Report Card: 2025 Haru Basho - Part 6

Finishing our grading of the top division rikishi who were involved in the March tournament.

May 09, 2025

Please enjoy my last report card for the 2025 haru basho. This post will include 12 rikishi. I had planned to do six in each post, but I’ve run out of time.

On Sunday we have the summer tournament starting and I want to be focused only on that, with the daily reports that I love to write (and I hope you love to read).

To make sure I get this report card out in time, I’m going to be more sparse with the details. Call this a bite size report card, perhaps?

Due to that change, I’ve made this one free for all! Even, though, this is free, it would still be very cool if you paid for a subscription. Paid subscriptions keep the lights on here and give you full access to the archives and premium posts.

Paid subscribers also get entered in giveaways. And I have one of those lined up for this coming tournament.

Enough of that, though, let’s get into some grades.

Chiyoshoma

Rank: Maegashira 2 West
Record: 6-9, kinboshi
Grade: D

After 11-4 and 9-6 records since his return from jūryō, Chiyoshoma fell to earth in March with the make-koshi (losing record). He did manage to earn the first kinboshi of Hōshōryū’s yokozuna career, though.

Chiyoshoma got his gold star thanks to a henka, which allowed him to get on the side of Hōshōryū and pressure him for the eventual force out. That elicited a bit of a staredown from Hōshōryū. I think there’s some history between these two. In the January tournament Chiyoshoma was critiqued for not showing enough deference to his higher ranked, yet younger, countryman during their pre-bout ceremony.

This bout was Chiyoshoma’s highlight on the tournament, though. The rest of the tournament was filled with him skating around the ring, flapping and slapping before being out-muscled by bigger guys more at home on this half of the banzuke.

Gōnoyama

Rank: Maegashira 2 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+

Gōnoyama’s losing record is mostly thanks to the five bout losing streak he had early on in the tournament. He faced both ōzeki and the yokozuna on back-to-back days during that stretch. Despite those losses, I still consider Gōnoyama joi material and I can imagine him breaking into the san’yaku this year.

Gōnoyama posses a very hard tachiai. When he lands the tachiai at full force and is able to make his opponents step back, he can be a real handful, surging forwards with his thrusts. However, he’s still struggling against guys who are able to get out of the way of him, through either lateral movement or slap downs. He loses by hatakikomi (slap down) at about twice the average rate.

Wakamotoharu

Rank: Maegashira 1 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: B

Wakamotoharu rebounded from a poor March to bank a decent kachi-koshi (winning record) from the M1 position. That wasn’t enough to get him back into the san’yaku for May, though. Among his wins this time around were those against Kotozakura and Ōnosato.

The win over Kotozakura came via an expected route. Wakamotoharu was able to get his hidari-yotsu (left arm inside, right arm outside) grip off the tachiai. When he gets that position, few are able to stop him getting the force out.

The win over Ōnosato was a little more unusual, though. In that bout Wakamotoharu stuck Ōnosato with a couple of great nodowa (throat thrusts). The hidari-yotsu feels like Wakamotoharu’s safety blanket a lot of the time so it was nice to see him get a win with thrusts against such a high level opponent.

Wakatakakage

Rank: Maegashira 1 East
Record: 9-6
Grade: C+

Wakatakakage mirrored his brother’s result in March. However, he was rewarded with promotion to the san’yaku for May. That’s despite him going winless against the ōzeki and Hōshōryū. He did his best work in the second half of the tournament, taking a six day winning streak to lock up his kachi-koshi.

Wakatakakage struggled against his biggest opponents in March. Ōnosato, Kotozakura, Daieishō and Takayasu were all able to toss him around. When there wasn’t a big size disparity, Wakatakakage most often got the victory, using his speed and pressure to back and chop down opponents like Hiradoumi and Tobizaru.

Abi

Rank: Komusubi 1 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D+

This wasn’t the best tournament from Abi, who went on a five day losing streak in the middle of the basho. He was able to play spoiler in Hōshōryū’s first ever match as a yokozuna, though.

Abi won this one thanks to a lightning fast moroto tsuki (double handed thrust) either side of Hōshōryū’s throat off the tachiai. That put Hōshōryū on his heels and it was a wrap from that point on.

