by oshidashi

• Daieisho (8-5) def. Takanosho (6-7) by oshidashi*

• Churanoumi (6-7) def. Fujinokawa (6-7) by oshitaoshi*

• Hiradoumi (3-10) def. Oho (1-12) by yorikiri

• Yoshinofuji (6-7) def. Kotoeiho (9-4) by oshidashi*

• Kotoshoho (6-7) def. Takayasu (9-4) by okuridashi (rear push out)*

• Kotozakura (8-5) def. Shishi (10-3) by shitatedashinage (pulling underarm throw)*

• Aonishiki (11-2) def. Kirishima (10-3) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

• Onosato (7-6) def. Takerufuji (10-3) by yorikiri*

• Atamifuji (10-3) def. Hoshoryu (7-6) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• S2w Aonishiki: 11-2

• O1e Kirishima, S1e Atamifuji, M13w Takerufuji, M14w Shishi: 10-3

Analysis

Aonishiki is back in the lead of this basho!

That’s thanks to his win over Kirishima and the results of those around him. The Kirishima bout was over in a flash, with Aonishiki quickly shifting his hips and sending Kirishima down onto the straw.

Kirishima led with his kachiage (forearm strike) in the tachiai, but I think Aonishiki was ready for it. He angled his left arm to get under that forearm, so he could grab the belt (in exchange for taking a forearm to the jaw). Aonishiki wasn’t able to keep a hold of that belt for long. Kirishima yanked his arm up to break that. But Aonishiki triggered a beltless throw in response, which sent the ozeki down.

Aonishiki’s speed on transitioning to that throw, as well as his quick thinking, are all reasons why he’s one of the best in the world. And he’s now poised for his third career yusho.

This win put Aonishiki back in the driver’s seat for the tournament. It also didn’t appear to add any stress to his ankle (which was tested in his prior bout with Kotoshoho).

Kirishima is now down to 10-3. He’s not eliminated from a potential yusho, but he will need Aonishiki to lose one of his last two bouts. If he does win it all, it’s probably going through a play-off. That likely ends the chances that he gets a yokozuna nod after this tournament.

Takerufuji missed a chance to tie Aonishiki’s record. He was steam-rolled by Onosato last night.

I wondered if Onosato would go for a henka here, as payback for the henka Takerufuji gave Takayasu on the previous night. Instead, Onosato might have channelled any sore feelings into a very powerful tachiai.

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Shishi also fell at one of his final hurdles last night. He got dragged down by Kotozakura.

Shishi has been fantastic in this tournament, but he came up against a very motivated Kotozakura. Kotozakura needed this win for his kachi-koshi (winning record) and to secure his ozeki rank. And he really wanted it last night because he knew he would have Onosato and possibly Kirishima on the final two days.

Kotozakura’s eagerness for the win, along with his highly nuanced grappling game, were just too much for the gutsy, exuberant, but still quite raw Shishi.

Atamifuji won last night to give himself a mathematical shot at winning this thing. He beat Hoshoryu in another bout where Hoshoryu just seemed to be going through the motions.

This tenth win for Atamifuji kick-starts an ozeki run for the 23 year-old.

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Takayasu lost to Kotoshoho last night. That pretty much eliminates Takayasu from the title hunt. Kotoshoho started this tournament poorly and is now trying to claw out a kachi-koshi. He has to win his last two bouts to do that and thus keep his sekiwake rank.

Tonight’s big match is Aonishiki vs. Takerufuji. They’ve only fought once before. That was in March, 2025, when Aonishiki made his debut in the top division. The Ukrainian won that bout.

Kirishima meets his old buddy Hoshoryu. They have an almost even record after 25 bouts with each other. Kirishima has won the last two.

Shishi meets Atamifuji. Atamifuji has won all three of the past meetings, but they haven’t fought this year.

If Aonishiki wins tonight, he will be 12-2 and Takerufuji will be 10-4 with one day left. That will eliminate Takerufuji and everyone else with four losses from the title race. That will include the loser of Shishi vs. Atamifuji and Kirishima, if he loses to Hoshoryu. Aonishiki will then fight the winner of Shishi vs. Atamifuji on the final day to win the cup (and face a play-off if he loses).

If Aonishiki loses he will be 11-3, tied with Takerufuji and the winner of Atamifuji vs. Shishi and Kirishima, if he beats Hoshoryu. In that scenario Aonishiki likely meets the winner of Atamifuji vs. Shishi and Kirishima meets Takerufuji. The winners of those bouts will then face-off for the cup.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 16*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

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We have just three days left of the July tournament and I think we are on track for a heck of a finale with this one.

Last night delivered more wild matches (we’ve really been spoiled this month) and plenty to talk about.

Let’s get into it!

The bonus gif today is this Aonishiki fan!

SPOILERS BELOW

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Results

• Asahakuryu (5-7) def. Kazuma (3-9) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Asakoryu (7-5) def. Abi (5-7) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Daiseizan (6-6) def. Mitakeumi (1-11) by yorikiri

• Shishi (10-2) def. Asanoyama (8-4) by shitatenage (underarm throw)*

• Fujiryoga (8-4) def. Nishikifuji (8-4) by tsukiotoshi

• Tobizaru (4-8) def. Onokatsu (2-10) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Takerufuji (10-2) def. Takayasu (9-3) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Kinbozan (7-5) def. Shodai (4-8) by yorikiri

• Roga (6-6) def. Ura (4-8) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Chiyoshoma (4-8) def. Oshoma (5-7) by shitatenage

• Daieisho (7-5) def. Fujiseun (6-6) by hatakikomi

• Wakamotoharu (6-6) def. Ichiyamamoto (5-7) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Fujinokawa (6-6) def. Gonoyama (5-7) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

• Takanosho (6-6) def. Hakunofuji (7-5) by oshidashi*

• Hiradoumi (2-10) def. Yoshinofuji (7-5) by okuridashi (rear push out)

• Churanoumi (5-7) def. Oho (1-11) by oshidashi

• Atamifuji (9-3) def. Kotoeiho (9-3) by yorikiri after torinaoshi (rematch)*

• Kotoshoho (5-7) def. Aonishiki (10-2) by oshidashi*

• Kotozakura (7-5) def. Hoshoryu (7-5) by uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw)*

• Kirishima (10-2) def. Onosato (6-6) by tottari (armbar throw)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• O1e Kirishima, S2w Aonishiki, M12w Takerfuji, M14w Shishi: 10-2

• S1e Atamifuji, M7e Kotoeiho, M7w Takayasu: 9-3

Analysis

Things have gotten very interesting in Nagoya!

Aonishiki lost last night to keep the door open for about half a dozen guys who are desperately trying to get their hands on the cup this weekend. His loss to Kotoshoho put him at 10-2, which tied him with four others.

The loss to Kotoshoho was a worst case scenario for the Blue Whirlwind. He took the L, had rivals win on the night, and he landed in a way that might have effected that injured ankle.

Aonishiki came in low for this bout, but Kotoshoho stuck him in the chest with his moroto-tsuki (double handed thrust). That pushed Aonishiki back and gave Kotoshoho lots of space and time to pick his next shots. The old Kotoshoho would have probably ran forwards firing hands at Aonishiki (only to be side-stepped and slapped down). But this version of Kotoshoho, someone who has seemingly learned to control a lot of his chaos, decided to patiently and precisely attack Aonishiki’s arms and then go for a slap down, as the Ukrainian came forwards. He didn’t knock Aonishiki down, but his footwork was good enough to get him around his opponent. Once he accomplished that, he sent Aonishiki off the ring with another big push.

That was an impressive win for Kotoshoho. I think we sometimes forget just how big and strong he is. When he’s not chasing around and, instead, pushing from a solid footing, he can really launch people.

This is Kotoshoho’s third win in a row over Aonishiki. It’s also nearly the year anniversary of when he beat Aonishiki to earn his surprise yusho.

Aonishiki limped away from this bout. If that landing re-injured Aonishiki’s ankle, then his front-runner status in this tournament might have just gone up in flames.

Aonishiki’s loss opened the door for Kirishima. All he had to do was beat Onosato. That’s something he had failed to do in ten previous meetings. However, on this night, when it mattered most, he finally managed that task.

Kirishima went into this bout with a clear gameplan — attack the right arm of Onosato. That’s the weapon Onosato uses to get inside on opponents and then drive them backwards. Kirishima knows this well, having been shotput by Onosato’s right hand on more than one occasion.

Kirishima took that right arm away, but shifting to his left in the tachiai and then locking that right arm for an immediate tottari attempt. And it worked, flawlessly.

It seems pretty obvious that this was Kirishima’s plan for the bout. Before this bout started, Kirishima false started. In that false start, you can see him shift to the left and get ready to snatch the arm. It’s only easy to see that in retrospect, so I don’t blame Onosato for not decoding what Kirishima was up to.

That win was huge for Kirishima. And you could see what it meant to him. He gave almost a fist pump after seeing Onosato careen into the clay. A win like this is a massive morale boost for the ozeki and it injects a lot of vigour into both his yusho chase and that possible yokozuna promotion (a clean yusho with wins over both yokozuna might put him over the edge).

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Takerufuji is also tied with Aonishiki. He used the dark arts to get there, though. Check out his henka on Takayasu below.

I have a feeling Takerufuji might not have done this had Takayasu not just beaten his stablemate Hakunofuji. Takayasu beat Hakunofuji with the help of some mind games on the previous night. The win that long staredown bought him on day ten might have ended up costing him yet another chance at a yusho.

There might be some payback coming Takerufuji’s way, though.

The JSA have again neglected to post a top match from the previous night. This time they are missing Asanoyama vs. Shishi. Here’s a poor quality version of that very exciting bout.

As you can somewhat see, Shishi again fought like the lion he is named for. He took on Asanoyama with belt-grappling, something Asanoyama is better at usually. But Shishi summoned up a lot of grit and guts in this match and was able to turn Asanoyama onto his back to secure his tenth win.

With his wins over Asanoyama and Kotoeiho, Shishi has transcended from a side-show in this tournament to someone who deserves respect as a potential title winner.

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Kotoeiho lost last night and thus did not take immediate advantage of his brother’s ability to knock Aonishiki down a peg. He had a gruelling evening with Atamifuji.

Kotoeiho, like Shishi, has fought with a lot of character and resolve in this tournament. He’s also proved that his title chase in May was no fluke and that he has a higher ceiling than certainly I predicted for him.

He fought really well against Atamifuji and almost pushed him out after a long, hard grappling battle. He was credited with a win initially, but a mono-ii determined that this bout was too close to call. In the rematch, Atamifuji had an easy time of forcing out Kotoeiho (who was exhausted after his long battle with the 420 lber).

That win tied Atamifuji and Kotoeiho on 9-3 records (along with Takayasu). Those three are underdogs over the next three days, but it’s very possible that they fight themselves back into contention.

Hoshoryu’s tournament went from disappointing to disastrous last night, when he lost to the declining Kotozakura. This was another rash performance from the yokozuna, which saw him run straight at Kotozakura with little respect for the big man’s nimble feet.

Hoshoryu winced, from embarrassment, after that one. Kotozakura gave a big puff that suggested he wants people to remember that 14-1 yusho he got (where he beat Hoshoryu on the final day). That was a huge win for the kadoban ozeki. He’s just one win away from saving his rank now.

Tonight has some epic matches on tap.

Kirishima vs. Aonishiki is the most important of those, since it guarantees that one of them will move to an 11-2 record. Kirishima has struggled against Aonishiki in the past. He’s only 1-4 against him. However, after beating Onosato he’ll come into this bout with a lot of confidence. And Aonishiki might still be feeling the effect of that jump from the dohyo.

Takerufuji will try and get his eleventh win when he meets Onosato. He’s 1-3 against him. Takerufuji’s sole victory was in their first ever meeting, when Takerufuji won his improbable yusho. If he beats him tonight, maybe that’s a sign that he’ll get his hands on the cup on Sunday.

He needs to be careful, though. His actions against Takayasu might have consequences here. Takayasu is a mentor and dear friend to Onosato. After Takerufuji possibly ruined Takayasu’s chance for the title, with a henka, maybe Onosato will return that favour? That would certainly spare the yokozuna some impact on that injured shoulder.

Shishi’s road to the yusho arrives at Kotozakura tonight. He’s never faced him before. Shishi has really shown up in these crunch battles. However, this might be Kotozakura’s best chance at getting his eighth win (since he likely has Onosato and Kirishima waiting for him).

Kotoeiho will need to beat Yoshinofuji to keep himself in the title hunt. He’s 0-3 against him. Takayasu has Kotoshoho. He’s 5-7 against him.

Hoshoryu has Atamifuji, who he is 5-6 against.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 16*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

*It was a good day for the henka counter yesterday. Asakoryu scored one on Abi (live by the sword, die by the sword, ya know?). Mitakeumi tried and failed against Daieseizan. And, of course, Takerufuji side-stepped Takayasu.

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We’ve got just four days left to play in Nagoya. And we’ve still got a decent number of wrestlers who could still win this thing. It’s really fun to have such a competitive tournament, even if our yokozuna aren’t really part of the conversation.

We’ve also had some especially thrilling matches during this tournament (including almost every bout Takayasu has been involved in). Last night there was an epic tilt between our two surprise contenders Kotoeiho and Shishi.

Scroll down to see that, along with full results, much more videos and my analysis.

Our bonus gif today is a man who has made a triumphant comeback this month.

SPOILERS BELOW

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Daiseizan (5-6) def. Abi (5-6) by okuridashi (rear push out)

• Asakoryu (6-5) def. Chiyoshoma (3-8) by oshitaoshi (frontal push down)

• Takerufuji (9-2) def. Asanoyama (8-3) by yorikiri (frontal force out)*

• Fujiryoga (7-4) def. Kazuma (3-8) by oshitaoshi

• Roga (5-6) def. Onokatsu (2-9) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)

• Wakamotoharu (5-6) def. Kinbozan (6-5) by kotenage (armlock throw)

• Shishi (9-2) def. Kotoeiho (9-2) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Fujiseun (6-5) def. Mitakeumi (1-10) by yorikiri

• Asahakuryu (4-7) def. Shodai (4-7) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Oshoma (5-6) def. Tobizaru (3-8) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Nishikifuji (8-3) def. Daieisho (6-5) by hatakikomi

• Takayasu (9-2) def. Hakunofuji (7-4) by yorikiri*

• Fujinokawa (5-6) def. Hiradoumi (1-10) by sukuinage*

• Takanosho (5-6) def. Oho (1-10) by yorikiri

• Churanoumi (4-7) def. Yoshinofuji (5-6) by oshidashi*

• Aonishiki (10-1) def. Gonoyama (5-6) by yorikiri

• Kotozakura (6-5) def. Ura (4-7) by oshitaoshi

• Kirishima (9-2) def. Ichiyamamoto (5-6) by oshidashi

• Atamifuji (8-3) def. Onosato (6-5) by oshidashi*

• Hoshoryu (7-4) def. Kotoshoho (4-7) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• S2w Aonishiki: 10-1

• O1e Kirishima, M7e Kotoeiho, M7w Takayasu, M12w Takerufuji, M14w Shishi: 9-2

Analysis

Aonishiki beat Gonoyama last night to take sole possession of the lead in this tournament, with a 10-1 record. That tenth win also guarantees that he will return to the rank of ozeki for the September tournament. So, pretty good day for Danny Sumo.

The win itself last night wasn’t too difficult for the Blue Whirlwind. He accepted Gonoyama’s big opening push in exchange for a firm grip on the belt. He then expertly ushered Gonoyama around and put him out over the straw. It did look like he got a little bit of Gonoyama’s top knot during that exchange. I’m surprised there wasn’t a mono-ii (judges’ review) called to take a closer look at that.

Either way, Aonishiki is our leader and that ankle appears to be holding up just fine. Now, it’s going to take some effort to unseat him as the leader and stop him snatching his third yusho.

There’s an interesting group chasing Aonishiki. The most shocking member of that cohort is his compatriot, Shishi.

Shishi looked like he had dropped off on the previous night, losing to Asahakuryu without much effort. But he brought his A-game last night, against Kotoeiho (who was fighting to try and get a 10-1 record himself).

These two went back and forth in what might be one of the matches of the year so far.

I was really impressed by Shishi in this bout. Kotoeiho’s yotsu-zumo (belt grappling) has come on leaps and bounds over the last two tournaments. Shishi’s has still looked quite raw. His oshi-zumo (pushing/thrusting) had been the standout facet of his sumo in this tournament.

But he used his size, and some technique, well last night to prevent Kotoeiho getting under him and completing on multiple attempts to turn him and put him out of bounds. Shishi also showed good cardio in being the first one to attack after a pause in the centre of the ring.

This is probably the best performance Shishi has ever put on in a single bout and I’m sorry for thinking he was just going to coast now that his kachi-koshi (winning record) was in the books.

This result tied Shishi with Kotoeiho at 9-2. There’s a few others on that mark too, right now.

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Asanoyama and Takerufuji met last night, for the first time since March, 2024. Asanoyama won that bout, but it didn’t prevent Takerufuji going on to win the tournament (in his debut makuuchi appearance — a feat that hadn’t been done in 90 years).

Takerufuji hurt his ankle in that bout. He would hobble through the rest of the tournament, but then miss the entire next tournament. That injury interrupted Takerufuji’s meteoric rise and set him up for two years of purgatory as he hopped between juryo and makuuchi.

I doubt he thinks Asanoyama was responsible for the injury and all that fallout, but he might still have this man circled as an opponent he really wants to beat.

Takerufuji fought a perfect bout against Asanoyama last night. He hit hard on the tachiai and then was very fast in pulling Asanoyama around, before meeting him chest-to-chest for the force out.

When he’s healthy and focused, few can match Takerufuji’s precision power combined with his fleet of foot. Hopefully we’re going to see that sustained for the next little while (at least). If he manages to keep it up for the next four days then he might be someone who can upset Aonishiki down the stretch.

Takayasu remains a threat to everyone else hoping to lift a trophy on Sunday. He beat Hakunofuji after a bit of gamesmanship. Takayasu gave Hakunofuji a long stare while in his squat, refusing to move. We’ve seen him do this before, with Hoshoryu of all people. Hakunofuji grew tired of this and sat up so they could start over.

When the bout finally got underway, Takayasu stood up to Hakunofuji’s charge and got his left arm on the inside. He kept Hakunofuji’s inside arm high to prevent him getting a matching inside grip. He then used his inside grip to move Hakunofuji across the ring and out.

I wonder if Takayasu’s long stare was an attempt to unsettle Hakunofuji. On the previous night we saw Kirishima force Hakunofuji to get out of his squat and reset, before beating without much trouble. Maybe Takayasu wanted to repeat that?

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Kirishima remains in the hunt for his fourth yusho (and a very slight chance of a yokozuna promotion). He beat Ichiyamamoto rather easily last night. He opened with a firm slap to the left cheek and then got his hands on his chest for a strong push out.

A lot of Kirishima’s sumo has looked effortless this month. He’s the best of the wrestlers chasing Aonishiki right now, but he has some tough matches waiting for him over the coming days (more on that later).

Last night featured yokozuna vs. sekiwake bouts. And the yokozuna went 1-1.

