Report Card: 2025 Haru Basho - Part 5

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

The May tournament starts this weekend! I’m still chugging away at these report cards, though. This time around I’ve got breakdowns on Kinbōzan, Ura, Takayasu, Ichiyamamoto, Takanoshō and Tobizaru.

In addition to having some of the most popular characters in the sport, this group also has a man who came ever so close to winning the tournament. Takayasu just missed out on his first career yūshō to Ōnosato in March. He still had a fantastic tournament, though.

Scroll down for his, and everyone else’s, report card and grade.

This is a pay-walled post. The paywall barrier will kick in at the last entry (Tobizaru). If you’d like to read all this article and support Sumo Stomp! please pick up a paid subscription. Paid subscribers will also be entered into a giveaway during the next tournament for a special, and currently secret, prize!

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Kinbōzan

Rank: Maegashira 5 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D-

In March Kinbōzan was unable to follow up on his stellar January tournament. The Kazakh wrestler was a runner-up to Hōshōryū in the hatsu basho. That earned him a big promotion up to maegashira 5. And he struggled at that position taking a make-koshi (losing record). This wasn’t a massive surprise. Kinbōzan has had losing records every time he’s been promoted beyond M7.

Kinbōzan’s sumō relies on his moroto tsuki (double arm thrust), which he tries to land off the tachiai. Here’s how that looks when he lands it perfectly:

In this Hakuōhō bout. Kinbōzan landed three unimpeded moroto tsuki for the easy win.

More often that not, though, in March Kinbōzan was not able to land that shot as cleanly as he did in the above example. A number of wrestlers were able to deflect his shot or step off to the side to render the moroto tsuki less effective. That group included Hiradoumi, Takerufuji, Ichiyamamoto, Gōnoyama and Kirishima.

Kinbōzan’s lack of foot speed is a detriment to his sumō. All those rikishi listed above are quicker than him and were able to step around his moroto tsuki. The moroto tsuki requires you to stay square to your opponents. When faster opponents shift to one side, Kinbōzan is often unable to catch up and get square to them. This means he can’t deliver that thrust (outside the tachiai) before they are either locking onto his belt or are firing tsuppari (rapid palm strikes) at him from an angle.

See below how Kirishima stepped off to the side to negate the force of the moroto tsuki. He then had lots of time to get around Kinbōzan for the okuridashi (rear push out).

And here is Gōnoyama using fast hands to deflect Kinbōzan’s opening thrust. After that Gōnoyama used his foot speed advantage to make sure he was never in one place for too long, preventing Kinbōzan from landing the moroto tsuki. He also used his hand speed advantage to block Kinbōzan’s attempts at a thrust, often aiming at the elbow and pushing the arm upwards.

In January I said that Kinbōzan’s runner-up finish was a bit of a fluke. It was still a great run from him and he showed a lot of character to stay in the race once the opponents became more difficult (his win over Ōnosato was fantastic).

I just don’t see him as a consistent high ranker in this division, unless he adds something else to his game. Maybe he should try combining his moroto tsuki with a hatakikomi (slap down).

Ura

Rank: Maegashira 5 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-

In March Ura just missed out on kachi-koshi, again. Since 2021 Ura has registered either a 7-8 or 6-9 record in ten out of twenty basho. He’s only managed kachi-koshi seven times in that time span. But we still love him!

A lot of that mediocrity, as far as records go, are due to him being consistently ranked around the joi positions and the stiff opposition he faces every tournament. In March his schedule included Takerufuji, Ōnosato, Ōhō, Daieishō, Wakatakakage, Abi and Hōshōryū (who he was lucky to get the fusen win over).

Ura looked lively in this tournament and he had a number of very fun bouts. This one with Tobizaru is perhaps the most exciting of them all.

In this bout Ura looked a little like a freestyle wrestler with his level changes and, at one point, attempt at a single leg takedown.

Ura got himself into a number of high paced tsuppari battles in this tournament. He really gave his all in those bouts. Unfortunately, when he’s pushed back to the boundary he becomes a bit of a sitting duck. Ura doesn’t have a lot of lateral quickness, probably due to the state of his knees. This means, when his heels are on the straw he thinks in a very linear fashion. He either shoots straight backwards for a slap down attempt or dives forwards. Both these moves have a pretty low rate of success.

Here he is diving forwards at Daieishō, when a side ways move could have been more effective.

Though he can’t circle around with much speed, Ura can still be very forceful when he goes forwards at full bore. He was able to force out Atamifuji in the clinch and Abi with thrusts thanks to those opponents not providing much of a moving target.

Ultimately it’s a so-so grade for Ura for a so-so tournament. He might be kicking himself over not landing anything too outrageous during the basho, too. Maybe he will come out with something special this month.

Ichiyamamoto

Rank: Maegashira 4 West
Record: 7-8, kinboshi
Grade: C

Ichiyamamoto was competing at his highest ever ranking in March. Because of that (and him capturing his first career kinboshi) I think he deserves a friendly grade.

The kinboshi came on Day 9. Here’s that bout with Hōshōryū.

In this bout Hōshōryū opted for a soft tachiai and then stepped to the side to try and catch Ichiyamamoto in a quick uwatenage (over arm throw). Ichiyamamoto was too fast and too long for this attempt, though. He was able to untangle his long legs from Hōshōryū and push down the new yokozuna for the memorable win. Ichiyamamoto deserved his win, but this wasn’t a very good showing for Hōshōryū. He looked out of sorts and made a poor decision. Only he can tell us whether that was due to his hurt elbow or his nerves.