Abi was able to thrust out Kotozakura a few days after this, too. During the losing streak too many wrestlers were able to resist those thrusts and get around Abi’s arms to attack the side of his body. Because Abi commits so hard on those thrusts he has a tendency to thrust himself out of position when he misses.

Abi also missed on henka attempts against Gōnoyama and Takayasu and thus handed those men easy wins.

Kirishima

Rank: Komusubi 1 West
Record: 8-7
Grade: C+

Kirishima continues to search for the kind of form he showed in 2023, when he was the best wrestler in the sport. After his nightmare 2024 his 2025 has been, so far, mostly OK. His kachi-koshi in March earned him promotion up to sekiwake for May. He earned the kachi-koshi with a final day win over Tokihayate.

Kirishima showed plenty of flashes of his old self, mixing yotsu-zumō (belt grabbing) and oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting) techniques with a sprinkling of his judo. He wasn’t able to get a signature win over a big name in this tournament, though, losing to both Kotozakura and Ōnosato (he’s 0-6 against him now).

The Tokihayate win was the most important and it came under high pressure circumstances. He went with his trusty mae-mitsu (front grip) to get the win there.

Kirishima’s mae-mitsu serves both attacking and defensive purposes. With that grip he’s able to yank his opponents around and get them close to the boundary. But it also allows him to keep his hips (and belt) out of reach. He can also use his right forearm to pinch his opponents left arms and further prevent them from getting solid holds on his belt.

Ōhō

Rank: Sekiwake 1 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D

The pressure seemed to get to Ōhō in his debut tournament in the san’yaku. After losing a play-off to Hōshōryū in January he received a big promotion for this March tournament, bypassing the komusubi rank completely.

He did well in January because he showed lots of aggression and poise with his tsuppari (rapid palm striking). In March he still had the aggression, but a lot of the poise was lost. He over committed on lots of his thrusts. When he missed, lots of opponents were able to hug their arms around him and twist or force him down.

See how out of control Ōhō looked in this bout with Wakamotoharu:

Ōhō had a similar finish against Daieishō, where he seemed to thrust himself into the ground. See that bout (which was one of the bouts of the tournament) below:

Daieishō

Rank: Sekiwake 1 East
Record: 9-6
Grade: C

Daieishō got his kachi-koshi and preserved his sekiwake rank for May. However, he really did need one more win to give him a strong chance at an ōzeki promotion. Typically you need 33 wins as a sekiwake across three straight tournaments. Daieishō has 20 wins in his last two. If he gets 13 wins in May that would meet the required number. However, the Japan Sumo Association, might frown on the accomplishment since it includes one tournament with a sub-double-digit win total.

With Takakeishō gone (and now looking very trim and handsome), Daieishō is the most feared full out pusher/thruster in the game. His size, speed and power makes him the favourite against a good ninety percent of the division. Look at the beating he put on Wakatakakage below:

However, he continues to struggle to pick up wins against the true elites. He’s currently 4-13 against Hōshōryū, 8-11 against Kotozakura and 1-6 against Ōnosato. He lost to both Kotozakura and Ōnosato in March.

Daieishō vs. Kotozakura was a great bout and Daieishō succeeded, initially, into forcing Kotozakura to fight his kind of fight. However, when Daieishō was unable to land a winning blow, Kotozakura was able to eventually disarm him with a big bear ol’ hug and force him out.

The Ōnosato bout was less competitive, with Ōnosato clattering Daieishō with a shoulder barge that sent him flying across the dohyō.

Kotozakura

Rank: Ōzeki 1 West
Record: 8-7
Grade: B-

It appeared as though Kotozakura was still nursing a knee injury during the March tournament. He couldn’t afford to let that bother him, too much, though; his ōzeki ranking was on the line!

In this tournament Kotozakura was able to tough it out and do just enough to earn kachi-koshi and banish his kadoban status. His eighth win came on Day 13 against Takerufuji in what I think was a revenge match.

Takerufuji took advantage of a banged up Kotozakura in January, throwing him on the ground and locking in Kotozakura’s make-koshi at the time. This time around Kotozakura looked fired up, standing Takerufuji up and taking him down to earn his much needed win. This outcome also pretty much eliminated Takerufuji from the title picture.

When Kotozakura was able to get his favoured migi-yotsu (right arm inside, left arm outside grip) in this tournament, he looked like his old dominant self.