Onosato was blown away by Atamifuji. These two met with a thud, but it was Onosato who bounced back. Atamifuji, the heaviest man in the division, is the only person capable of doing that. After he stepped back, Onosato went for a lazy hatakikomi, but Atamifuji was already up in his grill completing his push out.

Onosato is now 6-5 and could be on course for one of the worst finishes of his pro career. His previous worst is 9-6, which he’s had happen to him only twice in the thirteen top division tournaments he has completed.

Hoshoryu beat Kotoshoho. Hoshoryu had a good plan here (unlike last night when he lost to Aonishiki).

He secured a migi-yotsu (right arm inside position) immediately off the tachiai, to force Kotoshoho into a grappling match (something Hoshoryu has a strong advantage in). Kotoshoho showed some good defence, though. He pulled against Hoshoryu’s belt and kept his feet moving to stay out of Hoshoryu’s throwing wheelhouse. He even managed to break Hoshoryu’s inside grip and then go for a desperate throw of his own. Hoshoryu is leagues above Kotoshoho when it comes to throws, though. He latched his other hand onto Kotoshoho’s belt and managed to turn him past and underneath him as they both hit the dirt.

Hoshoryu is now 7-4. He has mathematical chance of winning the yusho on Sunday. But it’s extremely unlikely that will happen.

Tonight’s matches are designed to bring some clarity to the yusho race with some of the more serious contenders set to face-off.

Takaysu and Takerufuji have been paired off. The winner will have a 10-2 record and the loser will have a 9-3 record. If Aonishiki wins, he’ll go to 11-1 and any wrestler on 9-3 will have a very steep mountain to climb in order to catch him. Takayasu and Takerufuji have only met once before. Takayasu won that bout, back in May, 2025.

Shishi has Asanoyama. Asanoyama is 3-0 in that match-up. But this version of Shishi might be a totally different animal from in the previous meetings. If Shishi wins, he’ll be 10-2.

Kotoeiho has a very tough task tonight in the form of Atamifuji. They’ve never met. Kotoeiho, like Shishi and all the others currently on a 9-2 record, can’t really afford to lose this one (especially if Aonishiki wins).

Kirishima has the toughest task, though. He has Onosato. Kirishima has an embarrassing 0-10 record against the 75th yokozuna. With Onosato in inconsistent form, and likely still feeling some effects of his shoulder injury, this might be Kirishima’s best chance to beat him.

Aonishiki has Kotoshoho tonight. If he wins that and goes to 11-1, he’s going to be very hard to stop and his field of legitimate threats will shrink considerably. Kotoshoho hasn’t been great in this tournament, but he might not be an easy bout for Aonishiki. Kotoshoho is 2-1 against the soon to be new ozeki. The last time they met here in Nagoya, Kotoshoho thrashed Aonishiki to win his first yusho (and prevent a play-off with Aonishiki).

Aonishiki must be desperate to even the score for that one. Kotoshoho will have plenty of motivation, too. He’ll want to dent Aonishiki’s record and give his little brother Kotoeiho a chance to catch up!

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 13*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

*Nishikifuji added to our total last night with a henka on Daieisho.

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Scroll down to see where everyone stands after day ten. There’s results, analysis and videos all just for you!

The bonus gif today is a fine view of a Fujinokawa rampant.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Daiseizan (4-6) def. Kinbozan (6-4) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Nishikifuji (7-3) def. Onokatsu (2-8) by yorikiri

• Asahakuryu (3-7) def. Shishi (8-2) by yorikiri*

• Asakoryu (5-5) def. Mitakeumi (1-9) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Takerufuji (8-2) def. Chiyoshoma (3-7) by yorikiri

• Wakamotoharu (4-6) def. Kazuma (3-7) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Kotoeiho (9-1) def. Abi (5-5) by kirikaeshi (twisting backward knee trip)

• Takayasu (8-2) def. Tobizaru (3-7) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)

• Roga (4-6) def. Shodai (4-6) by okuridashi (rear push out)

• Asanoyama (8-2) def. Fujiseun (5-5) by yorikiri

• Fujiryoga (6-4) def. Oshoma (4-6) by oshidashi

• Ura (4-6) def. Hiradoumi (1-9) by tsukiotoshi*

• Gonoyama (5-5) def. Yoshinofuji (5-5) by oshidashi

• Ichiyamamoto (5-5) def. Kotoshoho (4-6) by yorikiri

• Atamifuji (7-3) def. Churanoumi (3-7) by yorikiri*

• Kirishima (8-2) def. Hakunofuji (7-3) by yorikiri*

• Kotozakura (5-5) def. Oho (1-9) by uwatehineri (twisting over arm throw)*

• Aonishiki (9-1) def. Hoshoryu (6-4) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Onosato (6-4) def. Daieisho (6-4) by abisetaoshi (backward force down)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• S2w Aonishiki, M7e Kotoeiho: 9-1

• O1e Kirishima, M7w Takayasu, M10e Asanoyama, M12w Takerufuji, M14w Shishi: 8-2

Analysis

Aonishiki is taking control of this tournament. The Ukrainian beat Hoshoryu last night to improve to a 9-1 record. He’s now just one win away from reclaiming his ozeki rank. He might get way more than that, this month, though. Despite sharing the lead with Kotoeiho, and having a pack of good wrestlers just behind him, he has to be our favorite to take the yusho on Sunday.

His win over Hoshoryu was… well… it was just too easy, wasn’t it?

Hoshoryu went with the kachiage (forearm strike) at the tachiai. But he didn’t land it with much impact. Aonishiki was fast off his line and didn’t give the yokozuna space to really extend his arm.

The kachiage also presented Aonishiki with a lot of space to go for a left outside position, which he gladly took.

Aonishiki’s grip strength is incredible, so allowing him this position at the outset of the bout immediately put Hoshoryu behind the 8-ball. Hoshoryu tried to turn into Aonishiki’s body to get a moro-zashi (double inside position), but Aonishiki circled away and went for a slap/swing down.

Hoshoryu managed to pop his head out, though. He then overhooked Aonishiki’s right arm, rather casually. This allowed Aonishiki to get a second vice-like grip on his belt.

At this point in the match, Aonishiki had a fully locked migi-yotsu (right arm inside position) with two hands on the belt. It’s hard to beat anyone who has that hold on you, but it might as well be impossible when it’s Aonishiki who has the hold. Aonishiki was also able to stay in his preferred leaned over stance for this migi-yotsu. This stance prevented Hoshoryu from being able to reach out and grab Aonishiki’s belt.

Hoshoryu was stuck at this point. So he decided to go for a sukuinage (beltless arm throw). It’s not easy to throw someone when you aren’t holding onto the belt. Hoshoryu is one of the best around at doing that, but even so, it’s just too difficult to do with Aonishiki being able to brace against any throw attempt with that grip.

Hoshoryu went for the throw anyway and Aonishiki saw it coming. He made sure his left leg was inside of Hoshoryu’s right leg, to further deprive Hoshoryu of any kind of lever for his throw.

As Hoshoryu turned for the throw, Aonishiki turned with him and essentially stole the throw from him. He twisted his back, showing off incredible flexibility) and…

… turned Hoshoryu into the ground, only releasing his right hand grip when he knew the bout was done.

This all happened very quickly. A lot of credit needs to go for Aonishiki, for showing perfect technique. Though, he only had the opportunity to show that technique because of how dreadful Hoshoryu’s approach to the bout was.

The kachiage didn’t work. Even if he was successful, Aonishiki would likely still be close enough to grab the belt with his long arms. And Hoshoryu gave up that second belt grab without any defense. A nodowa (throat thrust) would have been a better move to start with, since it pushes the opponent further back. And ottsuke (forearm blocking) is what everyone else does to stop someone grabbing their belt so easily.

If Hoshoryu’s casual approach here was a sign of hubris, then he was certainly humbled at the end of it. Aonishiki is now 6-1 against Hoshoryu, but this is — by far — the easiest win I’ve ever seen him get over him.

The loss drops Hoshoryu to 7-3. He’s going to need to be very lucky to stand any chance of taking the yusho this month.

Kotoeiho beat Abi last night to stick with Aonishiki at the top of the leader board. This was his first time going against Machine Gun Arm. Abi treated him to one of his classic moves: the henka.

Fortunately, for Kotoeiho Abi got hung up during his attempt. It appeared as though Abi was trying to grab and drive down Kotoeiho, around the neck and belt, as he flew through the air, instead of merely just trying to avoid the tachiai. Kotoeiho did a good job of quickly turning to face Abi, thus taking his belt out of range. Abi was then stuck in close quarters; somewhere he hates being. He tried to push Kotoeiho away from him, but Kotoeiho was already moving to secure a firm hold around his waist. Once he had him, it was easy to dump the bigger man down.

This is the second straight tournament where Kotoeiho has been among the leaders during the first week. In May he fell apart late, with losses to Kirishima, Wakatakakage and Yoshinofuji. I have a feeling he might do better against the big names this time around, though.

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Kirishima won last night to keep himself in the title hunt. Hakunofuji blew up Kirishima’s tournament in May, after winning a thrilling bout with him on day fourteen. Kirishima avoided any drama in this bout, though, securing a quick force out.

I like how Kirishima called an audible in this bout. He was about to place his hand down and then saw Hakunofuji put both fists down, with a lot of intensity. You could see how that unsettled Kirishima. Kirishima then stood up, endured the embarrassment of apologizing all around, and then got back into fight mode. I like that Kirishima didn’t force the bout if he wasn’t feeling totally in rhythm.

Takayasu is tied with Kirishima on an 8-2 record. Last night he thrusted out Tobizaru without too much effort.

Takayasu has had some very dramatic bouts in Nagoya, so he deserves a mundane win here and there. He’s due to face some much tougher opponents in the coming days. One thing is for sure, though, Takayasu isn’t going to be intimidated by anyone.

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Asanoyama is another former ozeki sitting at the 8-2 mark. He got there with a rather simple win over Fujiseun.

The experienced Asanoyama isn’t going to be intimidated by the bigger names waiting for him this week, either. But can his body hold up to the pressure they will put him under?

Takerufuji is also in that chasing pack. He took some big slaps from Chiyoshoma last night, but was still able to power him out and into the seats.

Takerufuji is a wild card in this title hunt. He’s been here before, but I’m still not sure if that miraculous debut yusho was a flash in the pan or a sign that Takerufuji (without injuries) is an elite rikishi. We won’t find out the answer to that in this tournament. But I think he might have a big say in where this yusho goes (likely due to who he beats as we go down the stretch).

Shishi is the last man in that 8-2 group. He was bundled out by Asahakuryu last night. Shishi scored his kachi-koshi on day nine to save his skin from a juryo demotion. I don’t think he seriously thinks he can win the title here, so I expect his compete-level to drop off considerably over this final five days.

Onosato won last night, by the way. It was quite a bruising victory, though. He took some big shots from Daieisho and avoided an utchari (backwards pivot throw) on the straw.

Onosato’s a non-factor when it comes to this yusho, but I’m still interested to see if he can make it through fifteen days with a respectable record.

Aonishiki has Gonoyama tonight. Gonoyama has been so-so in this tournament and his one dimensional game is unlikely to cause the Blue Whirlwind many issues. They’ve never faced each other before.

Kotoeiho is paired off with Shishi. Shishi is 2-3 in this match-up, but Kotoeiho has won the last two bouts (their only meetings in makuuchi).

Asanoyama and Takerufuji meet tonight. Asanoyama is 2-0 against Takerufuji. He was one of only two men to beat Takerufuji during his amazing March 2024 yusho.

Takayasu has Hakunofuji. That’s a tough match-up for the veteran. Hakunofuji is just behind the leaders right now and he has a 3-2 record against Takayasu. Takayasu has won the last two bouts between them, but they haven’t seen each other since January.

Kirishima has Ichiyamamoto. He’s 3-3 against him. Ichiyamamoto is 5-5 at this tournament, which is better than I expected him to be doing. Still, I think he might be one of the easier opponents the current leaders are due to face.

Our sadly irrelevant yokozuna have some tough match-ups. They are facing the sekiwake tonight. Hoshoryu has Kotoshoho and Onosato has Atamifuji.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 12

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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We are well into our second week at the 2026 Nagoya basho. We’ve had a fascinating opening nine days and our title picture right now is clear as mud. Things are going to start becoming more clear over the coming days as this stacked field of contenders starts squaring off with each other. I can’t wait!

Scroll down to see which wrestlers are in that big leading pack right now. I’ve also got videos of key bouts and analysis. Paid subscribers get juryo and makushita results and analysis, too. Paid subscribers also have a chance to win an awesome Ura t-shirt. If you’re not a paid subscriber, yet, what’s stopping you?

Our bonus gif today is someone I think we are all pulling for.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Takerufuji (7-2) def. Asakoryu (4-5) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Shishi (8-1) def. Abi (5-4) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Kinbozan (6-3) def. Asahakuryu (2-7) by yorikiri

• Onokatsu (2-7) def. Mitakeumi (1-8) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Chiyoshoma (3-6) def. Kazuma (3-6) by katasukashi (under shoulder swing down)*

• Asanoyama (7-2) def. Daiseizan (3-6) by yorikiri*

• Takayasu (7-2) def. Nishikifuji (6-3) by watashikomi (thigh grabbing push down)* after mono-ii (judges’ review) overturns gyoji (referee) decision*

• Kotoeiho (8-1) def. Fujiryoga (5-4) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Fujiseun (5-4) def. Tobizaru (3-6) by yoritoashi

• Oshoma (4-5) def. Roga (3-6) by oshidashi

• Ura (3-6) Wakamotoharu (3-6) by oshidashi

• Daieisho (6-3) def. Shodai (4-5) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)

• Gonoyama (4-5) def. Takanosho (3-6) by oshidashi

• Fujinokawa (4-5) def. Oho (1-8) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

• Kotoshoho (4-5) def. Hiradoumi (1-8) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)*

• Atamifuji (6-3) def. Ichiyamamoto (4-5) by oshidashi

• Hakunofuji (7-2) def. Kotozakura (4-5) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Churanoumi (3-6) def. Kirishima (7-2) by tsukiotoshi after mono-ii confirms gyoji decision*

• Aonishiki (8-1) def. Onosato (5-4) by uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw)*

• Yoshinofuji (5-4) def. Hoshoruyu (6-3) by yorikiri*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• S2w Aonishiki, M7e Kotoeiho, M14w Shishi: 8-1

• O1e Kirishima, M3w Hakunofuji, M7w Takayasu, M10e Asanoyama, M12w Takerufuji: 7-2

Analysis

Well, I cursed the yokozuna.

Yesterday I said I thought Hoshoryu and Onosato had stabilized their rocky tournaments and were looking in good shape to be relevant at the business end of the basho. Last night’s results really struck a blow against that hope/theory, though.

Onosato did look in good shape when he went against Aonishiki. However, the crafty Ukranian (who is nursing an injury himself), is never an easy bout. Onosato blew Aonishiki back with a big push off the tachiai. He tried a second big push, but Aonishiki was ready for it. He latched onto the long right arm of Onosato and then executed an inashi (side-step) to bring the big man past him and out of the ring.

That was a huge win for Aonishiki. It gave him a share of the lead; on an 8-1 record. It was also his first ever win against Onosato, in five attempts. It was also a win that didn’t seem to cause him any damage to that injured ankle.

If Aonishiki can stay healthy he has to be our favourite to lift the cup on Sunday. Everything can change, in an instant, with sumo, though. One bad fall or hop off the dohyo and Aonishiki’s title chances might evaporate.

Aonishiki is likely more focused on ten wins than a yusho, though. He’s now just two away from securing a promotion back to ozeki.

Aonishiki is joined on an 8-1 record by Shishi and Kotoeiho. Shishi beat Abi last night without much drama. Abi was unable to push him back with thrusts and had nowhere to go once Shishi started advancing on him. Kotoeiho looked powerful again last night, crushing Fujiryoga out with his hidari-yotsu (left arm inside position).

Hoshoryu lost to Yoshinofuji last night. He tried to stick Yoshinofuji with a nodowa (throat thrust) off he tachiai, but Yoshinofuji didn’t move. Usually Hoshoryu likes to do that to knock someone upright and then duck under to get an inside position on them. When Yoshinofuji didn’t bend, Hoshoryu still ducked to get inside. But Yoshinofuji was able to attack with a slap down when he did that. Hoshoryu did well to stay up and then he rocked Yoshinofuji with a good nodowa. While Hoshoryu’s arms were up for thrusting, though, Yoshinofuji took advantage with a moro-zashi (double inside position). From there he was able to run Hoshoryu out without fear of a throw (since Hoshoryu didn’t have any kind of lock around either of Yoshinofuji’s arms).

The loss isn’t a devastating one for Hoshoryu. It drops him back to 6-3. If he goes on a long winning streak now, then he might be able to catch up as that group of 8-1, 7-2 and 6-3 wrestlers face-off and start to dent each others’ records.

Kirshima missed out on the chance to join Aonishiki with an 8-1 record. He lost to Churanoumi last night. On the surface this looks very bad for Kirishima. But Churanoumi deserves some respect. He’s not having a good tournament, but he’s a tough out for anyone due to his creativity and reaction speed. He was one of only three men to beat eventual champion Wakatakakage in the last tournament.

In this bout Kirishima thought he had Churanoumi where he wanted him, after using his forearm to snap Churanoumi’s mae-mitsu (front shallow grip) off of his belt. As he lunged forwards, though, Churanoumi slapped his pushing arm down with perfect timing to send Kirishima towards the dirt. Churanoumi then managed to stay in bounds as the ozeki touched down.

Like with Hoshoryu, this loss wasn’t a disaster for Kirishima. He’s only one back of the leaders and he’s yet to face any of them in this tournament.

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Hakunofuji is an under-the-radar title contender this week. He’s in that second place pack right now. He made himself too heavy for Kotozakura to toss around last night and was able to shift his weight and land the throw once Kotozakura got tired.

Kotozakura is now 4-5 with tough matches ahead of him this week.

Takayasu is tied with Kirishima and Hakunofuji. He had another fun brawl last night. Nishikifuji put up a great fight, but Takayasu’s pace and ferociousness won out. That big ol’ bear he was eventually able to spear Nishikifuji off the ring.

The referee called this for Nishikifuji initially. However, Takayasu seemed to stand his ground on the ring to evoke a mono-ii.

He’s looked great this month and has had some of the best matches of the tournament. Dare we dream, again, that Takayasu will actually get a late career maiden yusho?

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Takerufuji is another wrestler who has quietly made himself a contender. He blitzed through Asakoryu last night.

Asanoyama is the last man in that the title hunt right now. He’s looked very sturdy this week and last night he overwhelmed Daieseizan.

For the second straight day the JSA have neglected to include video of one of the best bouts of the night. Here’s some fanside footage of Fujinokawa’s war with Oho. In this bout Fujinokawa stakes his lifting power against Oho’s kimedashi (arm barring force out) power and the little man won.

Tonight’s big match is Hoshoryu vs. Aonishiki. If Hoshoryu wins that he’ll by 7-3 and Anoshiki will by 8-2. This is their sixth bout and Aonishiki has won all except their last meeting, in March.

Onosato will have Daieisho (who might sneak his way into the title picture with a win). Onosato is 5-1 against him.

Kirishima vs. Hakunofuji should be a great match. Hakunofuji got a big win over Kirishima in May. That bout opened the door for Wakatakakage to tie and then beat Kirishima on the final day. Kirishima and Hakunofuji have a 3-3 head-to-head record now.