Ichiyamamoto’s other big win of the tournament was over Kotozakura. This was a more impressive victory, to me, than his one over Hōshōryū.

In this match with Kotozakura, Ichiyamamoto didn’t lead with thrusts. He instead allowed for a clinch with Kotozakura. He must have done this because he felt like he didn’t have much chance of backing down Kotozakura with his hands. What’s impressive, though, is that Ichiyamamoto gave Kotozakura hidari-yotsu (left arm inside, right arm inside) off the tachiai. That’s the opposite grip to what Kotozakura prefers (migi-yotsu). See below how Ichiyamamoto put his right arm on the outside to give Kotozakura the inside position with his left.

That makes Kotozakura uncomfortable. As a result, Kotozakura tries to switch his arm positions, to get an outside grip with his left arm and establish his migi-yotsu.

Kotozakura gets his preferred configuration. But while working for that, he’s loose on Ichiyamamoto, giving him space to withdraw.

Because he seized on that transition moment from Kotozakura, Ichiyamamoto had all kinds of room to land this hatakikomi (slap down).

Now, if Ichiyamamoto gave Kotozakura hidari-yotsu because he knew Kotozakura would try and reverse it to migi-yotsu and give him the opportunity to pull off this move (which is almost a katasukashi [under shoulder swing down]), that’s amazing sumō.

I don’t want to completely doubt Ichiyamamoto is capable of such high level forward thinking, but it’s probably more likely that Ichiyamamoto went into the match just not wanting to give Kotozakura the migi-yotsu and thinking he would figure something out from there.

Either way, great win and a great tournament for Ichiyamamoto (despite the make-koshi).

Takayasu

Rank: Maegashira 4 East
Record: 10-5, doten-jun yūshō, gino-sho, kinboshi
Grade: A-

Ah Takayasu…

Always the bridesmaid for our ever-popular fur-clad rikishi. In March Takayasu came ever so close to his first yūshō. However, he just couldn’t seal the deal. He was leading by a single victory over Ōnosato on Day 14, but lost to Churanoumi. That loss gave Ōnosato the window he needed to force a play-off and ultimately take home the cup.

The ending of Takayasu’s tournament is the dominant storyline here, but it shouldn’t over shadow how good his sumō was in March. He was strong, smart and used a wide variety of techniques. In addition to finishing runner-up he also scooped his third career gino-sho (technique prize) for his efforts, thanks to winning by eight different kimarite (finishing techniques).

He also got a kinboshi. Against Takayasu, Hōshōryū used the routine that worked so well for him in January: nodowa (throat thrust), outside belt grab, force out/throw attempt. In this match, though, Takayasu hit Hōshōryū with a lot of force off the tachiai, negating the power of the nodowa. Takayasu then locked on a deep grip with his left hand (he loves to really reach around close to the knot of the mawashi). That put Hōshōryū on the defensive before he could attack with his own grip. Hōshōryū broke the grip and tried to engage Takayasu in a run-and-gun battle. Takayasu, who is just as comfortable thrusting as he is grappling, obliged and was able to push Hōshōryū down with his heavy hands.

Takayasu’s heavy hands are special. He reminds me of what was said about Kawhi Leonard during his blessed single season in Toronto. Leonard’s ‘heavy hands’ equated to being able to block at the rim, deflect passes and slap or rip the ball away from opponents.

For Takayasu, his heavy hands mean he’s able to bat away opposing thrusts and move people around the ring with a hard slap to the body.

You can see his heavy hands beat Wakatakakage below.

After executing an inashi (side-step) to get out of Wakatakage’s clinch, Takayasu landed this shot on his foe:

That helped push and turn Wakatakakage into position for Takayasu to land another firm shot on his chest, for the push out.

Takayasu also got Wakatakakage’s brother with his heavy hands. See how much Wakamotoharu reeled from Takayasu’s tsuppari below:

So even though Takayasu didn’t get the cup in March, I think he still deserves a lot of credit for giving himself such a good chance to win one. At 35 we might not see him get another chance of doing that. Though, we shouldn’t count him out completely.

Takanoshō

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

Takanoshō tied for the worst record in March. That’s resulted in one of the biggest demotions for May, sending him from M3 to M13. Surprisingly, his three wins came against very hard opposition; Ōhō, Kotozakura and Kirishima. This performance is proof that Takanoshō’s ceiling as a wrestler, right now, is beneath the joi. Some of his worst results lately have come when ranked M4 or higher (including a 4-11 at M1 in September).

Takanoshō relies on the nodowa and when he has it locked in, firmly, he can do some damage with it. In this tournament, though, he seemed totally out of ideas once someone stepped off to the side (to relieve pressure on the nodowa) or slapped his lead hand away.

Hōshōryū used Takanoshō’s out stretched arm to pull him past him and then push him out. Ura did something similar.

When he wasn’t being pulled around by that lead arm, opponents were timing his all or nothing thrusts really well and then dodging out the way. Daieishō, Wakamotoharu and Abi were all able to make Takanoshō face plant.

From the M12 position, Takanoshō will probably get a kachi-koshi in May, with his bulk and aggression proving too much for the smaller rikishi down there to handle.

Tobizaru

Rank: Maegashira 3 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D

Tobizaru more or less survived yet another run through murderer’s row. 6-9 isn’t terrible when you face the yokozuna, both ōzeki, both komusubi and one sekiwake. He did go winless against those high rankers, though.