Report Card: 2025 Haru Basho - Part 3

Grading more of the top division rikishi who were involved in the March tournament.

Hey all. Got more report cards for you today. This time around we’re looking at Meisei, Midorifuji, Shōnannoumi, Nishikigi, Endō and Hakuōhō.

Shōnannoumi and Nishikigi are two of the March tournament’s biggest under-performers. Meisei and Midorifuji both did well and both have very watchable sumō. Hakuōhō continued to show he’s a good wrestler, albeit on a slower than expected improvement track. And Endō… what the heck was up with Endō?

Read on for my full reports on those guys.

Sumo is pain.

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Meisei

Rank: Maegashira 11 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: C

This was a typically spirited basho from Meisei. At still just 29, he’s a pretty good bet for a kachi-koshi when ranked this low. He really punches above his weight and he’s one of the more intense fighters in the division. His aggression, alone, can overwhelm some of the wallflowers who make it this far. At the higher reaches of the division he bumps into plenty of fellow psychopaths and that’s when his records become more mediocre.

Meisei likes ‘power yotsu’. He hits you hard in the tachiai, goes for hidari-yotsu (left arm inside, right arm outside) and drives forwards as fast as he can. This resulted in the bulk of his wins this tournament (Mitakeumi, Midorifuji, Nishikigi, Shishi and Ryūden were all victims of this). Sprinkle in a henka (sorry Hakuōhō) and a slapping brawl (something Meisei won’t ever shy away from) and that’s how Meisei gets to kachi-koshi (winning record).

As is the case with most rikishi who have a dedicated yotsu grip, you can make things uncomfortable for them by denying that specific grip. See below how Atamifuji used wrist control to block Meisei from getting his left arm on the inside. Even though Meisei was able to get inside position with his right arm, that didn’t help him prevent the force out.

Meisei struggles when bouts get elongated, too. If he’s not able to win in the first phase with that power yotsu sequence I mentioned, the chances of him winning really dwindle. That’s because he doesn’t make good decisions, defensively. He has a very nice shoulder roll move he uses to deflect opponents thrusts. But he also has a terrible habit of jumping too far away and not enough to the side. He did that against Aonishiki and essentially gift wrapped himself for a push out.

These quibbles aside, though, Meisei had a good tournament. That’s pretty typical of him when he’s ranked this low.

Midorifuji

Rank: Maegashira 11 East
Record: 9-6
Grade: B-

This was a great tournament for Midorifuji. His winning record cuts his streak of make-koshi (losing records) at three. He went 7-8 in the three past tournaments. Across that stretch he hit his favourite move, the katasukashi (under shoulder swing down), just six times. In March, alone, he landed it four times.

That moved him to 77 wins by this kimarite (technique) and further proved that he is the Katasukashi King.

March’s katasukashi victims were Shōnannoumi, Ryūden, Shirokuma and Mitakeumi. All are bigger and slower than the average bear.

Midorifuji used the moro-zashi (double underhooks) approach to set-up most of his katasukashi. That’s risky, since the defense for a moro-zashi can be a kimedashi (arm barring force out), which is easier to do on someone smaller. The kimedashi was a go-to move of Midorifuji’s stablemate Terunofuji. Perhaps Midorifuji feels confident in avoiding the kimedashi on game-day due to how often he’s seen it in practise?

The moro-zashi is not just a good set up for katasukashi, though. In this tournament Midorifuji was able to use it to pull off yorikiri (frontal force out) and sukuinage (beltless arm throw) wins, too. Using that technique he forced out the much larger Nishkigi and he landed throws on Sadanoumi (below) and Asakōryū (in what looked like a sukuinage-katasukashi hybrid).

The freeze frame below is the point where Midorifuji fully locked on the moro-zashi (note how when Midorifuji does this Sadanoumi’s hands are raised to the point where he can’t grab Midorifuji’s belt — that’s another reason Midorifuji favors this approach):

From there he wrenched Sadanoumi to one side and circled his feet the opposite way. This took Sadanoumi off of his feet.

In the below bout with Ōnokatsu you can see Midorifuji get the moro-zashi off the tachiai. However, he wasn’t able to convert that to a victory in this case.

From the moro-zashi, he first tried to turn the position into a yorikiri…

Ōnokatsu defended with a throw attempt…

When he did this, Midorifuji triggered his katasukashi attempt, first by jumping backwards and drawing back his right hand…

And then by trying to bring that right hand over the top of Ōnokatsu’s right shoulder, so he could drive him downwards…

If you play back this sequence in real time you’ll see why Midorifuji was not able to complete the katasukashi. Ōnokatsu moved very quickly into Midorifuji’s body, denying him the space he needed for that move. Once they were chest-to-chest again Ōnokatsu was able to win with the force out.

Though this record was a welcome site for Midorifuji fans, I think there is some cause for concern. Everyone he beat, other than Sadanoumi and Tokihayate, ended with losing records. Everyone who beat him, other than Shōdai, finished with winning records. He also failed to beat anyone ranked higher than him (other than Endō, who we will get to later).

He’s been promoted to M9 for the next tournament. There’s not a lot of older, slower guys around that ranking for him to beat up on with his katasukashi.

Shōnannoumi

Rank: Maegashira 10 West
Record: 4-11
Grade: E+

After skating by with 8-7 records in the previous two basho, Shōnannoumi finished up March with a dreadful 4-11 record.

If I write too much about Shōnannoumi I’ll get too angry to finish this post. He’s blessed with a fantastic physical profile and shows flashes of high level grappling acumen. But those positive attributes are frequently overshadowed by his complete lack of character on the dohyo. Shōnannoumi fights with an extreme amount of passivity and listlessness. These negative personality traits often mean he is overwhelmed or, frankly, outworked by any wrestler who shows him the slightest burst of intensity or energy.