Takayasu, Shishi, Takerufuji and Asanoyama have some very winnable matches. They have the struggling Tobizaru, Asahakuryu, Chiyoshoma and Fujiseun to contend with. Kotoeiho gets Abi, for the first time in his career. Abi isn’t having a great tournament, but he’s always dangerous.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 11

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

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If you’d like to read coverage of the second and third division, you’ll need a paid subscription. If you have one, check out the results and analysis below. And, also, thank you for keeping Sumo Stomp! alive.

Jūryō Results and Analysis

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I was out at a games day today and then, after I came back, Mini Sumo Stomp! was a tough cookie to get to bed.

I’m here now, though, and there is a fascinating basho to talk about. The Nagoya tournament has crossed the half-way point now and we still have this extremely crowded field of front-runners. And we also have all our yokozuna and ozeki competing. Huzzah!

Scroll down to see how everyone fared last night. I’ve got results, analysis and videos. And, if you’re a paid subscriber, there’s juryo and makushita content, too!

Bonus gif today is one of our surprise title contenders. It’s Darth Shishi!

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Asakoryu (4-4) def. Daiseizan (3-5) by shitatenage (underarm throw)

• Shishi (7-1) def. Kinbozan (5-3) by yorikiri (frontal force out)*

• Kazuma (2-5) def. Nishikifuji (6-2) by yorikiri*

• Mitakeumi (1-7) def. Takerufuji (6-2) by oshidashi (frontal push out)*

• Asanoyama (6-2) def. Onokatsu (1-7) by yorikiri

• Abi (5-3) def. Chiyoshoma (2-6) by oshidashi

• Tobizaru (3-5) def. Asahakuryu (2-6) by kekaeshi (inner foot sweep)*

• Shodai (4-4) def. Fujiryoga (5-3) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Roga (3-5) def. Fujiseun (4-4) by uwatenage*

• Ura (2-6) def. Takayasu (6-2) by oshidashi*

• Oshoma (3-5) def. Wakamotoharu (3-5) by oshidashi

• Kotoeiho (7-1) def. Ichiyamamoto (4-4) by oshidashi

• Churanoumi (2-6) def. Gonoyama (3-5) by oshidashi

• Yoshinofuji (4-4) def. Fujinokawa (3-5) by sotogake (outside leg trip)*

• Aonishiki (7-1) def. Takanosho (3-5) by oshidashi*

• Hakunofuji (6-2) def. Kotoshoho (3-5) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Kirishima (7-1) def. Atamifuji (5-3) by oshidashi*

• Kotozakura (4-4) def. Hiradoumi (1-7) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)

• Hoshoryu (6-2) def. Daieisho (5-3) by oshidashi

• Onosato (5-3) def. Oho (1-7) by yorikiri*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• O1e Kirishima, S2w Aonishiki, M7e Kotoeihō, M14w Shishi: 7-1

• Y1e Hōshōryū, M3w Hakunofuji, M7w Takayasu, M10e Asanoyama, M13w Takerufuji, M13e Nishikifuji: 6-2

Analysis

Our two yokozuna continued to look like their usual selves last night. That is starting to look like the norm in this tournament. That’s a huge relief after seeing them both suffer some early struggles.

Hoshoryu made short work of Daieisho. He used hazuoshi (armpit thrusting) to get under Daieisho’s thrusts and then drove him out.

And Onosato gathered Oho at the tachiai and then powered him across the ring with his usual migi-yotsu (right arm inside position).

Hoshoryu is now 6-2, just one win off the leaders. Onosato is a little further back, but if he keeps performing as he has in the last few days then he might be able to get himself into the mix. At the very least, both men have managed to steady the ship over the past four or five days and helped ease some fears about whether they would be uncomfortable to watch over the duration of the tournament.

Kirishima moved to 7-1 last night with a big win over Atamifuji. Kirishima has barely put a foot wrong in this tournament. He hasn’t done much wrong at all in 2026. Against Atamifuji he got his right arm inside early and showed a lot of strength to brace against the straw and then turn the tables on the young sekiwake. Once the bout was over we saw a rare flash of anger from Kirishima. He glared deep into Atamifuji’s eyes at the boundary. I think he was miffed that Atamifuji slapped the back of his head, despite the bout being essentially over.

It was quite shocking to see the usually good-natured Kirishima scowl like that. I get that it must have been annoying to get clobbered just when you thought the bout was over. I think that could have been a case at Atamifuji being frustrated at himself more than anything else.

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Aonishiki is tied with Kirishima at the top of the leader board. He beat Takanosho, but it may have cost him.

Takanosho fought a good bout against Aonishiki. He used powerful thrusts to keep Aonishiki upright and away from that leaned over stance he loves to do. Aonishiki gave as good as he got with the thrusts and was eventually able to lean into Takanosho. As he got the force out, though, Takanosho fired off one last thrust that put Aonishiki off balance and sprawling off the ring.

Aonishiki came up slow from that and limped across the dohyo. He needs three more wins to get back his ozeki rank. I have a feeling he’s going to fight until that foot falls off this month.

Aonishiki’s compatriot Shishi won last night, to keep his name among the leaders. He forced Kinbozan into a yotsu-zumo (belt grappling) battle, something the Kazakh never likes to do. From there Shishi had the better technique and was able to eventually wrestle Kinbozan over the line.

I’m amazed Shishi has gotten this far, but things should start getting a lot tougher for him in week two. I don’t think he’ll be able to maintain this form once that happens.

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Kotoeiho rounds out the quartet of leaders. He quickly pushed out Ichiyamamoto last night. I really like what I’ve seen from him so far. I think he’s got a decent chance of being in this position late into week two (just like he did in May).

Takerufuji could have joined the leaders on 7-1. However, he ended up losing to Mitakeumi (for Mitakeumi’s first win of the tournament). Mitakeumi turned back the clock in this bout and came off the line with a lot of vigor. I think that surprised Takerufuji. He wasn’t able to recover from that.

Asanoyama is at 6-2. His battered knee seems to be holding up nicely. Last night he showed his yotsu game was a cut above Onokatsu’s.

The other 6-2 wreslters are Hakunofuji, Nishikifuji and Takayasu. Hakunofuji beat Kotoshoho with a henka last night. Nishikifuji was halted and then tipped over by Kazuma. And Takayasu was beaten by a very spirited Ura, who was able to get underneath him and drive up and forwards to force him out.

We have a banner match-up tomorrow with Onosato vs. Aonishiki. Onosato is 4-0 against Aonishiki. They haven’t faced each other since January, though.

Hoshoryu has Yoshinofuji. Hoshoryu is 2-1 in that match-up. Yoshinofuji has been a little disappointing in his debut komusubi tournament. He’s just 4-4 right now.

Kirishima faces Churanoumi in a battle of the mae-mitsu (shallow front grip) enthusiasts. Kirishima has the 4-2 edge in that match-up. These two haven’t faced each other since 2019, though. That was back when they were in juryo.

Things get a little tougher for Shishi. He has the Troll King, Abi. Nishikifuji and Takayasu will be paired off tonight. Hakunofuji has the struggling kadoban Kotozakura. And Asanoyama has the rookie Daiseizan.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 11

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

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If you’d like to read coverage of the second and third division, you’ll need a paid subscription. If you have one, check out the results and analysis below. And, also, thank you for keeping Sumo Stomp! alive.

Jūryō Results and Analysis

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We are creeping up to the half-way point of this basho and there are still lots of wrestlers who have a very good shot at lifting the Emperor’s Cup next Sunday. This week has been a great prelude for what I think will be a very interesting second week of the tournament. All those contenders need to start getting whittled down and that process should happen soon.

Scroll down to see where we are at after seven days of action at the Nagoya tournament. I’ve got results, videos and analysis waiting for you.

And if you’re a paid subscriber, there’s some jūryō and makushita content down there, too!

The bonus gif today is Hōshōryū doing his “yeah, that was easy” face.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Asakōryū (3-4) def. Tomokaze (2-5) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Takerufuji (6-1) def. Ōnokatsu (1-6) by oshidashi

• Nishikifuji (6-1) def. Shishi (6-1) by okuridashi (rear push out)*

• Abi (4-3) def. Kazuma (2-5) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)*

• Daiseizan (3-4) def. Asahakūryū (2-5) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Kinbōzan (5-2) def. Wakanoshō (5-2) by fusen (default)

• Asanoyama (5-2) def. Mitakeumi (0-7) by uwatenage (over arm throw)

• Fujiryoga (5-2) def. Chiyōshoma (2-5) by oshidashi after torinaoshi (rematch)*

• Wakamotoharu (3-4) def. Tobizaru (2-5) by oshidashi*

• Kotoeihō (6-1) def. Rōga (2-5) by yorikiri*

• Takayasu (6-1) def. Shōdai (3-4) by oshidashi

• Fujiseun (4-3) def. Ura (1-6) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)

• Ōshōma (2-5) def. Daieishō (5-2) by oshidashi

• Ichiyamamoto (4-3) def. Churanoumi (1-6) by oshitoashi (frontal push down)

• Gōnoyama (3-4) def. Ohō (1-6) by yorikiri

• Takanoshō (3-4) def. Yoshinofuji (3-4) by abisetaoshi (backward force down)

• Aonishiki (6-1) def. Fujinokawa (3-4) by yorikiri*

• Atamifuji (5-2) def. Kotozakura (3-4) by yorikiri

• Kirishima (6-1) def. Kotoshōhō (3-4) by uwatenage*

• Ōnosato (4-3) def. Hakunofuji (5-2) by yorikiri*

• Hōshōryū (5-2) def. Hiradoumi (1-6) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• O1e Kirishima, S2w Aonishiki, M7e Kotoeihō, M7w Takayasu, M13e Nishikifuji, M13w Takerufuji, M14w Shishi: 6-1

• Y1e Hōshōryū, S1e Atamifuji, M3w Hakunofuji, M4w Daieishō, four others: 5-2

Analysis

Both yokozuna won last night, for the second time in this tournament. And both looked very yokozuna-like in the process.

Ōnosato and Hakunofuji met with a crash in their bout last night. Ōnosato looked like a brick wall, though. That’s impressive given how strong Hakunofuji is in the tachiai. After getting his feet set, Ōnosato powered Hakunofuji across and out of the ring. He did all that without his favourite right arm inside position, too. He had to use an inside left position, utilizing that damaged shoulder to generate power.

Ōnosato has now won three matches in a row for the first time since January. It feels great to write that. I can only imagine how great it must feel for him to do that.

Hōshōryū barely broke a sweat in his day seven victory. He was served up Hiradoumi, someone he dominates on the dohyō. Hiradoumi often acts as Hōshōryū’s sword-bearer during yokozuna duties, so they know each other well and are perhaps quite fond of each other, too. They also cross-train a lot due to being in the same stable network.

I don’t think Hiradoumi rolls over for his senpai. But I do think Hōshōryū holds a massive mental edge over a young man he regularly wallops in training.

This quick throw victory improved Hōshōryū’s record to 12-1 over Hiradoumi. And it gave him a 5-2 record at this basho.

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Kirishima got another classy win last night. He was step ahead of Kotoshōhō for the entire bout and was able to usher the All Violence Team captain into a very graceful over arm throw finish.

Kirishima’s sumo has looked effortless at times this year. That does him a disservice, though. He is working extremely hard on defense and that is what’s opening up these smooth finishes for him.

He’s on 6-1 now, sharing the lead with a bunch of guys.

That includes both Shishi and Nishikifuji. Those two fought last night, with Nishikifuji getting a big push out after forcing Shishi off balance. Shishi’s title chances always seemed like they would peter out the longer this tournament went on. His great start has overshadowed Nishikifuji’s form, though. Nishikifuji being in this position is equally as shocking as Shishi being here. Like with Shishi, though, I doubt Nishikifuji can maintain this form through the second week.

I wrote similar things about Kotoeihō in the last tournament. He managed to keep winning right up until the last handful of days, though. He’s off to another great start in this tournament, too.

I’m very impressed with his development this year. Last night he out-muscled Rōga for a quick and forceful yorikiri win. I criticized Kotoeihō for his lack of strength in the clinch in his first makuuchi tournament, but he’s gotten so much better since then. He’s 6-1 now and I feel far less inclined to pour cold water on his title chances this month.

Aonishiki is a title threat whenever he’s healthy. He’s 6-1, too. He caught a flying Fujinokawa and then easily carried him out. Aonishiki is likely most concerned with getting ten wins so he can earn back his ōzeki rank, but a yushō would sure be nice, too.

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Kotozakura is in serious risk of losing his rank this month. The kadoban ōzeki is 3-4 now, after going out with a whimper against Atamifuji.

Wakanoshō didn’t come out for his bout tonight. He went down awkwardly against Fujiryoga on the previous night. It appears he suffered a knee injury during that bout. He’s out for the rest of this tournament and might be out for a long time after that.

That’s terrible news. Wakanoshō was 5-0 when he went down. And I think he looked far more convincing as a surprise title challenger than Shishi did.

Tonight brings us some friendly, on paper, match-ups for our yokozuna.

Ōnosato has Ōhō, someone he’s beaten seven times in ten bouts. Hōshōryū has Daieisho, who he is 14-6 against.

If things go to plan, then both yokozuna might make up some ground on the field.

Kirishima has a tough match tonight, against Atamifuji. He’s 3-3 against him. Though, he won an epic bout against him in May.

Aonishiki has Takanoshō. He’s 3-1 against him, but Takanoshō won the last meeting.

Takayasu, who has been far too good for the competition he’s met at his low ranking in this basho, has Ura. Ura is just 1-6 in this tournament.

Kotoeihō has Ichiyamamoto, for the first time in his career. Shishi meets Kinbōzan and Nishikifuji has the rookie Kazuma.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 10

Tobi trample counter (rows): 4

*Wakamotoharu pushed Tobizaru into the seats today, he hit two rows. That doubles his tournament total!

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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We were at my parents today, trapped inside due to the horrific air quality problems in this part of Ontario. That, for various reasons, has resulted in a late bed time for my six year. So I’m coming to this newsletter at about 9 p.m.

Because of all this, I’ll be keeping things more brief than usual. Lean and mean, if you will.

Bonus gif tonight is Kotozakura looking rather pleased with himself.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Onokatsu (1-5) def. Kazuma (2-4) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Kinbozan (4-2) def. Dewanoryu (3-3) by yorikiri

• Shishi (6-0) def. Asakoryu (2-4) by oshidashi (frontal push out)*

• Nishikifuji (5-1) def. Daiseizan (2-4) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Takerufuji (5-1) def. Asahakuryu (2-4) by yorikiri

• Asanoyama (4-2) def. Abi (3-3) by yorikiri

• Fujiryoga (4-2) def. Wakanosho (5-1) by oshitoashi (frontal push down)*

• Tobizaru (2-4) def. Mitakeumi (0-6) by yorikiri

• Chiyoshoma (2-4) def. Roga (2-4) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Shodai (3-3) def. Wakamotoharu (2-4) by oshidashi

• Kotoeiho (5-1) def. Ura (1-5) by kotenage (armlock throw)*

• Takayasu (5-1) def. Oshoma (1-5) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)*

• Fujiseun (3-3) def. Ichiyamamoto (3-3) by oshidashi

• Daieisho (5-1) def. Churanoumi (1-5) by okuridashi (rear push out)

• Takanosho (2-4) def. Kotoshoho (3-3) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)

• Atamifuji (4-2) def. Fujinokawa (3-3) by oshidashi*

• Aonishiki (5-1) def. Oho (1-5) by shitatehineri (twisting underarm throw9*

• Kirishima (5-1) def. Yoshinofuji (3-3) by oshidashi*

• Gonoyama (2-4) def. Kotozakura (3-3) by oshidashi

• Hakunofuji (5-1) def. Hoshoryu (4-2) by kirikaeshi (twisting backward knee trip) after mono-ii (judges’ review) overturns gyoji (referee) decision*

• Onosato (3-3) def. Hiradoumi (1-5) by yorikiri*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• M14w Shishi: 6-0

• O1e Kirishima, S2w Aonishiki, M3w Hakunofuji, M4e Daieisho, five others.

Analysis

We are officially in the Twilight Zone ladies and gentlemen. Shishi is our tournament leader after six days. Shish has turned to the dark side with his black mawashi and it’s working out swimmingly for him.

Last night he slapped around Asakoryu to continue the best start to his career.

Shishi has to fall off soon, right? Or is the evil power in that black mawashi going to power him to the most shocking yusho of the year?

Kirishima, who is the epitome of everything good in sumo despite his black mawashi, won last night to stay right behind Shishi (I can’t believe I just wrote that). He used his elite defensive skills to keep Yoshinofuji off his belt and then maneuver him over the straw.

Kirishima continues to look like a legitimate threat to scoop his second yusho of the year (and fifth of his career).

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Aonishiki won last night, too. He snapped down Oho with a move that is borrowed from his old freestyle wrestling playbook.

This must have felt sweet for Aonishiki. Oho won their previous two meetings, in quite brutal fashion.

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Hoshoryu took a big loss to Hakunofuji last night. He got a hold of his belt early, but couldn’t shift him. That’s partially thanks to Hakunofuji’s tree trunks for legs. After Hakunofuji blocked a throw attempt, Hoshoryu adjusted to try a throw with a high leg kick. Hakunofuji trapped that leg, though, and yanked Hoshoryu down backwards. Hoshoryu was given the initial decision, but a review gave the bout to Hakunofuji.

I was surprised there wasn’t a torinaoshi for this one, but I’m not that upset about it. I think Hakunofuji was the more active wrestler during that finishing sequence and Hoshoryu looked to touch down a hair before him.

Onosato won last night and looked the most like Onosato that he has all basho. He absorbed Hiradoumi’s forceful tachiai and then swept him out like a great wave.

Atamifuji vs. Fujinokawa was a fun watch last night. Atamifuji gave Fujinokawa an extra shove after their May bout, likely due to Fujinokawa’s early start and vicious slap he threw. Fujinokawa went very early in this bout, too. He also tried to kick out one of Atamifuji’s legs. That all earned a minor staredown from the pudding man after Fujinokawa was pushed out.

I’m including Asanoyama vs. Abi today only because I made Mrs. Sumo Stomp! laugh when I said Abi was fighting like a cat being stuffed in his carrier.

Wakanosho suffered his first loss last night. He was having a very fun brawl with hometown boy Fujiryoga, but then went down very painfully. It looked like he might have rolled his ankle after making contact with the straw. He would need a wheelchair to leave the ring.

Tonight we have Hoshoryu vs. Hiradoumi. Hoshoryu has the commanding 11-1 record in that match-up. Onosato meets Hakunofuji. He’s 2-3 against him. Kirishima meets Kotoshoho and Aonishiki has Fujinokawa.

Shishi will look to continue his reign of terror when he takes on Nishikifuji (who has also been surprisingly good this week).

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 9*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 2

*Chiyoshoma went airbourne to defy Roga last night.

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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Scroll down to see where we stand after five days and who the leaders currently are. It’s a good mix, I promise you.

I’ve also got analysis and videos for you to enjoy. And, if you are a paid subscriber, I have jūryō and makushita coverage for you, too.