He struggled against pusher/thrusters, though. At his best, Kotozakura is able to stand his ground against those wrestlers and step through their strikes to grab their belts. In this tournament, though, he often got dragged into thrusting battles that lasted too long and ended up with him running out of space along the edge.

Though this is only an 8-7 tournament for the ōzeki, I think Kotozakura deserves lots of credit for saving his rank. I’m desperate to see him back to his best. If he can get back to that level he makes things far more interesting at the top of the makuuchi (instead of there being a simple question over who is better, Ōnosato or Hōshōryū?).

Ōnosato

Rank: Ōzeki 1 East
Record: 12-3 yūshō
Grade: A+

It’s incredible how easy Ōnosato can make this stuff look.

Part of that is due to how blessed he is as a physical specimen. He’s the heaviest man in the division, but he wears the weight like a tailored three piece suit and is still able to be extremely explosive, both off the tachiai and during bouts. The few failings in his young career have mostly been down to tactical errors and poor decision making. However, every tournament he seems to get better in that respect.

In May he looked very assured in the ring and made great decisions. The decision that had previously plagued him in tournaments was when to shoot back and attempt a hatakikomi. He would often wait far too late to commit to this move. In March, though, he was decisively triggering that move at the right moment (as soon as he felt someone beginning to move him backwards). He showed this in his win over Takerufuji, below:

Ōnosato is near impossible to stop going forwards. If he can master winning while moving backwards, too, is anyone safe?

To emphasize the point, here he is moving forwards, ushering Chiyoshoma out like he’s a child:

And here he is face-planting Ichiyamamoto with another perfectly timed hatakikomi:

Dominance can be boring sometimes. But let’s just keep reminding ourselves that we are witnessing history with Ōnosato. He’s 24 and he’s won half of the six top division tournaments he’s been apart of. The tsuna (yokozuna belt) is calling him and I wouldn’t bet against him getting it as soon as possible.

Hōshōryū

Rank: Yokozuna 1 East
Record: 5-5-5
Grade: D

Hōshōryū definitely looked out of sorts in March. Only he can tell us if it’s because of his elbow or if it was something mental. I have no doubts that his elbow injury is real. I remember seeing it almost get wrenched out of its socket by Atamifuji in January. And the injury is on the right arm, which is what he used for his nodowa attacks in January (those nodowa are probably what won him the tournament).

After watching back his bouts from March. It did look like he wasn’t able to get much oomph in that nodowa, which is what he was using to set up his throws and force outs.

Watch this bout with Wakamotoharu, from Day 3, below:

Hōshōryū won that bout, but pay special attention to his opening nodowa.

This is as far back as he was able to push Wakamotoharu with that opening thrust.

In January he was rocking guys’ heads back with that thrust. Sometimes he would hit opponents hard enough with this move that he’d need just a second little shove to score the oshidashi (frontal push out).

Later in this bout Hōshōryū pulled off a kubinage (headlock throw). But during that throw his right arm isn’t locked very hard around Wakamotoharu’s head, it slipped off towards the end, but fortunately for him Wakamotoharu was already on his way down.

This isn’t an isolated incident as far as the nodowa goes. It looked quite soft on all his opponents and I think that played a real role in hampering Hōshōryū’s sumō that month. He’s been looking for a new way to win bouts ever since he pinched his knee throwing Kotozakura last year. I think he recognized then that his body wouldn’t last if he relied too heavily on throwing his opponents.

In January he seemed to have figured out what his sumō needed to be. It needed to lead with a nodowa and then continue with that if the opponent is reeling or fake the nodowa to a belt grab. On the belt he would then have the option of a force out, a lift out (which is something new he’s been showing us), or a throw (in desperate situations or against smaller opponents).

I think it’s possible that his elbow was hurt enough to spoil this winning sequence for him and that this played more of a role than any kind of ‘yokozuna jitters’.

Let’s see what happens this month. If he hits his Day 1 opponent hard in the throat and is able to snap their head back, I think we’re in for a good tournament from our newest yokozuna.

I made it!

Thanks for reading everyone. Now we have just 48 hours or so to wait until we see some new sumo. Have you missed it? Tell me who you think is going to take this tournament in the comments below.