See below for the lack of resistance Shōnannoumi offered both Takerufuji and Hakuōhō.

With his size, I think Shōnannoumi should be adopting Shodai and Kotozakura’s approach off the tachiai, where they rise and present their chests to absorb impact and simultaneously fish for a belt grip. Anything would be better than what he does now, though, which is basically plod forwards and get immediately knocked back.

Nishikigi

Rank: Maegashira 10 East
Record: 3-12
Grade: F

Nishikigi tied for the worst record at the March tournament. This followed his 8-7 in January. Despite how lopsided this record is (in the wrong direction), Nishikigi has managed to keep his makuuchi ranking for the May tournament. I think Nishikigi has reached a point in his career where he takes every other tournament ‘off’, as in he doesn’t try that hard in hopes he can conserve his health and then put his best effort forwards in the next tournament.

He didn’t look like he was giving much effort in this tournament. He lost all but one yotsu battle he was involved with (the win came over Shirokuma, who was also having a bad tournament). A lot of those losses looked like Nishikigi was not putting his foot on the gas and was also trying to minimize any damage he could take.

See the below matches with Hakuōhō and Takerufuji.

In the Takerufuji bout there was an opportunity for an uwatenage (over arm throw). Nishikigi had the right position and he teased it, just to see if he could pull it off with minimum effort. If he fully committed to this he might have been able to win, but instead Takerufuji was able to reset his feet and then score the force out.

Nishikigi’s lack of mobility was also on full display this tournament. Mitakeumi beat him with a henka. You have to be slow to lose like that to Mitakeumi!

Nishikigi was also made to look quite silly in this bout with Tamawashi.

As you can see, Nishikigi ended up with his hands on the ground. He got there because his push out attempt on Tamawashi was far too casual. It didn’t help him that he was going against a veteran who both never takes a day off (literally) and never gives anything less than maximum effort during a bout.

Endō

Rank: Maegashira 9 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C+

Things were weird for Endō in March. He spent most of this tournament picking himself up of the ground and giving us the impression that he was seriously hurt and/or concussed. A lot of readers/commenters here and elsewhere thought that Endō was perhaps suffering from a brain injury, given how out of it he appeared for most of his bouts and how long he spent on the ground and getting up.

After watching back all his bouts, I don’t think that was the issue with Endō. I think he sprained his ankle on day two and was fighting injured from that point on. I think he aggravated the sprain a few times during the tournament and his “seeming out of it” was actually him walking around in excruciating pain.

Here’s a quick blow-by-blow of his bouts and the evidence that leads me to that conclusion.

• Day 1: Endō pulls Nishikigi down without issue.

• Day 2: He gets pushed off the doyho by Atamifuji. He lands on his feet then seems to trip over the shimpan (ringside judge), possibly rolling his ankle.

• Day 3: He drags down Shōnannoumi and then hops off the dohyo. He again lands on his feet but then goes down in pain and is slow to get up.

• Day 4: He throws down Ōshōma without issue.

• Day 5: Hakuōhō forces him out. He falls off the dohyo, and lands on his right foot. He then chooses to roll back instead of landing on his left foot. He ends up in the referee’s lap and takes some time to get up.

• Day 6: Midorifuji gets behind him and pushes him off the dohyo. Endō lands on both feet and immediately goes down to all fours. He takes a while to get up.

• Day 7: Takerufuji forces him out and holds him on the edge of the dohyo to prevent him falling.

• Day 8: Hiradoumi forces him out and, like Takerufuji, holds him to prevent him falling off the dohyo.

• Day 9: Endō throws down Tamawashi after a long back and forth battle. After he puts Tamawashi down, he falls to one knee in pain.

• Day 10: He falls on his rear after the first push from Kinbōzan in the tachiai. It takes him a long time to get up. The yobidashi (ringside assistants) check in on him.

• Day 11: He slaps down Shōdai and then jumps off the dohyo. He goes down immediately after he lands and rolls over, in pain. The yobidashi check on him again.

• Day 12: He forces Asakōryū out after a long bout and ends up lying on his stomach. It takes him some time to get up.

• Day 13: Sadanoumi forces him out and gives a half-hearted attempt to stop him falling off the dohyo. Endō does falls off, lands on his right foot and then collapses off to the side to spare landing on his left. He takes a long time to get out of the crowd.

• Day 14: He takes a nasty fall backwards off the dohyo courtesy of Shishi. He lands on on his hip/ lower back. He might have opted for this over than having to land on his feet. He gets up slowly.

• Day 15: Kotoshōhō gives him a big shove into the second row after a long bout. Endō lands on his right foot and keeps his left foot raised before wiping out the brown-vests in the supporters club.

With Endō being so hampered due to injury there’s not much point in breaking down his technique. I think it’s pretty incredible that Endō was able to finish the tournament out with a 7-8 record on one leg, though. I’ve questioned Endō’s will and toughness in the past, but this performance screamed grit and Endō deserves a lot of credit for toughing this one out.

Hakuōhō

Rank: Maegashira 9 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: B-

This was another solid tournament for Hakuōhō. In 2023 I was projecting Hakuōhō to do what Ōnosato is doing now. But after his shoulder surgery I’m just happy to see him fighting consistently and proving that, at the very least, he’s makuuchi material.

His sumō is high-powered and very effective in the yotsu department. However, he’s yet to show much variety beyond that and he was certainly exposed due to this on a couple of occasions during this tournament.

Hakuōhō’s game is built around the…