Bonus gif today is the highest man on the banzuke.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Daiseizan (2-3) def. Ōnokatsu (0-5) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Shishi (5-0) def. Ryūden (1-4) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

• Kinbōzan (3-2) def. Asakōryū (2-3) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Takerufuji (4-1) def. Kazuma (2-3) by sukuinage

• Abi (3-2) def. Asahakūryū (2-3) by shitatedashinage (pulling underarm throw)*

• Nishikifuji (4-1) def. Mitakeumi (0-5) by uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw)

• Asanoyama (3-2) def. Chiyoshōma (1-4) by yorikiri

• Wakanoshō (5-0) def. Tobizaru (1-4) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)*

• Rōga (2-3) def. Wakamotoharu (2-3) by yoritoashi

• Takayasu (4-1) def. Roga (3-2) by hatakikomi (slap down)*

• Shōdai (2-3) def. Fujiseun (2-3) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)*

• Kotoeihō (4-1) def. Ōshōma (1-4) by yorikiri

• Daieishō (4-1) def. Ichiyamamoto (3-2) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Hakunofuji (4-1) def. Ura (1-4) by sukuinage

• Yoshinofuji (3-2) def. Ōhō (1-4) by yorikiri

• Takanoshō (1-4) def. Atamifuji (3-2) by oshidashi

• Fujinokawa (3-2) def. Kotoshōhō (3-2) by hikiotoshi

• Aonishiki (4-1) def. Kotozakura (3-2) by yorikiri

• Hiradoumi (1-4) def. Kirishima (4-1) by oshidashi*

• Ōnosato (2-3) def. Churanoumi (1-4) by yorikiri*

• Hōshōryū (4-1) def. Gōnoyama (1-4) by tottari (armbar throw)*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• M11e Wakanoshō, M14w Shishi: 5-0

• Y1e Hōshōryū, O1e Kirishima, S2w Aonishiki, M3w Hakunofuji, five others: 4-1

Analysis

Both our yokozuna won last night. That’s the first time that’s happened in this tournament. They both looked pretty good, too. Hopefully that’s a sign that we’re going to see both these guys involved in the title hunt when we get into the business end of this basho.

Ōnosato’s win came over Churanoumi. Ōnosato opened with a moroto-tsuki (double handed thrust). That backed Churanoumi off. They pair exchanged some thrusts for a little, but Churanoumi was always looking to get inside and latch on his mae-mitsu (front shallow grip). Ōnosato did a good job of batting that reaching hand away and opening up space for him to get his right arm to the inside position. Once he got that, he powered Churanoumi out of the ring (and looked a lot like his old self while doing so).

Ōnosato also hit one of his power poses as he brushed Churanoumi over the line. I think that might be a sign that a little bit of confidence is returning for our 75th yokozuna.

Hōshōryū dispatched of Gōnoyama without much incident last night. He shaped to catch Gōnoyama at the tachiai and then rode him to the straw before slipping out to perform the arm bar throw. That, to me, looked like something Hōshōryū might hit on Gōnoyama a lot during cross training. These two see each other a lot in practise, due to them being in the same ichimon (stable group).

Other than his hiccup against Fujinokawa, Hōshōryū is looking in good form. He won his maiden yushō in Nagoya (in 2023) and would love to get his third here this month.

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Wakanoshō and Shishi (!) remain in the lead after day five. Though, it is still very early in the tournament.

Wakanoshō put a beating on Tobizaru and sent him sailing into the seats. Glad to see someone takes the trample counter seriously. Shishi beat Ryūden, which you’d expect anyone in the top division to do right now. Ryūden showed some fight, though, before gassing out and getting forced out by the big Ukrainian.

It would be a great story if both these guys could keep winning and be a factor down the stretch. We’ve seen a few maegashira wrestlers hang on to the final days this year. It was Kotoeihō and Fujiroga in May. But we’ve not seen any of them manage to grab the cup since Kotoshōhō did that in Nagoya last year.

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Kirishima missed his chance to join those surprise leaders on a 5-0 record. He lost to Hiradoumi last night.

Hiradoumi fought ferociously to break out of his slump and get his first win of the tournament. He blew through Kirishima’s kachiage (forearm strike) at the tachiai and poured on a ton of pressure. Kirishima tried to work his defensive swipes, but Hiradoumi didn’t give him any space to breath and was able to get him quickly over the line.

Takanoshō joined Hiradoumi in avoiding an 0-5 record. He beat Atamifuji. Takanoshō landed a great nodowa (throat thrust) off the tachiai. That disrupted Atamifuji’s attempt to clinch him up. Atamifuji did get his preferred right arm on the inside, but it was loose and Takanoshō pulled off a beautiful makki-kae (switch from outside to inside position) with his left arm while moving backwards. That allowed him to escape out the side and then come back at Atamifuji with thrusts. Atamifuji then responded with pushes and thrusts of his own, as well as a slap down attempt. That’s not his game, though. And in a running battle with Takanoshō, he was second best and was eventually forced out over the straw

I’ve given Atamifuji lots of props for diversifying his game and not shying away from oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting) lately. But now I think he needs to work on picking the right time to use those skills, as well as the right opponent to use them against.

Aonishiki had a no nonsense win over Kotozakura last night. He got his leaned in stance and defended a slap/swing down attempt before charging Kotozakura out the ring.

Aonishiki is now six wins away from a return to the ōzeki rank. Kotozakura is five wins away from keeping his ōzeki rank.

Takayasu was part of yet another fight of the night last night. He and Fujiryoga brought the house down with a high paced slap fest. The crowd roared as local boy Fujiryoga came close to winning, but he would end up getting flipped over by the veteran.

Tonight we’ve got Ōnosato vs. Hiradoumi. Hiradoumi would love to help out Hōshōryū with a win here.

Hōshōryū had his hands full with Hakunofuji. Hakunofuji has been quietly very good so far this week. He’s 4-1 after powering out Ura last night.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 8

Tobi trample counter (rows): 2

*Abi missed his henka on Asahakūryū and was then tossed over. Fujinokawa was successful with his leap away from Kotoshōhō, though.

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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We had to wait a little for those last night, after a long series of yorikiri wins. But there is a lot to talk about when it comes to the final few bouts of the night.

Scroll down to see the results from the top division and my analysis. If you’re a paid subscriber, there’s also second and third division coverage to enjoy.

The bonus gif today is Double Stacks!

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Results

• Sadanoumi (1-3) def. Ōnokatsu (0-4) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Shishi (4-0) def. Kazuma (2-2) by yorikiri

• Nishikifuji (2-2) def. Asakōryū (1-3) by yorikiri

• Takerufuji (3-1) def. Daiseizan (1-3) by yorikiri

• Kinbōzan (2-2) def. Abi (2-2) by yorikiri

• Wakanoshō (4-0) def. Mitakeumi (0-4) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)*

• Asahakūryū (3-1) def. Chiyoshōma (1-3) by yorikiri*

• Fujiryoga (3-1) def. Tobizaru (1-3) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Asanoyama (2-2) def. Rōga (1-3) by yorikiri

• Kotoeihō (3-1) def. Takayasu (3-1) by yorikiri

• Wakamotoharu (2-2) def. Fujiseun (2-2) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Ura (1-3) def. Ōshōma (1-3) by uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw)*

• Ichiyamamoto (3-1) def. Shōdai (1-3) by oshidashi

• Hakunofuji (3-1) def. Hiradoumi (0-4) by hatakikomi (slap down)*

• Yoshinofuji (2-2) def. Aonishiki (3-1) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Ōhō (1-3) def. Kotoshōhō (3-1) by oshidashi

• Daieishō (3-1) def. Atamifuji (3-1) by tsukiotoshi*

• Kirishima (4-0) def. Takanoshō (0-4) by oshidashi*

• Kotozakura (3-1) def. Fujinokawa (2-2) by hatakikomi*

• Hōshōryū (3-1) def. Churanoumi (1-3) by tsukiotoshi*

• Gōnoyama (1-3) def. Ōnosato (1-3) by oshidashi after mono-ii (judges’ review) overturns gyoji (referee) decision*

*Must see bouts!

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Leaderboard

• Too soon!

Analysis

Ōnosato took another loss last night. Though, it wasn’t as depressing as his first two losses of the tournament.

He stood up well to Gōnoyama’s opening push. He was a little slow in the tachiai, but that’s a criticism I’ve had of him for a long time. After the clash he had Gōnoyama on the back foot, while pushing on his elbow to prevent a thrust. Gōnoyama did a nice move to remove the elbow pressure, though, and then stepped out to get around Ōnosato’s left arm. Ōnosato then cupped the back of his head and started driving him down. Gōnoyama responded to this by pushing as hard as he could.

That all resulted in Gōnoyama going belly first into the dirt while Ōnosato leaped in the air (showing off some pretty impressive hops for a big man). Ōnosato landed out of bounds, but the gyoji called him the winner.

A mono-ii was called to take a second look, though. The ringside judges decided that, Gōnoyama deserved the win. They credited his push out as being more meaningful than Ōnosato’s slap down and penalized Ōnosato for taking flight. They used the notorious dead body rule here, to determine that Ōnosato was as useful as a dead body while he was up in the air.

I don’t like this interpretation of the rule when it comes to these slap down/push out situations. I think the man who is driving his opponent down while leaping is just as active as the man pushing forwards. I would like to see a torinaoshi (rematch) called in these situations. However, I’m not mad about what happened last night.

That’s because a precedent has been set regarding this situation. And every rikishi should be very aware that if you leave your feet in this situation, you’re going to lose. Ōnosato, especially, should be aware of this. He won last year’s Nagoya basho on a play just like this, only with Hōshōryū being the one was in-flight. I hated that one, especially since there was no mono-ii. But if this is the way it’s going to be called, so be at. At least they are being consistent with it.

This ruling against Ōnosato might also help battle some of the conspiracy rumours about Ōnosato getting favourable treatment in matches (that stuff mostly comes from partisan Hōshōryū fans, though).

Regardless where you stand on this rule and its application, Ōnosato now sits at a very un-yokozuna-like 1-3 after four nights. At least he didn’t look too banged up in this bout.

Hōshōryū rebounded from his loss to Fujinokawa last night. He got a win over a very game Churanoumi. He used an underhook to drag and rotate Churanoumi early on in the bout. This was a planned move, I think, designed to counter Churanoumi’s usual mae-mitsu (shallow front grip) opener. Churanoumi responded well to getting turned, though, rotating back to Hōshōryū and firing off tsuppari (palm strikes). Hōshōryū walked through the strikes and forced Churanoumi to go chest-to-chest. Churanoumi responded with a migi-yotsu (inside right position). That was a mistake, though. Hōshōryū used his overhook on that arm to wrench Churanoumi over onto one foot and then pulled him down to the dirt.

Hōshōryū looked in total control, and very intelligent, during this match. That’s a big improvement from what we saw in his bitter battle with Fujinokawa yesterday. He’s now 3-1, trailing three wrestlers, including his old buddy Kirishima.

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Kirishima got a big win over Takanoshō last night. That win improves his head-to-head record against Takanoshō to just 9-17. Though, he has now won the past four meetings.

Kirishima led with the kachiage (forearm strike) in this bout. He’s done this twice already in this tournament. It was an especially good option in this bout, though. With his forearm raised high, he was able to get his hand above Takanoshō’s hands and then brush down to block Takanoshō’s opening nodowa (throat thrust).

Takanoshō then chased to try and get his nodowa to land, but Kirishima’s footwork and hand-fighting was too good. Kirishima kept circling to prevent Takanoshō getting a good look at him and his hands were very busy batting away at Takanoshō’s arms to prevent him loading up a big thrust. All this movement helped Kirishima find the angle he needed for the winning push out.

Kirishima is really operating at a high level right now. I don’t think anyone has been better than him in the first half of 2026.

Kirishima was joined at 4-0 by Wakanosho and Shishi (!) last night.

Wakanoshō continues to look like his stablemaster (the former Takakeishō) with a vicious pushing/thrusting game. Mitakeumi fell victim to that last night.

And Evil Shishi, complete with his black mawashi, has been a terror on the dohyō this week. He outmuscled Kazuma for the force out.

There’s a lot of good wrestlers higher up the banzuke, who are performing pretty well this week, so I doubt these two manage to stay ahead of the pack for much longer.

Atamifuji dropped his first bout of the tournament last night. He went toe-to-toe with Daieishō and lost. Atamifuji has really developed his oshi-zumō this year and has looked quite effective, and mean, with his striking. However, he was up against one of the best power pusher/thrusters in the game last night.

It would have been much wiser to grapple with Daieishō. But I’m not too mad at Atamifuji thinking he could outstrike him. That shows confidence and confidence is something he has struggled with in the past.

I still think Atamifuji is on track to be a contender this month.

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Aonishiki also took his first loss of the tournament last night. Yoshinofuji beat him with a Herculean show of strength. I thought Aonishiki had Yoshinofuji dead to rights once he got side-on to him. But Yoshinofuji was able to get his fingers under the fold of Aonishiki’s mawashi. He showed amazing grip strength to keep that hand locked there while being turned to the straw. Then, as Aonishiki tried to nudge Yoshinofuji over the straw, Yoshinofuji had the power to reach back and pull Aonishiki off his feet and over onto the ground.

That was amazing. Aonishiki paused on the floor after and he might have limped away, too. Hopefully that’s not a sign that we’ll lose Aonishiki early in this tournament.

Kotozakura has looked surprisingly good in this tournament. He’s 3-1 now, as he tries to cling to his ōzeki rank. Last night he stuffed Fujinokawa at the tachiai and showed great mobility to circle around the straw and sling Fujinokawa out of bounds.

Tonight’s battles include Hōshōryū vs. Gōnoyama. Hōshōryū is 8-2 against Gōnoyama, someone he sometimes uses as an attendant at his dohyō-iri (ring blessing ceremony).

Ōnosato meets Churanoumi. He’s 2-0 against him.

Kirishima meets the struggling Hiradoumi. Hiradoumi is 0-4 right now and can’t buy a win.

Aonishiki has Kotozakura, someone he is 5-1 against. Fujinokawa vs. Kotoshōhō should be a fun one to watch, with both guys being members of the All Violence Team. Wakanoshō sees Tobizaru tonight. And Evil Shishi will go against jūryō call-up Ryūden.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 6*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 1

*Asakōryū and Hiradoumi tried and failed in henka attempts and then lost. Wakamotoharu leaped away from Fujiseun for the win.

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If you’d like to read coverage of the second and third division, you’ll need a paid subscription. If you have one, check out the results and analysis below. And, also, thank you for keeping Sumo Stomp! alive.

Jūryō Results and Analysis

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Scroll down to see what happened on the dohyo last night and learn who is looking in good shape for a serious title run this month.

The bonus gif today is Daieishō, getting pumped.

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Kazuma (2-1) def. Tokihayate (1-2) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Asakōryū (2-1) def. Ōnokatsu (0-3) by yorikiri

• Shishi (3-0) def. Daiseizan (1-2) by yorikiri*

• Nishikifuji (2-1) def. Kinbōzan (1-2) by yorikiri*

• Takerufuji (2-1) def. Abi (2-1) by oshitoashi (frontal push down)

• Wakanoshō (3-0) def. Asahakūryū (1-2) by okuridashi (rear push out)

• Chiyoshōma (1-2) def. Mitakeumi (0-3) by yorikiri

• Fujiryoga (2-1) def. Asanoyama (1-2) by oshitaoshi*

• Rōga (1-2) def. Tobizaru (1-2) by yorikiri

• Kotoeihō (2-1) def. Wakamotoharu (1-2) by yorikiri*

• Takayasu (3-0) def. Fujiseun (2-1) by hatakikomi after mono-ii (judges’ review) upholds gyoji (referee) decision

• Shōdai (1-2) def. Ura (0-3) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)

• Ichiyamamoto (2-1) def. Ōshōma (1-2) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Daieishō (2-1) def. Hiradoumi (0-3) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)

• Kotoshōhō (3-0) def. Yoshinofuji (1-2) by oshidashi*

• Atamifuji (3-0) def. Ōhō (0-3) by uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw)*

• Aonishiki (3-0) def. Hakunofuji (2-1) by yorikiri*

• Churanoumi (1-2) def. Kotozakura (2-1) by oshidashi*

• Kirishima (3-0) def. Gōnoyama (0-3) by oshidashi

• Ōnosato (1-2) def. Takanoshō (0-3) by oshidashi*

• Fujinokawa (2-1) def. Hōshōryū (2-1) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)*

*Must see bouts!

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Analysis

There were signs of life from Ōnosato last night. He managed a win over Takanoshō and, boy, did he look relieved after that.

I was surprised to see Ōnosato come out for this match. After his struggles with the smaller Fujinokawa on the previous night, I thought a match-up with one of the biggest guys on the roster would prove a good excuse to go kyūjō (absent).

But Ōnosato suited up and went to work. And he fought a great fight, too.

Takanoshō led with his nodowa (throat thrust) in this bout, something I thought he would do on the previous night (against Hōshōryū). Ōnosato was ready for it, though. He pushed off on Takanoshō’s outstretched elbow to remove the pressure from his throat. That turned Takanoshō and opened up an angle for Ōnosato to put his chest into him. Ōnosato hit him and put his right arm on the inside (his favourite move) for the powerful force out. That’s what he tried against Fujinokawa yesterday. However, unlike Fujinokawa, Takanoshō didn’t have the speed and agility to side-step at the last moment.

Ōnosato heaved a huge sigh of relief after this one. Sumo wrestlers are supposed to be stoic, but Ōnosato can be read like a book at times. On the past two nights he looked absolutely miserable. Hopefully this is a sign that his body can stand up to this tournament and that, perhaps, it was his mind getting in the way of things in those early bouts.

Hōshōryū fell victim to Fujinokawa last night. Fujinokawa’s nickname might have to become Yoko-Hunter now. He scored his career fourth kinboshi with this win and kept his win rate against yokozuna at one-hundred percent. Yesterday I talked about how all his other wins deserved asterisks. That’s not the case with this one.

He earned this gold star the hard way.

I think Hōshōryū let his emotions get the better of him in this bout. I think he was still sore after his first meeting with Fujinokawa. In that bout, in March, Fujinokawa came off the line way too early and was able to get the win. That was a mistake by the gyoji and Hōshōryū has every right to be upset about it.

In this bout, though, I think Hōshōryū wanted payback. To do that he put everything he had into a kachiage (forearm strike) at the tachiai. We saw Kirishima do this to Fujinokawa earlier in the tournament and it seems like a good move to prevent Fujinokawa getting an early jump on you.

Hōshōryū’s kachiage sent Fujinokawa back, but Fujinokawa (who might be anticipating this move being used against him more) quickly got his feet set. Hōshōryū then went for Fujinokawa’s face with thrusts. Fujinokawa was able to slip those shots and push down the reaching Hōshōryū. Fujinokawa went up to one foot and then landed partly on Hōshōryū on the way down.

Hōshōryū then glared at Fujinokawa. He might have thought Fujinokawa landed on him intentionally. Or perhaps he thought this start from Fujinokawa was a tad early, too (it was, but not as bad as the earlier one).

I think Hōshōryū has to blame himself for this bout, though. He was out of control on the kachiage and the follow up thrusts and he looked like his intent was to maim, not to win. If he had a cooler head, I think he would have hit high and then got on the belt (his usual routine) on Fujinokawa. Keeping your hands high against the smaller man was a terrible idea, since Fujinokawa could so easily slip under and around them.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Hōshōryū drawn into feuds and grudges. Takayasu, Gōnoyama and Wakamotoharu have all had noticeable spats with him on the dohyo in recent years. I’m a huge fan of him, but I would love it if he focused just on solving the problem of how to beat someone and not how to show them up/hurt them.

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Kirishima won again last night, to stay 3-0. He used some muscle to out-thrust Gōnoyama. He also used his excellent defense, in the form of a hand on the tricep, to prevent Gōnoyama thrusting with any kind of venom.

Through these early days Kirishima seems to be in the same form that earned him the title in March and a runner-up finish in May. I still don’t think he can get the kind of yushō he needs this month to get the yokozuna promotion (because the field is so deep), but I dare to dream. If Kirishima does manage to go 14-1 or 15-0 against this field, then there will be no doubts over whether he deserves the tsuna (rope belt).

Atamifuji is my wrestler of the tournament, thus far. He’s looked incredible. He’s been an immovable object on defence and an unstoppable force on offence.

Last night he hit Ōhō, like a truck, on the tachiai. He then bear-hugged him and, despite having a less than desirable double outside position, was able to move Ōhō around and sling him over. Ōhō is terrible at grappling, but this was still very impressive.

Atamifuji’s demeanour is also impressive. He’s looking very confident right now and like someone who will be a major factor in this tournament.

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Aonishiki won again last night. That brings his count down to seven wins, when it comes to what he needs to secure an immediate promotion back to ōzeki. He looked like his old self in this bout with Hakunofuji. He was able to get his trademark leaned over posture and use that to drive Hakunofuji back, while keeping his belt far out of reach.

This style has been targeted by opponents recently. I don’t want Aonishiki to move away from it entirely. I just want him to show different looks when that one isn’t working. He’s done that, so far, in this tournament. That’s a good sign for this ōzeki push and for his potential to become the first ever European born yokozuna.

Kotoshōhō continued to look at home at sekiwake last night. He used some awesome pushing power to beat Yoshinofuji.

Wakanoshō is 3-0. He continued to rep the All Violence Team when battering Asahakūryū.

Fujiryoga got a big win last night, over former ōzeki Asanoyama. Fujiryoga is the only top division rikishi who hails from Aichi Prefecture (where this tournament is being held). He has the crowd roaring for him at every match and, so far, it seems like that’s helping him more than hurting him.

Tonight we’ve got Ōnosato vs. Gōnoyama. This feels like a good opportunity for Ōnosato to try his hatakikomi out. He’s really good at that move, when he’s feeling well, and Gōnoyama is a prime slap down target.

Hōshōryū has Churanoumi. He’s 5-0 against the man from Okinawa (with all throws).

Fujinokawa will try and take out an ōzeki tomorrow, in the form of Kotozakura (who lost to Churanoumi last night). The undefeated Kirishima gets the winless Takanoshō. Takanoshō has a great record against Kirishima, though. Atamifuji will test his perfect start against Daieishō and Aonishiki has Yoshinofuji. Aonishiki is 1-4 against him.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 3*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 1**

*Abi tried, and failed, a henka in his bout with Takerufuji. I get a lot of second-hand embarrassment watching a guy get up and walk out after doing that.

**Tobizaru lost a long battle with Rōga last night and just about touched the front row after being forced out.

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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There’s sumo to watch all week, so that immediately makes it better than last week, right?

Last night the Nagoya basho gave us some thrilling matches. I can’t wait to tell you all about them. Scroll down for that analysis, full results and lots of videos.

The bonus gif today is our new boy Kazuma.

SPOILERS BELOW

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Makuuchi Results and Analysis

Results

• Asasuiryū (2-0) def. Daiseizan (1-1) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Kazuma (1-1) def. Asakōryū (1-1) by yoriki (frontal force out)*

• Kinbōzan (1-1) def. Ōnokatsu (0-2) by yorikiri

• Shishi (2-0) def. Takerufuji (1-1) by hatakikomi

• Nishikifuji (1-1) def. Asahakūryū (1-1) by yorikiri

• Abi (2-0) def. Mitakeumi (0-2) by oshidashi (frontal push out)

• Wakanoshō (2-0) def. Asanoyama (1-1) by yoritoashi (frontal crush out)*

• Wakamotoharu (1-1) def. Fujiryoga (1-1) by yorikiri

• Takayasu (2-0) def. Rōga (0-2) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Kotoeihō (1-1) def. Shōdai (0-2) by oshidashi

• Fujiseun (2-0) def. Ōshōma (1-1) by yorikiri

• Daieishō (1-1) def. Ura (0-2) by kotenage (armlock throw)*

• Hakunofuji (2-0) def. Ichiyamamoto (1-1) by oshidashi

• Atamifuji (2-0) def. Hiradoumi (0-2) by sukuinage (beltless arm throw)*

• Aonishiki (2-0) def. Churanoumi (0-2) by yorikiri*

• Kotoshōhō (2-0) def. Gōnoyama (0-2) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Kirishima (2-0) def. Ōhō (0-2) by sukuinage*

• Kotozakura (2-0) def. Yoshinofuji (1-1) by okuridashi (rear push out)*

• Hōshōryū (2-0) def. Takanoshō (0-2) by sukuinage*

• Fujinokawa (1-1) def. Ōnosato (0-2) by tsukiotoshi*

*Must see bouts!

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Analysis

Ōnosato is just not looking good, is he?

He lost again last night, this time to Fujinokawa.

Ōnosato opened this bout with a big moroto-tsuki (double handed thrust). That put Fujinokawa back on his heels. The move is rather telling, though. Ōnosato usually opens with his hands low and initates a massive clash with his chest. You could see that Ōnosato isn’t totally comfortable with this opening move. His feet were very awkward after he threw it and he seemed totally unprepared for Fujinokawa not being directly in front of him. Fujinokawa came in at Ōnosato from an angle and was able to get migi-yotsu (right arm inside position). Fujinokawa was, remarkably, able to move Ōnosato back with that hold. Ōnosato was then able to brace and start moving Fujinokawa back to the straw, using his matching migi-yotsu (which is his favoured position).

At the boundary, though, Fujinokawa squirted free out of Ōnosato’s right side. Fujinokawa was able to escape by freeing his right arm from Ōnosato’s left arm overhook. If Ōnosato’s left shoulder wasn’t so banged up, Ōnosato would have likely been able to stop that from happening.

Once Fujinokawa was free, he back-peddled and forced Ōnosato into a big flop onto the straw.

That’s a third career kinboshi for Fujinokawa. However, all three of those gold stars deserve an asterisk. He’s beaten the badly injured Ōnosato twice now and his win over Hōshōryū was due to a false start that the gyoji (referee) missed.

Either way, the zabuton (pillows) still flew and Fujinokawa still got credited with the big win. It doesn’t matter that he would get squished like a bug on a windscreen if Ōnosato was at full strength.

This is yet more compelling evidence that Ōnosato needs to take extended time away from the sport to heal (and possibly have surgery). It would be horrible to lose him for a long time, but I’d rather that than see him get thrown around the ring like this.

Ōnosato’s pain is Hōshōryū’s gain this month. The other yokozuna looks totally healthy and back to his dominating self. He took Takanoshō for a ride last night.

Takanoshō didn’t lead with his nodowa (throat thrust) to start this contest. That was a little surprising. He instead opened with arms low and then went for a quick hikiotoshi (hand pull down attempt). Hōshōryū did well to defend that. That’s when Takanoshō let the nodowa fly. He landed some good ones, too, snapping Hōshōryū’s head back.

Hōshōryū, though, was somehow able to stay composed while taking those shots. Under pressure, he was able to swim his right arm under to get an inside position. While doing that he shaped for a throw and got the outside of his thigh on the inside of Takanoshō’s knee. A twist of the hips and a bounce of the thigh then sent Takanoshō flying. Hōshōryū then wrenched on that underhook to add some torque and ensure Takanoshō flipped over and landed with a thud, flat on his back.

Hoshoryu stayed on his feet and gave a triumphant pose towards the audience.

I don’t care what the JSA says, that was yokozuna-zumo.

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Kirishima has a very slim shot of joining his old judo clubmate in the yokozuna ranks this month. He’ll need to be perfect to do that. He’s been pretty close to that so far, albeit after just two days.

He used the kachiage (forearm strike) to open his bout, for the second time in two days. He was able to bowl over Fujinokawa with that move on day one, but Ōhō was far more sturdy. Ōhō ate that shot, like it was nothing, and then got his hands on Kirishima’s chest.

Kirishima is perhaps the best defensive thruster in the game, though. He targeted Ōhō’s elbow and made sure Ōhō couldn’t put any power behind his arm. As he did that, Kirishima used his other arm to push behind Ōhō’s shoulder. This succeeded in rotating Ōhō. Kirishima did this to try and get on the back of Ōhō’s belt — so he could run him out with an okuridashi. But as Ōhō turned, Kirishima switched up his attack and instead got a moro-zashi (double inside position) with two hands on the belt. That is extremely hard to get out of, especially your yotsu-zumō (belt grappling) is as poor as Ōhō’s.

Atamifuji was impressive last night, too. He beat Hiradoumi, someone who has historically caused him a lot of trouble.

This was a match-up of gaburi-yori (torso thrusting) enthusiasts. Hiradoumi struck first with a strong tachiai and a mae-mitsu (shallow front grip). He then used his gaburi-yori to get Atamifuji’s feet on the straw.

Atamifuji diffused a lot of Hiradoumi’s pushing power by forcing him to keep his right arm high, though. That helped him withstand that pressure, while Hiradoumi gassed himself out trying to get Atamifuji over the edge. As Hiradoumi tired, Atamifuji turned him and then attacked his left arm for the kotenage finish. Him nearly wrenching Hiradoumi’s arm out of its socket reminded me a lot of his stablemaster, the former Terunofuji.

Last night Aonishiki also beat someone who has given him trouble in the past. He was 1-2 against Churanoumi heading into this bout. And, as in the previous matches, Churanoumi didn’t make it easy for the Blue Whirlwind.

Churanoumi did a good job of keeping Aonishiki at range early on. He also prevented Aonishiki from getting into his prefered freestyle wrestling influenced stance. Despite doing all this good defensive work, Churanoumi didn’t have the offense needed to back it up. He tried a katasukashi (under shoulder swing down), but Aonishiki didn’t fall for it. The Ukranian used that opportunity to go chest-to-chest for a very traditional sumo style force out.

The countdown clock for Aonishiki to get back to ōzeki is now at just eight bouts with thirteen days left.

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There were two wild bouts last night that I have to share.

This month’s edition of the Fur Bowl between Rōga and Takayasu was extremely exciting. These two both ended up turned around in this fight, rolling across each other’s back (I’m surprised they didn’t start a fire). After those spins, Takayasu latched onto the outside of Rōga’s belt and used that grip to pull off a throw as Rōga was charging him out the ring.

My other favourite match of the night was Wakanoshō’s win over Asanoyama. Wakanoshō earned a spot on my All Violence Team with this display. Talk about Takakeishō 2.0!

Ōnosato is scheduled to face Takanoshō tonight. I really hope we don’t see that.

Hōshōryū has Fujinokawa. I can’t wait for that one. Hōshōryū has a long memory, so I’m sure he’ll want payback for that cheap win Fujinokawa got over him in March.

Aonishiki has Hakunofuji. Hakunofuji has looked excellent in his first two bouts.

Kirishima has Gōnoyama and Atamifuji has Ōhō.

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 2*

Tobi trample counter (rows): 0

*Asasuiryū got the call-up to fight Daiseizan last night. He responded with a teleportation like henka. No doubt on whether that one counts!

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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Scroll down to see what happened on our first night in Nagoya. I’ve got results. I’ve got videos. I’ve got analysis. What more could you want?

A free t-shirt, you say?

Well… OK then!

Cheeky Sumo are giving me one of their brand new shirts to giveaway to a paid subscriber this month. It’s a beautiful pink number. I think you can guess which rikishi it is celebrating. There’s a picture of that below, too. Head on over to www.CheekySumo.com to check out more of their stuff.

To win this month’s giveaway, you need to be either a paid subscriber from substack or someone who has contributed via PayPal. If you are a monthly subscriber you get one entry in the draw. If you are an annual subscriber you get ten entries in the draw and if you are a founding subscriber you get twenty-five entries in the draw.

Our bonus gif today are some Atamifuji fans (I think he’s going to have a very good tournament, by the way).

SPOILERS BELOW

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Results

• Asakōryū (1-0) def. Kyokukaiyū (0-1) by kotenage (armlock throw)

• Daiseizan (1-0) def. Kazuma (0-1) by shitatenage (underarm throw)

• Shishi (1-0) def. Ōnokatsu (0-1) by yorikiri (frontal force out)

• Takerufuji (1-0) def. Kinbōzan (0-1) by yorikiri

• Abi (1-0) def. Nishikifuji (0-1) by oshidashi (frontal push out)*

• Asahakūryū (1-0) def. Mitakeumi (0-1) by yorikiri

• Wakanoshō (1-0) def. Chiyoshoma (0-1) by tsukidashi (frontal thrust out)*

• Asanoyama (1-0) def. Tobizaru (0-1) by tsukitoashi (frontal thrust down)*

• Fujiryoga (1-0) def. Rōga (0-1) by yorikiri*

• Takayasu (1-0) def. Wakamotoharu (0-1) by hatakikomi (slap down)

• Fujiseun (1-0) def. Kotoeihō (0-1) by sotogake (outside trip)*

• Ōshōma (1-0) def. Shōdai (0-1) by oshidashi

• Ichiyamamoto (1-0) def. Ura (0-1) by hikiotoshi (hand pull down)

• Hakunofuji (1-0) def. Daieishō (0-1) by oshidashi

• Aonishiki (1-0) def. Hiradoumi (0-1) by uwatenage (over arm throw)*

• Kotoshōhō (1-0) def. Churanoumi (0-1) by oshidashi

• Atamifuji (1-0) def. Gōnoyama (0-1) by oshidashi*

• Kotozakura (1-0) def. Takanoshō (1-0) by tsukiotoshi (thrust down)

• Kirishima (1-0) def. Fujinokawa (0-1) by oshitoashi (frontal push down)*

• Yoshinofuji (1-0) def. Ōnosato (0-1) by oshidashi*

• Hōshōryū (1-0) def. Ōhō (0-1) by watashikomi (thigh grabbing push down)*

*Must see bouts!

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Analysis

We were all really hoping the Nagoya basho would feature the sport’s biggest stars, unlike the injury hit May tournament. There’s been good news early on with Ōnosato, Hōshōryū and Aonishiki all reporting for duty. However, it’s still very sad that last tournament’s winner Wakatakakage can’t be here.

We might have had both our yokozuna on the dohyo last night, but only one of them looked like he should be there.

Ōnosato lost to Yoshinofuji last night. He didn’t look like himself in this match. He was timid in the tachiai and quickly went for slap downs (which had a desperate/hopeful vibe to them). They had no muscle behind them, so Yoshinofuji easily brushed them off. And when Ōnosato saw they weren’t working, he shyly turned from the conflict and stepped out. Afterwards he paused, seemingly in pain.

For Yoshinofuji that was a debut win as a komusubi. That also extended his perfect record against his old college rival to 4-0. Though, this win deserves a heavy asterisk behind it.

Hōshōryū looked in fighting shape last night. He dispatched of the sometimes dangerous Ōhō.

In this bout, Hōshōryū got both his hands to the inside off the tachiai. Ōhō made it easier for him to do that by leading with his arms folded up and down, instead of outstretched and aimed at Hōshōryū ’s throat. From the inside position, Hōshōryū pushed Ōhō back, while Ōhō attempted a possible katasukashi (under shoulder swing down). When Ōhō brought his right arm over to Hōshōryū’s right shoulder he left his right side totally exposed. Hōshōryū saw that and grabbed his thigh to score the somewhat rare watashikomi (just the fifth he’s landed in his career).

Aonishiki won on his return. Though, due to the nature of the win, it’s hard to gauge how healthy he is. He hit Hiradoumi with a henka, side-stepping out the away and then scooping Hiradoumi out of the ring with a firm hand on the back of his belt.

Poor Hiradoumi. The spotlight post I wrote on Wakatakakage reminded me that Hiradoumi was beaten with a henka on the first day of the last tournament, too.

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Kirishima brought the violence last night, against one of the newest members of the All Violence Team. He cracked Fujinokawa with a kachiage (forearm strike) off the tachiai and then had an easy time of pushing him over.

I think this move from Kirishima was motivated by how early Fujinokawa is known to fly off the line in the tachiai. Kirishima touched down and quickly got that forearm up to meet the charge of the little river monster.

Atamifuji looked good last night. He continued his dominance over Gōnoyama. He got the win by using Gōnoyama’s favoured oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting) instead of his usual yotsu-zumō (belt grappling).

If you read my predictions piece, you’ll know that I’ve picked Atamifuji to do very well in this tournament. I have him and Hōshōryū getting twelve wins and ending up in a play-off together.

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I picked Kotoazakura to have a poor tournament, but he opened things up with a win. He withstood Takanoshō’s nodowa (throat thrust) and then sent him to the dirt with a hard shove to the elbow.

That’s a good win, but I think my prediction on him will still prove right. Before this tournament he went 0-11 in practise bouts with Ōnosato. And, as we saw in the Yoshinofuji bout, Ōnosato might be fighting far below capacity at the moment.

There was a match-up of the variety show favourites last night with Ura vs. Ichiyamamoto. Ichiyamamoto used his push forwards, pull down routine to elicit a belly flop from Pink Magic.

The other variety show fave, Tobizaru, lost last night. He was pushed back on his heels by Asanoyama. Tobizaru got caught flat footed after that and a second push sent him ass over teakettle (or is that ass over salt basket?).

With Tobizaru falling off the corner of the ring, he had lots of space to land in. So the crowd were safe for this bout. He’ll get into those seats soon, though.

Ōnosato is scheduled to face Fujinokawa tonight. Will Ōnosato test his shoulder out on a smaller man? Or is he just going to call it a day here and finally get some surgery?

Hōshōryū has Takanoshō. He’s 11-3 against him. Aonishiki has Churanoumi. He’s 1-2 against him.

Yoshinofuji vs. Kotozakura is another match to circle. Yoshinofuji is 0-4 against the ozeki so far in his career.

Catch you tomorrow!

Keeping count!

Henka counter: 1

Tobi trample counter (rows): 0

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Jūryō Results and Analysis

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If you’re a paid subscriber, this is where you’ll see results and anaylsis of the juryo tournament, too. This month we’ve got Tamawashi joining the second division ranks, along with names like Enhō, Midorifuji, Kayo and Toshinofuji (my pick to win it all).

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Before the festivities (and my daily tournament updates), it’s time for me to try and predict the win-loss records for every wrestler in the top two divisions. That’s right, I’m doing jūryō predictions, too. That’s a first for me.

Enjoy!

The bonus gif today is a man I’m predicting will have a tough time this month.

12 wins

• Y1e Hōshōryū

• S1e Atamifuji

My prediction for the 2026 Nagoya basho is a play-off between Hōshōryū and Atamifuji. If that comes to fruition, I think it’s a toss up between those two who takes it. Hōshōryū has more talent, in my opinion, but Atamifuji’s size causes him problems.

I thought Hōshōryū was in a great spot to challenge for the title in May. He seemed recovered from his various injuries and the prospect of not having to face either Ōnosato or Aonishiki would have made the field a lot easier for him. It wasn’t meant to be, though. I don’t think the hamstring injury is going to carry over into this tournament. He’s looking very good on exhibition and in some open practises. If Ōnosato and Aonishiki might still be a little rusty, so this might be a very good opportunity for Hōshōryū to add to his slightly underwhelming yushō haul.

I like the progression I’ve seen with Atamifuji this year. He hasn’t been flashy, but he’s slowly and gradually improved his ranking and standing in the sport. And he’s still only 23. He’s always had great size and his yotsu-zumō (grappling) is extremely good; especially when he uses gaburi-yori (torso thrusting). His mentality let him down in the past. He used to get nervous before the big matches. But he seems to have conquered that and even developed a bit of a mean streak. I think that’s all a good sign for a Atami-pudding yushō in the very near future.

11 wins

• Y1w Ōnosato

This is assuming that Ōnosato is able to make it through fifteen days of competition. He’s listed for day one and just blanked Kotozakura in eleven practise bouts. I think we might see something similar to what we saw in January. In that tournament, Ōnosato was compromised, but still able to compete through the entire basho. In that tournament he used his size and athleticism to rush opponents out but, at times, was clearly babying his shoulder, especially in prolonged and more arduous matches. He went 10-5 then.

This is wishful thinking from me. There’s a good chance that a few hard tachiai might land Ōnosato back on the sidelines. Hopefully that doesn’t happen, though.

10 wins

• O1e Kirishima

• S2w Aonishiki

• K1e Yoshinofuji

• M13w Takerufuji

Kirishima has been the best wrestler of 2026 and I think he’s going to pick up where he left off in May. However, I think the field will be a lot more challenging for him this time around. I think that means he’ll get a good record, but fall short of being a serious title challenger. He does have a shot at becoming a yokozuna in this tournament. But he’ll probably need at least a 14-1 record and the yushō. That’s a very tough ask anyway. But with Ōnosato, Hōshōryū and Aonishiki back in action, I think that might be an impossible task.

I think the san’yaku is going to be very good this month and that they might feast on the jōi at this tournament. We’ve got a very good collection of wrestlers in these upper rankings, including the returning Aonishiki and the debuting Yoshinofuji.

I’m predicting Aonishiki gets the ten wins he needs to get immediately promoted back to ōzeki. He was found out in March, with his opponents targeting his freestyle wrestling like posture (with a myriad of methods). I have faith that, after a tournament off, the young and wildly talented Ukrainian has figured out how to get back to winning ways (perhaps through an embrace of more classical sumo?).

Yoshinofuji has progressed a lot this year. He just looks like he belongs at this level and soon, I bet, we’re going to start seeing him belong at an even higher level than this. He has off-the-charts athleticism and a fantastic mindset. He has room to grow, technically, but I don’t think that will hold him back in this tournament.

I have Yoshinofuji’s stablemate Takerufuji getting double digits on his return to the top division. I think he has a very friendly ranking at this tournament (M13) and I was very impressed with how he finished the last tournament.

I’ve picked three Isegahama guys to get 10+ wins. It’s going to be hard to ignore just how stacked that stable is right now (thanks to JSA shenanigans, of course).

9 wins

• S1w Kotoshōhō

• M3w Hakunofuji

• M7w Takayasu

• M8e Wakamotoharu

• M11e Wakanoshō

• M16w Asakōryū

I have Kotoshōhō doing well in this tournament, too. I’ve doubted him during this current career surge, but I think he’ll continue to win at sekiwake. He seems to have reined in his chaotic tendencies this year and, if he can continue to do that, I think he can establish himself in the san’yaku.

I think Hakunofuji will join his high-level Isegahama comrades in doing well at this tournament. I’ve been a big fan of him ever since he was Ochiai. He’s the only wrestler in the jōi that I’ve predicted a winning record for (not fighting Yoshinofuji and Atamifuji will help with that).

Takayasu and Wakamotoharu have low rankings, for them, at this tournament. They should be good enough to a winning record here.

I like what I saw from Wakanoshō in the last tournament. He really reminds me of his stable master Takakeishō.

Asakōryū will have a lot of motivation to get a winning record. Any losing record will put him in jūryō. I think that means we’ll see more than a few henka out of him this month.

8 wins

• M5w Ōshōma

• M6e Shōdai

• M7e Kotoeihō

• M9e Fujiryoga

• M10e Asanoyama

• M12e Asahakūryū

• M12w Abi

• M15e Ōnokatsu

• M15w Kazuma

• M16e Daiseizen

I have Ōshōma leading the bare-minimum brigade at this tournament. He’s not bad when he’s lurking just outside the jōi. He’s still pretty inconsistent, though. So I won’t be surprised if he actually ends up going 2-13 or something.

Shōdai still has some gas left in the tank and I think he can skirt by, despite being ranked somewhat high.

I think Kotoeihō and Fujiryoga will follow up their career highs with under-the-radar kachi-koshi. I think they have decent futures, but I don’t see them getting into a title race for the second tournament in a row.

I’m still choosing to see a lot of potential in Asahakūryū, despite how disappointing he was in the last tournaments. If his teammate Asanoyama is healthy, I think he’s good enough to get 8-7.

Abi’s gotta get a winning record at this rank, right?

Ōnokatsu only went down to jūryō because he was hurt. He looked in good shape in the second half of the May tournament. Kazuma and Daiseizan are our two rookies for the tournament. I think both has some upside, but I’m not expecting very big things from them right now.

7 wins

• K1w Ōhō

• M2e Gōnoyama

• M2w Churanoumi

• M6w Fujiseun

• M8w Rōga

• M11w Mitakeumi

• M14w Kinbōzan

Ōhō’s record at komusubi has been abysmal. I think he’ll be the odd-man out in the san’yaku, with everyone else doing very well.

Gōnoyama and Churanoumi are two of the jōi wrestlers I expect to suffer for all the san’yaku’s successes. Fujiseun, Rōga, Mitakeumi and Kinbōzan have all been treading water this year. I think they’ll end up with one too many losses in Nagoya.

6 wins

• M1w Takanoshō

• M4e Daieisho

• M9w Tobizaru

• M13e Nishikifuji

• M14w Shishi

Takanoshō and Daieishō fit into my strong san’yaku theory. With them being a little older, too, I think they might struggle.

Tobizaru had a big tournament in May. I think this will be a letdown basho for him. I think Nishikifuji and Shishi will struggle. Both are at their ceilings here and I can see them yo-yo-ing between makuuchi and jūryō over the next few tournaments.

5 wins

• O1w Kotozakura

• M1e Fujinokawa

• M5e Ura

• M10w Chiyoshōma

I keep sticking my neck out for Kotozakura, expecting a return to the form that saw him win his lone yushō in November 2024. It’s just not happening, though. I think his size/shape is effecting his ability to stay healthy. And his body language has been very poor this year. I think there’s a strong chance he loses his ōzeki ranking at this tournament.

Fujinokawa is another jōi boy I think will struggle. He hasn’t looked at home at this ranking, yet, and those san’yaku boys are starting to figure him out.

Ura and Chiyoshōma are both ranked a little too high for their comfort-level. I think, despite their creativity, they will find it hard to get wins in July.

4 wins

• M4w Ichiyamamoto

I love me some Ichiyamamoto. But I think he’ll have the most trouble of all these jōi wrestlers. He’s been lucky (?) to keep a high ranking lately, despite losing records, and I think that means he’s in for a very tough time in July.

0 wins

• S2e Wakatakakage

Wakatakakage won’t be at this tournament. Reports state that he had potentially life saving surgery a few weeks ago. Hopefully he gets healthy soon, regardless if he competes.

Jūryō

• J4w Toshinofuji: 11-4

• J8e Midorifuji: 10-5

• J2e Tokihayate, J5e Kitanowaka, J5w Ōshōumi, J6e Shōnannoumi, J7w Meisei: 9-6

• J1e Asasuiryū, J4 Tomokaze, J6e Kazekeno, J7e Tamawashi, J9e Shirokuma, J10e Hitoshi, J11w Enhō, J12w Kayo, J13e Arashifuji: 8-7

• J1w Kyokukaiyū, J2w Sadanoumi, J8w Hatsuyama, J9w Nishinoryū, J10w Tamashoho, J12e Tōhakuryū: 7-8

• J3e Ryūden, J3w Dewanoryū, J11e Kagayaki, J14e Tochitaikai, J14w Nishikigi: 6-9

• J13w Hakuyozan: 0-0-15

Toshinofuji is my pick to win the second division title. I love his size and his yotsu skills. He lacked consistency in May. That was his debut tournament in jūryō. This time around, I think he’ll be able to put in a complete fifteen day performance. I think Asahifuji is going to win makushita this month. So that means I’m predicting a possible Isegahama sweep (if Atamifuji comes out on top in makuuchi) of the top three divisions.

And look, I have Midorifuji doing well, too. I think Tokihayate, Ōshōumi and Tamawashi will land on their feet. I like what I saw from Shōnannoumi and Kitanowaka last time out. There could be makuuchi returns in their futures. Meisei has been stuck down here for an uncomfortably long time. The former sekiwake has to show some improvement this month.

I think the jūryō field is pretty evenly matched, as a whole. I think there will be lots of 8-7 and 7-8 records. I’ve taken some coin flips on a few of those wrestlers. Sadly, I think Nishikigi might finish with one of the worst records. That Nagoya tournament in 2023, where he looked like a possible champ, feels like a distant memory now.

Well, there are my picks. What are yours?

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Next up from me… daily tournament updates!!! I can’t wait.

Tim

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The Nagoya Basho will be here in just a few days. But before that happens, let’s take our last look back at the 2026 May tournament, where Wakatakakage scooped his second career yushō.

This is my first Spotlight post since the November, 2024 tournament. That post was, coincidentally, about Wakatakakaage, also. Back then I broke down his Technique Prize winning tournament, which came pretty soon after he returned to the top division.

This will be a detailed and crunchy post looking at the ins and outs of Wakatakakage’s technique over the last tournament. This is a premium post so I will be putting a pay-wall at around the three quarters mark.

These pay-walls are tricky things. I want as many of you as possible to read as much of this as possible, but I simply have to give extra to those who stump for the paid subscription (as a thank you and as an exchange for what you’re kindly contributing).

Those paid subscriptions are what keep Sumo Stomp! alive. If I didn’t have them it would be very hard to produce the amount of content I currently do for this blog. If you haven’t picked one up already, and you like what I do, please consider grabbing one. I keep the price on these as low as Substack will let me. Frankly, I feel weird about doing it any other way. Sumo is already a hard sport to follow and I don’t want to make my stuff hard to pay for.

OK, sales pitch over. Let’s get onto the man of the hour, the awesome and resolute Wakatakakage.

Day 1: Wakatakakage def. Hiradoumi via tsukiotoshi

Wakatakakage opened his 2026 natsu basho tournament with somewhat of a softball. Hiradoumi is a good, not great, wrestler, but he’s still capable of being a tough out. Wakatakakage has always had his number, though. He was 7-2 against Hiradoumi heading into this bout and, in the last tournament, he beat him rather easily with a confident uwatenage (overarm throw). Despite the odds being so high in his favour for this bout, Wakatakakage didn’t want to take any chances. Instead he went with a henka.

Was it a henka, though?

Yes, Wakatakakage quickly side-stepped and let the poor Hiradoumi run himself off the ring. Wakatakakage did take some chest contact before it happened. I like to call this kind of a sequence a half henka, personally. Though, I don’t think it’s that much different from the teleportation style henka we see someone like Abi do where they takes zero contact off the tachiai. I don’t think Wakatakakage opting for that chest clash is a display of toughness. I think allowing the contact is a ploy to better disguise the inashi (side-step). It’s also hard to know for sure if Wakatakakage chose to make contact in this bout. Hiradoumi’s speed off the line might have made that decision for him.

Either way, Wakatakakage scored the tsukiotoshi (thrust down) win to start his campaign. In the moment, I didn’t think much of it. In hindsight, it’s a bit of an inglorious way to start a yushō winning tournament. However, his heroics later on in the tournament will more than cancel that out — in my opnion.

Day 2: Wakatakakage def. Kotozakura via yorikiri

On day two Wakatakakage came up against Kotozakura, someone he has a lot of history with. It was against Kotozakura (then named Kotonowaka) that Wakatakakage suffered the brutal ACL injury that would put him out of action for half a year and derail his best push for an ōzeki promotion.

The injury was caused when Wakatakakage attempted something similar to an utchari (backwards pivot throw), while being pushed towards the straw. The strain of lifting and turning Kotozakura is what popped his knee ligaments. It should be noted that Wakatakakage won the torinoashi (rematch) that came after that injury. That’s a pretty good example of how tough he is, both physically and mentally.

Since then, Wakatakakage has been very mindful of Kotozakura’s size and heft. I’ve seen him bail on the utchari in subsequent bouts, smartly recognizing that it’s not worth trying to lift all that weight. In this bout Wakatakakage avoided getting himself into that kind of dilemma by making sure he wasn’t taking a backwards step. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wakatakakage has that as a rule now, when facing this particular opponent.

In this bout, Kotozakura got off to a good start, reaching inside with his favoured right arm. That put Wakatakakage on the defensive, immediately. He used ottsuke (forearm blocking) to crush against Kotozakura’s right and prevent him establishing a comfortable migi-yotsu (right arm inside position).

While working the ottsuke with his left, he used his right to push against Kotozakura’s chest. This got Kotozakura to the straw. When Wakatakakage got him there he moved the right hand down to the belt. This gave him a migi-yotsu and a sashite (belt grip on the inside position). That switch gave Kotozakura a window of opportunity to force Wakatakakage back. Wakatakakage responded to this with a belt grip with his left hand. This double gripped position is a commanding position for anyone.

The grip allowed Wakatakakage to lean back and safely elevate Kotozakura (without the kind of torque that popped his knee). Wakatakakage might be, pound-for-pound, the strongest man in the sport, so he can move anyone from this position. It took a few tries, but he was able to get Kotozakura back and also use the position to prevent Kotozakura from rotating him on the edge.

This was an extremely smart fight from Wakatakakage and it gave us a great chance to see his defensive skills, too. He’s often on the attack, but this reminds us that he’s got great reaction speed and a tremendous Fight IQ.

Day 3: Wakatakakage def. Yoshinofuji via yorikiri

After beating an old pro on day two, Wakatakakage faced a young blood on day three. This was only his fourth ever bout with Yoshinofuji and it ended like all the other ones did, with the gyoji (referee) pointing his gunbai (fan) at Wakatakakage.

This bout opened with a pretty big clash of heads. Wakatakakage seemed to wince in response to that. Yoshinofuji then tried to get a hand on Wakatakakage’s throat, but Wakatakakage pushed his elbow to force his hand away. That move served a double purpose. It pushed away Yoshinofuji’s nodowa (throat thrust) attempt and also opened up a path for Wakatakakage to get his favourite migi-yotsu.

Once he had the right arm inside position he was able to put his chest on Yoshinofuji and power him out.

After he got Yoshinofuji over the line, Wakatakakage gave an extra shove to force Yoshinofuji to hop to the ground below. Wakatakakage then gave a little look. This happened in their bout in March, too. This might be a sign of some animosity between the two. If that’s the case, I don’t know the root of it.

Either way, this quick win kept Wakatakakage perfect against Yoshinofuji and perfect at this basho.

Day 4: Wakatakakage def. Daieishō via oshidashi

On day four, Wakatakakage was presented with his first pusher/thruster of the tournament in the form of Daieishō. These two have spit their twenty or so matches over the years. Wakatakakage had won the previous two bouts before this meeting, though.

When a grappler, like Wakatakakage, meets a pusher/thruster, like Daieishō, they are presented with a conundrum when it comes to the tachiai. The grappler wants to get their arms on the inside and hands on the belt. To do that, your hands need to go low. When you do that, you give the pusher/thruster exactly what they want — an open path to your chest and/or throat. If you start your tachiai with your hands high, to defend against those opening thrusts, then you might lose your opportunity to get inside and on the belt.

Kirishima has the perfect approach to this, in my opinion. He often opens with defensive swipes at the pusher/thrusters’ elbows and then, after rotating the opponent, steps in and gets inside.

In this bout Wakatakakage opted to start low, giving up his chest and throat to Daieishō. Wakatakakage did this, I think, because he is very confident that he can withstand the pressure of palm strikes. And that’s just what he did in this bout.

Daieishō landed well off the tachiai, but he couldn’t push Wakatakakage back. After a few shots, Wakatakakage pushed the elbow away to find an angle to go inside. But Daieishō’s pace allowed him to keep firing and not let Wakatakakage close distance. Wakatakakage performed a second elbow push and then went with hazuoshi (armpit thrusting). Daieishō was a great candidate for that move given how high his arms were and how his rapid fire style means those arms don’t come down between thrusts.

With a firm hand under Daieishō’s armpit, and another under the chin, Wakatakakage was able to bend Daieishō back and get him out to continue his perfect start to the basho.

Day 5: Takanoshō def. Wakatakakage via hatakikomi

On day five Wakatakakage was presented with a similar, though not identical, problem as he had on day four. Takanoshō is a pusher/thruster, but he favours long and strong thrusts, not the short and rapid shots that Daieishō throws. Takanoshō is also much taller than Daieishō (and Wakatakakage) so his angle of approach is different. Like Daieishō, Takanoshō also has a 50 percent win ratio against Wakatakakage, though he’s lost the last two.

Despite Takanoshō being different from Daieishō in some key areas, Wakatakakage approached him in the same manner as he did Daieishō on the previous day. He came with hands low, confident he could take the opening thrusts of his opponent. I liked the toughness and confidence he showed while doing this against Daieishō, but I think that confidence was misplaced here against a man with so much reach and height on him.

Takanoshō’s long reach meant he was able to connect with a big thrust, while also keeping his body far away from Wakatakakage. He was too far away for Wakatakakage’s hands to reach his belt. Wakatakakage tried to cover the distance to remedy this, but that’s when Takanoshō did what a good pusher/thruster does in this situation — he extended the distance Wakatakakage had to cover and then pushed him down as he tried to cover it.

Wakatakakage might have been more successful if he approached the tachiai looking to immediately defend against those out-stretched arms of Takanoshō. His failure to do that resulted in his first loss of the tournament. Thankfully, for him, those losses would be few and far between, though.

Day 6: Wakatakakage def. Fujinokawa via yorikiri

After facing some of the biggest bodies around in the division, Wakatakakage had a smaller opponent to deal with on day six. What Fujinokawa lacks in size, though, he more than makes up for with activity and aggression. This was only the second time Wakatakakage had faced Fujinokawa. He won their first meeting, in March.

Fujinokawa is great at unsettling his opponents with pressure and violence. We often see larger, more demure, wrestlers wilt from that pressure and let themselves get pushed around by the little bulldog. That game doesn’t work on someone like Wakatakakage, though.

Wakatakakage fights with a lot of intensity, too. And he’s never shown us anything that suggests he would turn away from a brutal dogfight. He’s also too compact for Fujinokawa to get underneath. Fujinokawa likes fighting bigger guys, because he can really snuggle into them and buck up into their torsos.

In this bout Fujinokawa shaped himself into a missile at the tachiai, hoping to rock Wakatakakage at the outset. Wakatakakage took the hit, though, and placed his shoulder right on Fujinokawa’s nose. In the opening clash Wakatakakage was also able to get an outside grip with his left hand. He was trying to get the migi-yotsu, too, but Fujinokawa’s tight left arm prevented that.

Wakatakakage didn’t waste precious time fighting for the right inside position after it was initially blocked. Instead, he worked with what he had. He circled towards his outside grip, rotating Fujinokawa. He tried to get his right arm free during this, but Fujinokawa did a good job of keeping that pinched.

When they came to rest in the centre of the ring, Fujinokawa made the mistake of shaping for a throw that would never happen. Wakatakakage easily blocked that and then tried to drag Fujinokawa down with that still locked on outside grip. Fujinokawa, again, did a good job of staying upright, but Wakatakakage’s right arm was now mostly free. Wakatakakage used his right for hazuoshi (like what we saw on Daieishō). It took a couple of attempts, but he was eventually able to force Fujinokawa out with that.

Wakatakakage had that outside grip secured from the second this bout started to the second it ended. That control helped him keep Fujinokawa on the defensive, which is a great way to neutralize the little man’s hyper-aggressive game.

Day 7: Wakatakakage def. Ichiyamamoto via oshidashi

Wakatakakage followed up his prolonged bout with Fujinokawa with a lightning quick win over Ichiyamamoto (his most famous fanboy). This was another pusher/thruster opponent for Wakatakakage and he approached him with his hands down, again.

However, those low hands swung upwards with his tachiai, and landed in Ichiyamamoto’s armpits. The timing on this was impeccable. That swing allowed him to get under Ichiyamamoto’s outstretched arms and reach the pits before Ichiyamamoto was able to extend for his opening thrusts.

Once Wakatakakage got to Ichiyamamoto’s armpits, Ichiyamamoto tried to hop away for a slap down, but Wakatakakage was in too tight and covered the distance quickly (which was short, not like the runway Takanoshō made for him).

This tied Wakatakakage’s record with Ichiyamamoto at 3-3 and gave him a 6-1 record on the basho.

Day 8: Wakatakakage def. Ōhō via yorikiri

Another pusher/thruster! And this time, someone with the size and weight of Takanoshō. Ōhō doesn’t have the same kind of track record Takanoshō has, though. He came into this bout trailing Wakatakakage 2-7 in their head-to-head meetings.

Wakatakakage started with hands low, again, in this bout. Ōhō is notably terrible when someone has a hold of his belt, so that’s why Wakatakakage would be especially interested in immediately securing a belt grip on him.

Like with Fujinokawa, Wakatakakage got his outside left grip locked on immediately. This time, though, he came within an inch of securing his inside right grip, too. Ōhō was able to raise Wakatakakage’ right arm just before our man got his fingers under the silk, though.

Just like with Fujinokawa, Wakatakakage didn’t waste time continuing to fight for the inside position. When Ōhō tried to crunch his arm there, he pulled it out and started circling to his left to rotate Ōhō.

Ōhō doesn’t have the speed of Fujinokawa, so he did a much poorer job of defending while being rotated. Wakatakakage pulled Ōhō to the boundary and then turned himself to face him. As he did this, Ōhō put his right arm over Wakatakakage’s left. This turned Wakatakakage’s left arm outside position into an inside position. That was a mistake since it allowed Wakatakakage to narrow that grip to a mae-mitsu (front grip) and then use it to drive Ōhō back. Wakatakakage got his right arm on the inside, too, giving him moro-zashi (double inside position). There was little Ōhō could do at that point.

The speed at which Wakatakakage can initiate a grappling exchange is a big reason why Ōhō has so much trouble with him.

Day 9: Kotoshoho def. Wakatakakage via yorikiri

Guess what? Another pusher/thruster.

Kotoshōhō has the size of Takanoshō and the speed of Daieishō. On his good days, that combination makes Kotoshōhō a hard out for anyone. And he’s had lots of good days against Wakatakakage. Wakatakakage has only managed to beat Kotoshōhō once in now seven meetings.

Wakatakakage approached this bout just like on previous days, with hands swimming down, looking to come up and get inside position on the right side. He timed it perfectly with Ōhō. But this time, Kotoshōhō was ready for him. In the tachiai Kotoshōhō opened with thrusts to Wakatakakage’s shoulders. That totally disrupted Wakatakakage’s swimming motion. If that was intentional, then that’s a very heady play from Kotoshōhō (someone whose fight IQ sometimes looks lacking).

Kotoshōhō’s opening thrust sent Wakatakakage sliding on his heels. That should be a good reminder that Kotoshōhō is very underrated when it comes to his size and pushing power. Wakatakakage reset after that and tried to come in again with that swimming motion. He managed to get his right arm on the inside, but Kotoshōhō pushed on his shoulder again and was able to prevent Wakatakakage from locking onto the belt.

After this Wakatakakage conceded on that side, as we’ve seen him do in previous matches, and then focuses on the left outside grip. He snatched that up and then started to rotate — like he did with Ōhō and Fujinokawa.

Kotoshōhō used great footwork to make sure he didn’t get turned around like those guys did. He moved laterally, to stay face to face with Wakatakakage. That prevented Wakatakakage from getting around Kotoshōhō and putting Kotoshōhō’s back towards the straw. This also resulted in Wakatakakage’s back being towards the straw. Kotoshōhō needed just a little shove to put Wakatakakage’s feet over the line for the win.

It’s hard to criticize Wakatakakage for this loss. Kotoshōhō fought a great fight and he seems to have Wakatakakage’s number. If I’m being extra mean, I could say that Wakatakakage might have suffered from being a little too predictable in this bout, since his opening move was pretty identical to his bouts on the past couple of days.

Day 10: Wakatakakage def. Atamifuji via yorikiri

On day ten Wakatakakage got a break from the pusher/thrusters and was instead given a big, heavy yotsu-zumo (belt grappling) specialist. And this was one of the best bouts of the entire tournament.

This was only the third meeting between Wakatakakage and Atamifuji. Wakatakakage won their first two bouts, but lost their match in March. In that recent loss, Wakatakakage attacked with a deep inside right position. His hand, in that bout, was almost on the knot in the middle of the belt. He tried to rotate Atamifuji from that position, but Atamifuji was too heavy and was able to throw him down with a kotenage (armlock throw) on the boundary.

Wakatakakage went with a different approach in this bout. He went with the mae-mitsu (shallow front grip) off the tachiai. And he immediately found that more successful than his previous deep grip. By wrenching up and pulling back, he was able to get Atamifuji’s feet moving.

He tugged Atamifuji to the straw and then released the mae-mitsu and transitioned to moro-zashi for the attempted push out. Atamifuji defended really well, though, with footwork. He circled away from the straw and then executed a makki-kae (switch from outside to inside position) with his right arm. This high risk move took away Wakatakakage’s moro-zashi and put them both in migi-yotsu. That’s what both men prefer.

At this point of the match, things were looking like the March bout. And Atamifuji went for an armlock with his outside left in about the same position he finished Wakatakakage in that earlier bout. Wakatakakage was able to fend off the throw here, though, by sliding his feet to the straw and getting as much of his body in front of Atamifuji as possible.

They paused in the middle after that, just briefly. Atamifuji broke the pause by attacking with his gaburi-yori (torso thrusting). He got Wakatakakage moving back, but then Wakatakakage did something quite brilliant.

He timed Atamifuji’s hug-and-chugs and elevated Atamifuji on the chug. This was brilliant, because when Atamifuji is at that part of the sequence his feet are almost off the ground (slow the video down to 0.25 speed to get a real good look at that). This made it easier for Wakatakakage to lift him. Lifting and turning Atamifuji is still a Herculean task; Atamifuji is one of the heaviest wrestlers in the division. But by targeting and timing Atamifuji’s gaburi-yori Wakatakakage was able to manage it and score a very big win.

Day 11: Kirishima def. Wakatakakage via yorikiri

On day eleven, Wakatakakage got his toughest opponent of the tournament. Kirishima was the second highest ranked man left in the tournament at this point (though the man above him, Kotozakura, was a total non factor). And Kirishima was also operating at the same level that saw him cruise to the title in May. Wakatakakage also came into the bout having lost the four previous meetings to the Mongolian. Their overall record, at this point, was 14-9 in favour of Kirishima.

It should also be noted that Kirishima and Wakatakakage are very familiar with each other. Their stables are in the same ichimon (stable group) and Kirishima, whose small stable has no other sekitori (salaried wrestlers) in it, often trains over at Arashio. Wakamotoharu even sat next to Kirishima on his triumphant car ride in May.

Both men knew very well that they both prefer the same hold, migi-yotsu. And they both went for that when this bout started. Kirishima was able to get his right hand to the inside, with his elbow angled high so he could dart his hand inside of Wakatakakage’s arm (which Wakatakakage had kept tight to his side). Kirishima was also able to block Wakatakakage getting his right arm on the inside, by pinching his left arm very tight and swimming his left arm up towards Wakatakakage’s arm pit.

This was leading to Kirishima having a moro-zashi position. Wakatakakage didn’t want that, so he pulled the ripcord and shot back. Kirishima advanced and tried to take advantage of Wakatakakage backwards movement. As Wakatakakage braced for the push, Kirishima then scored the moro-zashi.

This wasn’t an ordinary double inside position, though. Kirishima had a mae-mitsu grip on the right side. This position gave him a lot of freedom with his right elbow. He used that elbow to break Wakatakakage’s defensive grip on his belt. He kept his elbow and forearms moving and was able to prevent Wakatakakage settling into any kind of grip. That allowed Kirishima to shuffle Wakatakakage back and eventually out.

This was a typically classy and composed performance from Kirishima; the kind we see when he’s in championship form. The loss was huge in the title race, too. This put Kirishima one win ahead of Wakatakakage with four days left. From this point on Wakatakakage would have to be perfect to get back in the race. And… of course, we know he was.

Day 12: Wakatakakage def. Gōnoyama via tsukiotoshi

Wakatakakage came into day twelve needing to win. He had to bounce back from the Kirishima loss and he had to feel that another loss in this tournament would totally kill his chances of the yushō.

In this situation, Wakatakakage took the easy route. …

Subscribe to keep reading this premium post, which includes breakdowns of Wakatakakage’s crucial bouts with Tobizaru, Kotoeiho, Fujiryoga and then his play-off with Kirishima (and the adjustment he made to win the title!)

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I hope you’re having a lovely weekend and are very excited for the Nagoya basho, which starts this time next week.

Tonight I have my reaction/results to the Nagoya banzuke. You’ll see that down below.

I am still working hard on my Wakatakakage spotlight post. That’s going to come to you far later than I was hoping for. There’s a good reason why, though.

I recently picked up a little side gig as a fact checker on a documentary. Before I got into sports writing I worked in the TV industry. Recently I set up a LinkedIn profile to network and find work as a social worker. But I was surprised to see someone from my TV days get in touch with me and offer me a quick little gig.

That gig has taken time away from my sumo writing, but I now know lots about uniforms from the War of 1812. So, that’s cool. I will have the spotlight post and my basho predictions to you before things kick off next Sunday, though.

If you haven’t already, please consider filling out my reader survey. It’s something that will help Substack match me with potential sponsorship opportunities.

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Our bonus gif today is someone whose rank I got exactly right (though, that wasn’t exactly hard to do).

Banzuke Predictions Results

Below is the entire banzuke for the makuuchi and jūryō. I’ve added columns for the records the wrestlers had in May, their net wins and their rank changes.

If the wrestlers’ name has a green highlight, that means I was exactly right with my prediction. A yellow shade means I was off by half a rank (M1e instead M1w, for example). An orange shade means I was off by one rank and red means I was off by more than that.

I got 24 makuuchi predictions exactly right, which beats my record of 20 (which I got back in May). I was half a rank or a single rank off on thirteen wrestlers. And there are just four red spaces on my sheet. This mean I have broken my streak of three tournaments with seven reds.

I did jūryō this time around, too. So I actually got 33 correct predictions in total.

I’m pretty darn happy with that. It’s cool to see that big bank of green at the top of makuuchi, too.

Here is my full banzuke prediction, for comparison’s sake.

And here’s my post where I worked through putting it all together.

Now, let’s jump into some specific sections of the banzuke.

Yokozuna, Ōzeki and san’yaku

This was all pretty obvious. A lot of the rankings for this section were automatic, like Aonishiki coming down from ōzeki and going last in line at sekiwake and Kirishima and Kotozakura swapping spots. We have four sekiwake on the banzuke right now, something we last saw in 2023. That’s because Wakatakakage had to move up from komusubi for his yushō.

Yoshinofuji debuts at komusubi. He sits opposite Ōhō. They were the only possible candidates to take those spots after so many jōi wrestlers under-performed in May (Gōnoyama was the only other jōi boy to have a winning record).

The jōi

I completely nailed the jōi this time around. That’s a first. This section wasn’t that difficult to figure out either, though. Because of all the losing records directly below the jōi there weren’t many bodies who could come up and supplant the wrestlers sitting between ranks M1 and M4. And because of that, we have four guys sitting in their old ranks despite having losing records (Fujinokawa, Takanoshō, Hiradoumi and Daieishō).

I rightly predicted that Churanoumi and Hakunofuji would get slightly friendly promotions to make up the spaces vacated by Yoshinofuji and Ōhō. Again, none of this was that difficult to figure out. It was all rather obvious due to what happened in the middle of the banzuke.

Jūryō exchanges

I was right on who would go down and who would go up this time around. The hardest choice among all that was whether or not Asakōryū would go down to jūryō and be replaced by his brother Asasuiryū. I was right to predict that the Japan Sumo Association sided with Asakōryū, who had an injury hit May tournament. Sometimes, it seems, guys get a little bit of leniency if they have a bad record due to an injury pull out.

I placed Asakōryū and Ōnokatsu in the right spots and was very close to getting Takerufuji’s placement right. He was put one rank lower than I thought he might land.

I was quite wrong on the jūryō champ Kazuma, though. I thought his nine net wins would translate to being promoted up eight places. He ends up with a rathly measely 6.5 rank improvement.

The Middle of the banzuke

This is always the toughest part.

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We are about four weeks removed from Wakatakakage scooping his second career yushō and it feels like a great time to send out a report card. In the past I’ve had to file these report cards in multiples and just managed to get them to you before the next tournament starts. I never liked giving them to you so late, even if they did serve as refreshers for the tournament to come.

Personally, I’d much rather write about the tournament closer to when it ended (when things are still relatively fresh in my mind). A big reason why I’m able to do that today is that I’m continuing with my format change from last time — where I put all the grades in one single post and write more succinctly (so the days of four paragraphs on a guy like Nishikifuji are probably over).

I like doing this format because it forces me to focus on the most important things when considering a wrestlers’ entire tournament. This report card will also feature jūryō grades for the first time ever.

At the last tournament, I covered jūryō every day and had that section available for paid subscribers. I’m putting a paywall on this post, right at the end of the makuuchi grades, to let those paid subscribers get bonus jūryō content here, too.

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Our bonus gif today is last month’s star boy (and his big bro.).

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The sponsorship program on here involves making a Creator Kit. I did that. Another part is sending out a survey. The results are then shared with potential sponsors. If you’re interested in helping me out with this, you can find the survey here:

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OK, now the grades!

Top of the class!

• K1e Wakatakakage (12-3, yushō, gino-shō): A+

• O2e Kirishima (12-3, doten-yushō): A

• S1w Kotoshōhō (9-6), Hakunofuji (11-4, kantō-shō): A-

Wakatakakage, of course, gets an A+ grade for his title winning performance in May. I’m going to write a spotlight post on him next week, breaking down each of his matches and the overall storyline behind his yushō. So I won’t go into too much detail on him here.

I will say, though, that the most impressive factor — for me — in this yushō was how Wakatakakage locked in after his loss to Kirishima on day eleven. In the last five days of the tournament he was brutally effective and he cleared out all the other pretenders for the cup (Tobizaru, Kotoeihō, Fujiryoga) before getting his revenge on Kirishima.

He showed amazing poise during that run and was so smart about his gameplan for each bout. I’m really looking forward to digging into that with more detail.

Kirishima gets an A from me for falling just short at going back-to-back with championship wins. There were times in this tournament where he looked like the champion in waiting. That’s, in part, thanks to how many big names were missing from the field.

But despite who wasn’t competing, Kirishima still looked like a championship calibre wrestler. His form seemed to flow over, seamlessly, from that March tournament. His sumō looked classy and assured and he used his hatakikomi (slap down) to devastating effect.

He had a stellar opening week (where he went 7-0 against all jōi opponents). And then took his first loss on day eight, to Gōnoyama. Gōnoyama, who was having a strong first half himself, fought a great bout and I think Kirishima might have suffered from a little over confidence; thinking he could win at Gōnoyama’s own pushing/thrusting game.

After this bout he beat Wakamotoharu. I think what happened in that bout had serious implications for the rest of the tournament, though. He had Wakamotoharu on the brink of a force out. But Wakamotoharu then performed his utchari (back pivot throw), which took Kirishima up and over his head and onto the hard ground. Kirishima’s head was bloodied due to that and he appeared pretty woozy.

The day after that he lost to Shōdai, in a bout where he seemed to lose his footing. I don’t know what role the utchari played on Kirishima losing this bout, but it certainly didn’t help.

Kirishima won his next three, including his own utchari on Kotoeihō. Though, his utchari was picture perfect and didn’t involve a slow upright motion that forced an opponent to dive head first to the ground.

Kirishima had a commanding position in the tournament after that Kotoeihō match, but that evaporated after he lost to Hakunofuji on the following day. This was like the Gōnoyama loss in that Hakunofuji was on a hot streak and he gave an incredible single bout performance. Hakunofuji did an amazing job of keeping himself in bounds to prevent a force out (using a hooking leg) and then surprised Kirishima when he used the same leg for a sotogake (outside leg trip) on route to the yoritoashi (frontal crush out).

I don’t fault Kirishima much for losing to Wakatakakage on the final day. Wakatakakage looked like he would have beaten anyone to get this title. At times during the tournament I said that, if Kirishima ended up not winning the yushō it would be considered a huge fumble for him. Now, though, I’m not seeing this as much of a fumble.

Kirishima had an excellent tournament and fell short due to some very good performances (and perhaps that dangerous utchari).

Kotoshōhō and Hakunofuji get A- grades. Both looked excellent at times and still a little raw at others. Still, for Kotoshōhō, to go 9-6 in his debut as sekiwake is very impressive. Hakunofuji was under the radar in the first week, but he went 6-1 in the second week and was mathematically in with a shot of getting into the play-off on the final day.

Hakunofuji earned the ire of the JSA chairman for what he did on the final day; a henka against Fujiseun. I didn’t love the henka, but I understood why he did it in that situation. And I think the criticism he received is more to do with Hakunofuji’s association with the pariah Hakuhō than anything else.

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Best of the rest

• S1e Atamifuji (9-6), M2e Yoshinofuji (11-4, kantō-shō): B+

• M3w Ōhō (9-6), M11e Ura (10-5), M13e Kotoeihō (10-5), M17e Fujiryoga (10-5): B+

• M15e Tobizaru (9-6): B

Like Kotoshōhō, Atamifuji earned a 9-6 record in his debut sekiwake tournament. Whereas that was a big leap forwards for Kotoshōhō, I see this as more of a gradual progression for Atamifuji. Atamifuji has really started to blossom as a high level rikishi lately. He’s had winning records at all three of this year’s tournaments and he is looking very at home in the san’yaku.

At still only 23, there is a lot of exciting potential for the man the fans like to call Atami-pudding. In this tournament, that positive development looked like an increased confidence on the dohyō and more meanness, too. Atamifuji seems sweet like a cherub off the ring. And I think his sweetness translated as meekness in the ring, sometimes, during his early career.

This change in attitude was pretty noticeable on day five in his bout with Fujinokawa. Fujinokawa went early in this bout (we’ll get to that later) and that, I think, is what made Atamifuji turn what could have been a frontal force out into a frontal crush out.

Ura, Kotoeihō, Fujiryoga and Tobizaru were all in the title race this month. That motley crew made for some very fun viewing. Tobizaru fell off the pace first. He got off to a 9-2 start, with those two losses being to Kotoeihō and Fujiryoga. He would go on to lose his last four bouts of the tournament, though. Even so, it was a good tournament for the Flying Monkey, who looked back to his old self during that first week against lesser opposition.

Kotoeihō didn’t drop off until his day thirteen loss to Kirishima. Before that his only other losses were to Ura and Fujiryoga. He looked fantastic in this tournament and seems to have added more upper body strength. He turns 23 just before the Nagoya basho, so he might fill out a little more and get even stronger in the clinch moving forwards (and, in process, really compliment his above average speed).

Fujiryoga was in the title hunt up until his final day loss to Wakatakakage. This was a really great tournament for him. He came out on top in bouts with the pretenders Tobizaru and Kotoeihō and he also managed to score wins over Churanoumi and Yoshinofuji in the final few days. There wasn’t a lot of grace to his sumō in May, but he’s making up for that with a lot of power right now.

He’s also very sturdy when being pushed back, as Yoshinofuji learned.

Fujiryoga’s Achilles’ Heel in June was how unstable he was when being pulled forwards, though — as Hakunofuji learned.

Like Fujiryoga, Ura also had a shot to win the title up until his final day loss to Kirishima (which was a rather brutal beatdown). Ura started this tournament 2-2. That included his first career loss to Nishikifuji (in seven bouts).

But the loses were few after that. And we got our typical grab bag of fun and unexpected moments from the man in pink.

He slingshot Fujinokawa, and then posed for a picture with his hands up in the air. He slung over Fujiryoga (targeting that Achilles’ Heel I just mentioned). He had an amazing reversal on Wakanoshō, where his heels were on the straw. He executed a beautiful last ditch throw on Kotoeihō and he beat Shishi with a perfect head fake to side-step move.

So lots of fun moments from Ura and ten wins, too!

Yoshinofuji gets a very high grade as he cleared a path to the san’yaku for July. He had a slow start (1-3) after losing to Kirishima, Wakatakakage and Kotozakura (a cohort he is 1-8 against — the sole win was over Kirishima over a year ago).

He won nine straight after that, though, before Fujiryoga beat him on day fourteen. He beat Kotoeihō on the last day to give him an outside shot of getting into a play-off. Yoshinofuji’s sumō was excellent for the vast majority of the tournament. He has just turned 24 and, after this latest tournament, I’m pretty comfortable calling him a future ōzeki.

He still looks a little rash and raw at times, but he has amazing athleticism and has great quickness to go along with all that strength. I really like his mentality, too. After those early losses he was able to adjust and go on a deep run that put him into title contention. He looked crushed when he lost to Fujiryoga and I think that’s a really good sign, too. It showed he was confident going into that bout and that he was fighting with a lot of desire.

This is the second time Yoshinofuji has really stood out to me, due to his mental game. The first time that happened was during his debut top division tournament in Kyushu, last year. That’s his home island and we so often see the Kyushu guys struggle in that tournament. They often crumble under the pressure that comes along with that very partisan crowd. Yoshinofuji, a former college star, seems to get energized by that, though. He finished that tournament with a 9-6 record, a technique prize and gold star earned against Ōnosato.

Things like this are a good sign that Yoshinofuji might have what it takes to be a star.

Ōhō gets a high grade for me, too. And it’s because he regrouped after a very tough first week to score an impressive record and show a big improvement over his past few tournaments. This was his first kachi-koshi (winning record) since last September and he got it by winning his last six bouts. It takes a lot of nerve to keep on winning despite being just two losses away form the dreaded make-koshi (losing record).

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Doing Enough to Get By

• M14w Rōga (9-6), M16e Wakanoshō (9-6): C+

• M6e Churanoumi (9-6), M8e Ōshōma (8-7), M4w Gōnoyama (8-7), M6w Fujiseun (7-8), M10e Asanoyama (7-5-3), M14 Mitakeumi (8-7): C-

If I was more cheeky, I might just call this the Rōga category. However, in June the man from Russia did one better than his usual 8-7. This is the third time he’s gotten his career high nine wins in the top division.

Wakanoshō had a great debut tournament and he’s looking a lot like his stablemaster Minatogowa (the former Takakeishō). He really throws himself into those pushing/thrusting battles and I think there might be a spot on the All Violence Team waiting for him in the future.

Churanoumi rebounded nicely in this tournament, having slumped to 4-11 in March (when ranked up at M2). Ōshōma and Gōnoyama did OK, but it was nothing to write home about. That’s a little disappointing from Gōnoyama. This is now his second tournament in a row where he has collapsed in the second week. He was 8-2 before losing his last five bouts.

Fujiseun gets a C- from me despite the losing record. He made a big jump from M13 to M6 in just his second top division tournament. He looked the part of a mid maegashira guy in June and most of his losses came against tough opponents (Asanoyama, Kotoshōhō, Atamifuji, Hakunofuji [by henka]).

Asanoyama’s yotsu-zumō (belt-grappling) looked on point and he was able to successfully mask his battered knees early on. However, he had to bow out the tournament after being forced off the ring by Tobizaru on day eleven. It seems as though he suffered a foot injury, though, and not a potentially devastating reoccurrence of a knee injury.

Mitakeumi continued to tread water at the bottom end of the division. His size and sneaky speed remains tough for a lot of the older and less well-rounded wrestlers to handle. He scored a great win on Hakunofuji on day eight.

Lagging behind

• M1w Takanoshō (7-8): D+

• M2w Ichiyamamoto (6-9), M3w Hiradoumi (7-8), M7w Asakōryū (3-4-8), Asahakūryū (5-10), Kinbōzan (6-9): D

• M1e Fujinokawa (7-8), M4e Daieishō (7-8), M5w Shōdai (6-9), M9w Nishikifuji (5-10), M16w Ryūden (5-10): D-

I’ve been pretty harsh with Fujinokawa here. 7-8 in your debut tournament as M1 is pretty good, on paper. But I just didn’t like his sumō in May. Like so many, I loved Fujinokawa’s truculence as he smashed his way up the rankings to land in the jōi. My enjoyment for his all-out never-say-die style helped me look past a few things I didn’t like; like the early start he used to beat Hōshōryū in March. In this tournament, though, his early starts became hard to ignore.

I think his tendency to do this is starting to rub his opponents the wrong way. Fujinokawa was subjected to a few late pushes and shoves at the end of his bouts, forcing him to the ground or seats despite the match being essentially over. This might be the field trying to correct Fujinokawa (since referees rarely call a matta [false start] nowadays).

Against Kirishima, Fujinokawa’s false start and step-out were missed by the gyoji (and ringside judges).

The early starts are bad enough, but when you sprinkle in the henka, too… Fujinokawa becomes a lot less fun and… kind of annoying. I don’t hate a henka and I think, as a smaller man, he has lots of license to do them. But those, in addition to the early starts, just feel a little too much for me.

His final day henka on Wakamotoharu felt especially pointless, since he had already gotten his make-koshi.

It wasn’t a surprise to see Takanoshō struggle. He rarely gets off to a good start when he’s ranked in the jōi. When he gets a week fighting rank-and-filers he seems to generate momentum which makes him a problem for the upper rankers. In this tournament he actually had a good opening week against the big names, beating Wakatakakage and the debuting sekiwake, while losing to Kirishima and Kotozakura. He struggled against his fellow jōi boys, though, losing to Yoshinofuji, Fujinokawa, Ichiyamamoto and Ōhō.

Ichiyamamoto wasn’t that bad in June. In January he went 4-11 from his career high M1 rank. Going 6-9 at M2 (at his first time at that rank), isn’t anything to be ashamed of. He leaned more into his usual pusher/thruster style in this tournament. A fuss was made about him trying to develop more yotsu abilities lately, but it’s become pretty obvious that — at this point in his career — he’s never going to be good enough or consistent enough at grappling to make a dent against the very skilled grapplers in this section of the rankings.

Hiradoumi was a little disappointing for me. He’s now 26 and starting to look like he doesn’t belong in the group of exciting youngsters who are currently marching up the jōi and into the san’yaku. He might end up being a career whipping boy here in the jōi ranks.

Asakōryū was 2-2 before going down injured against Shōdai. I liked how aggressive he was in those bouts, though.

Asahakūryū faltered after his very impressive 10-5 in March. I was really impressed with his grappling skills in that tournament. In this tournament, though, he looked very robotic and he got schooled by a lot of the veterans he faced.

Kinbozan put in a very forgettable effort after saving his top division skin with a 9-6 from M16 back in March. He’ll have to do that again in July to prevent going back to jūryō for the first time in two years.

Daieishō, Shōdai and Ryūden all looked slow and tired in this tournament. All seem to have their best days firmly behind them now.

Nishikifuji might be the most forgettable man in the makuuchi and he did nothing to change that in this tournament.

The Struggle Bus

• M7e Chiyoshōma (5-10), M5w Wakamotoharu (5-10): E+

• M9e Abi (5-10), M12e Shishi (6-9), M12w Tokihayate (4-11), M13w Tamawashi (2-13): E

• M15w Ōshōumi (4-11): E-

• O1e Kotozakura (3-9-3): F

• Y1e Hōshōryū (0-2-13), Y1w Ōnosato (0-0-15), O1w Aonishiki (0-0-15), K1w Takayasu (2-2-11): Ungraded

There were a few painful watches during this tournament.

It was awful watching Tamawashi labour through an injured calf as he tried, often in vain, to add a few more top division wins to his record chasing haul. He just didn’t have any strength in that leg and and wasn’t able to push off and get any oomph into his normally devastating nodowa (throat thrust).

Wakamotoharu was also difficult to watch. And, unlike with Tamawashi, it wasn’t clear why that was the case. He wasn’t wearing any bandages (which might not mean he wasn’t injured) and he didn’t seem to favour one limb over any other. He just didn’t look like he had much to offer in this tournament. He was pushed around, with ease, often. The younger Kotoshōhō and Atamifuji had zero problems with him.

Kotozakura was also painful to watch at times. I have no idea if he’s still nursing the knee injuries that changed his career projectory from likely yokozuna to barely ōzeki. We’ve seen him hobble through some tournaments. And we’ve seen him look totally refreshed in others. In this one, his body didn’t seem up to the task and his mind seemed totally checked out, at times, too.

There were some good matches sprinkled into his tournament, but more often than not, he was bullied off the ring in a manner we’re not used to seeing.

There was also the incident with Ōhō, where he seemed to drive Ōhō down after the match was over. That might have been his frustration (at his own performance) boiling over. No matter what the motivation as, though, it was a bad look for an ōzeki.

Chiyōshoma was over-ranked in this tournament and also looked a little banged up. Abi doesn’t appear at full strength yet, either. Shishi looked how he usually does; lots of aggression, but zero finesse. I’m very confused by Ōshōumi. He looked great in January, going 10-5, but that is now looking like a flash in the pan. His 4-11 follows the 5-10 he got in March. He’s now jūryō bound.

Tokihayate was the most surprising struggler, to me. I thought he would be good enough for a kachi-koshi at this spot. So to see him get one of the worst records of the tournament was very weird. He also went 5-10 in March. I have really enjoyed Tokihayate’s grappling in the past and I love the smoothness of his throws, particularly his uwatedashinage (pulling over arm throw). He was in a position to pull off those throws, a lot, in May, but he was often finding himself thrown down or being dominated in the clinch. He’s likely going down to jūryō, too, after getting outworked in the clinch by Daiseizan in a probable replacement bout.

Jūryō grades!

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Today I have my banzuke prediction for the 2026 Nagoya basho. That tournament gets underway in the second week of July and the actual banzuke comes out June 29.

Below is what I think might happen, along with lots of pictures showing my methodology. Hope you enjoy it!

The bonus gif today is a man who is somewhat of an oddity in this forthcoming banzuke (at least according to my prediction).

Before I get into my banzuke, here’s something to consider regarding how these rankings work:

The general rule is that wrestlers move up and down based on their net wins or losses from the past basho. That means that a wrestler who went 8-7 has a net score of +1. That then means they are probably going to move up one space. However, we can’t assume that’s the case for everyone. Context matters. And, also, sometimes you just have to stick guys somewhere that more or less makes sense.

Now, below is the real May banzuke, along with the records each wrestler earned at that tournament. I’ve also added columns here for net wins. And, for the first time ever, I’ve got jūryō in here, too. Yep, I’m going to be predicting the jūryō rankings, too.

I’m using the Guess The Banzuke helper page (found here) to make my banzuke. Here’s how we’re starting out:

Let’s play.

Step 1: Yokozuna and Ōzeki

As per usual, this is the easiest part of the banzuke to figure out. Hōshōryū and Ōnosato stay put, since Ōnosato didn’t get more wins than Hōshōryū. Kirishima goes up to ōzeki 1 east, since he had a better record than Kotozakura (and since Aonishiki will be departing this section).

Step 2: The san’yaku

This section isn’t tough to figure out, either. Aonishiki drops down to sekiwake from ōzeki due to his two losing records in a row. Atamifuji and Kotoshōhō both got winning records in their debut sekiwake tournaments, so they keep their ranks. Wakatakakage has to be promoted from komusubi with a 12-3 and a yushō.

This means we’re going to have four sekiwake at the July tournament. That’s not a very common occurrence, but it’s also not terribly rare.

Yoshinofuji moves up to komusubi from M2. No one in the jōi did better than him. That will be a debut appearance for him in the san’yaku. Ōhō moves up to komusubi, leapfrogging some guys who got losing records. This will be his second time as komusubi (he has been sekiwake twice, too). He’s yet to get a winning record in the san’yaku.

Step 3: Math it out

My next step is going to be to just moving everyone else around according to their net wins/losses, despite the logjams that this will create.

Here’s what it looks like when I do that.

A little overwhelming, no?

Step 4: The jōi

There’s a lot to do here, but I’ll start with the jōi (positions M1-M4).

This banzuke is a lot like the other ones this year where there is a block of guys around the jōi and just below who did poorly and need to go down and a block of guys who did well and need to come up. But those blocks have a big gap in between. So we’re going to have to over promote some and under demote some others. The tricky part is deciding how generous or lenient to be.

The block of strugglers right under the jōi means there are very few wrestlers who deserve, based on numbers, to come up and take someone’s spot. The only wrestlers who did well, and are within striking distance, are Churanoumi and Hakunofuji. So they will move up. I’m giving Churanoumi a slight over promotion, but Hakunofuji’s promotion is perfect for his net wins.

To make up the numbers, I’m letting four of the jōi guys keep their spots. I just don’t have the bodies to supplant them. If this happens, it would mean Daieishō would have been ranked M4e for four straight tournaments.

Gōnoyama is the only member of the jōi, other than Yoshinofuji, to get a winning record, so he can move up, too. Ichiyamamoto gets a slightly friendly demotion for reasons stated above.

Step 4: M5 to M7

Time to figure out one of our big gaps. The first thing I’m going to do is move Ura up to M5. That makes total sense and it’s just one spot higher than his net wins. Kotoeihōwill join him there. That’s a big promotion for him, but it’s not outlandish.

I’ll move Ōshōma up to the next highest empty spot. And I’ll let Fujiseun stay pat. The next spot I have open is M7. This is where I need to be lenient. It would feel absurd to have the next highest ranked winners (Tobizaru and Rōga) move up this high.

So I’m going to let Wakamotoharu and Shōdai land here. This means Wakamotoharu is going down two ranks on five net losses. And Shōdai is going down two ranks on three net losses. The JSA have, historically, been kind to wrestlers who were in the jōi (respecting how hard their schedule is in a given tournament).

Wakamotoharu and Shōdai weren’t in the jōi in the last tournament. However, since three of the top wrestlers in the division sat out due to injury, wrestlers in the M5 and M6 ranks had tougher schedules than usual (since they needed those ranks to fight the remaining ōzeki and san’yaku). I think it’s likely that Wakamotoharu and Shōdai will get the kind of demotion they might have gotten if they were M4 last month.

After those moves, we’re left with this:

Step 5: Figure out that even bigger gap

I’m now left with a chasm between M7 and M11. The first thing I can do is be kind to Takayasu and let him take the highest spot here.

Now I have to really over promote some guys.

Rōga is the first lucky recipient. I’m putting him up six ranks to sit next to Takayasu. I’ll give Chiyoshōma the friendly demotion and let him go to M9. He doesn’t quite fit my theories about the ‘shadow joi’, which saw a friendly demotion for Wakamotoharu. But this makes the most sense to me right now.

Asanoyama can sit still. I still have a lot of ground to cover, so Tobizaru and Fujiryoga are going to get big promotions, too.

That gives us this:

Step 6: Finishing off the bottom

The bottom section isn’t too hard. I’ll start by bumping up Mitakeumi to M11e. I need someone for the west side and I really don’t want to put Takerufuji there. I checked historical examples and going from J2 to M11 seems a bit too much of a stretch. I’ll be kind to Asahakūryū instead and let him sit opposite Mitakeumi.

Next, I’ll bump Wakanoshō up one space to sit opposite Takerufuji (who is still getting a very kind promotion).

Abi and Nishikifuji can go up one rank each to sit opposite each other at M13. That makes a lot of sense, especially since they were both M9 and both had 5-10 records.

When Abi and Nishikifuji move up, that clears the jam at M14 and lets me leave Kazuma and Kinbōzan there (who are stablemates, by the way). Ōnokatsu and Shishi are both stuck together. I’ll drop Shishi down (as punishment for that henka on Tamawashi!).

I’m left with a very interesting logjam at M16w; between brothers Asakōryū and Asasuiryū.

Step 7: Brother vs. Brother

We now have two ōzeki and four sekiwake on the banzuke, that means we will only be going down as far as M16 for the July tournament (since makuuchi is capped at 42 spaces). So, in my prediction, only one of Asakōryū and Asasuiryū can be in makuuchi and the other has to go down to jūryō.

I think Asakōryū is going to keep his place in the division. In my banzuke, I’ve followed the rule of being kind to guys ranked just outside the jōi and Asakōryū fits that category. I think his slightly tougher than usual schedule will help him get the tiebreaker over his brother. That’s a shame. If Asasuiryū did come up we’d have three sets of brothers in the makuuchi.

By sending Asasuiryū back down to jūryō, I have my completed first pass of the makuuchi banzuke.

It looks nice.

Here’s where jūryō stands.

Step 8: Jūryō

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