Report Card: 2025 Kyushu Basho - Part 4
The final report card for Grand Sumo's 2025 Kyushu basho, before we switch focus to the New Year tournament.
The New Year tournament is just days away! And here I am still talking about November. Rest assured, though, this is the last piece I have coming out about the last tournament. I know we want to look ahead, but Christmas and all the fun involved really set me back when it came to writing these. Even so, I hope you enjoy this retrospective on the last time we saw these guys compete.
Below you will find grades for our highest ranked rikishi, including our tournament winner Aonishiki and the yokozuna Hōshōryū and Ōnosato.
Please enjoy.
Bonus gif today is Hōshōryū and Tamawashi squaring up.
Takayasu
Rank: Komusubi 1 West
Record: 8-7
Grade: C
Takayasu was very slap-happy in November. Lately he’s been doing his best E. Honda impression and, more often than not, it’s been working for him. Here he is giving Yoshinofuji the business for the second tournament in a row:
Takayasu has long been a very versatile wrestler, adept with both yotsu-zumō(belt grappling) and oshi-zumō (pushing/thrusting). He’s also always been good at knowing which style to use and when to transition between them. As he gets older, though, and his time since a significant injury grows longer (thankfully), I think Takayasu might be purposefully leaning more into the oshi side of things. He’s had a front row seat to Tamawashi’s longevity with a style that is all oshi-zumō and I think he’s realized that it’s better for his body to attack with slaps than it is to try and wrench guys around by the belt. In November five of his eight wins were oshidasi/tsukidashi (frontal push out/frontal thrust out). In the previous year’s Kyushu tournament he went 8-7 with two oshidashi and three yorikiri (frontal force out). He didn’t win any bouts by yorikiri in this most recent tournament.
Takayasu has also seemed like a smart wrestler, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a very well thought out move by him and also something we see regularly during this late and final stage of his career.
Takanoshō
Rank: Komusubi 1 East
Record: 5-10
Grade: D-
Takanoshō really struggled in November. He was coming off a great 12-3 finish in September. However, that was when he was ranked M7. As a komusubi he wasn’t able to pad his record with easier wins at the beginning of the tournament and create the kind of momentum he needs to mount a serious challenge. His best records in the past two years have all come when ranked M6 or lower (including his jun-yushō at the 2024 Nagoya basho). Over the same period, when ranked higher than M6 he’s not got a single kachi-koshi.
Takanoshō is a bully and he’s very good at overwhelming mid maegashira guys with his nodowa (throat thrust) and his size. But he lost his opening five bouts in November to Hiradoumi, Hōshōryū, Wakamotoharu, Aonishiki and Hakuōhō. That’s a tough slate, but it’s not Murderers’ Row. The fact he couldn’t pick up a win among that cohort is a good sign that his ceiling, at this point in his career, is lower than the san’yaku and perhaps even the jōi.
Takanoshō is a bit of an odd character. When he’s good he’s very very good and when he’s bad he’s awful. He can only be very good with a very soft opening to a tournament, so he was pretty awful here.
Ōhō
Rank: Sekiwake 1 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+
In November Ōhō got to compete as a sekiwake for the second time in his career. The first instance of this was when he was promoted in March off the back of his play-off lose to future yokozuna Hōshōryū. In both instances, Ōhō has failed to get a winning record. However, he came close to it in November (which is much better than how he did in March).
He didn’t look nervous in the san’yaku, this time around. He actually started the tournament really well, defeating the Waka Bros. on back-to-back days with a katasukashi (under shoulder swing down) and a kotenage (armlock throw). Those wins had given me hope that Ōhō was going to lean into his throwing game more (he caught Aonishiki with a beautiful and fierce kotenage earlier in the year).
However, after those wins he dropped bouts to Hiradoumi, Ura and Takayasu. He has negative head-to-head records against all three of those guys. Those are names he should be much more competitive against if he has ambitions of staying in the san’yaku. Going 2-3 to open the basho really put Ōhō into a corner. By the time his matches with the yokozuna came calling he was two losses away from the make-koshi. A loss to Ōnosato on Day 12 confirmed that for him. That losing record meant that Ōhō had his fourth make-koshi of the year. Despite that, I do think he took some positive strides in his sumo. He feels a lot more aggressive, confident and technical now than he was a year ago. That’s all for naught, though, if he can’t also improve his results.
Aonishiki
Rank: Sekiwake 1 East
Record: 12-3, yushō, gino-shō, shukun-shō
Grade: A+
Aonishiki was awesome in November as he clinched his maiden yushō and secured a promotion to ōzeki. All that happened despite him being just 21 years-old. He goes into the New Year knowing that a repeat performance will probably lead to him becoming the 76th yokozuna and the first yokozuna ever to be born in Europe.
It’s felt inevitable that Aonishiki would reach this point. And that’s not because we’ve seen him gradually getting better over 2025, his first year in the makuuchi (top division). He seemed to arrive in March as an elite talent and he’s simply maintained that level, achieving big results despite the difficulty level being increased for him every other month. Now, it feels inevitable that we’ll see him wearing a tsuna sometime this year.
What’s great is that all this inevitability hasn’t decreased how pleasurable it has been watching Aonishiki progress up the ranks and ultimately capture gold. That’s because of his sumo. It’s so damn watchable. The young man from Ukraine doesn’t have much of a personality to speak on, but his wrestling does a lot of talking. His athleticism, creativity, technique and amazing killer instinct have made him must-watch TV from the second he stepped onto a Grand Sumo dohyō.
He was largely impeccable in November. His only losses were a very surprising henka from the slumping Wakatakakage, a very good thrust out from Yoshinofuji and an unconvincing force out from Ōnosato.
His yushō clinching win over Hōshōryū encapsulated his sumo in November. In this win he was strong and crafty and used his mobility to unsettle the yokozuna. He attacked with head-to-toe offense and was able to drag Hōshōryū down for the cup.
There’s a lot to love about Aonishiki’s game. His toughness might be a little overshadowed by his technical prowess, though. I really want to highlight that since, in this tournament, he showed a lot of grit to come through some pretty tough matches. Aonishiki is an obvious threat to everyone now and he’s starting to get guys best efforts in the ring. The fact he was able to continue being so successful, in spite of that, is just another reason to think of him as a truly special rikishi.
There were a few white-knuckle bouts involving Aonishiki in November, where he had to perserve on route to finding the win, but this one with Hiradoumi might be my favourite.
Aonishiki is now, undoubtedly, a top three wrestler. How lucky are we that we get to see that triumvirate battle it out over the next decade!?
Kotozakura
Rank: Ōzeki 1 East
Record: 8-7
Grade: C+
Kotozakura limped over the line in November, bringing his snake-bit 2025 season to an end. And he managed to do it with a winning record, too. What a difference a year makes, huh?
In November 2024 Kotozakura crushed his was to his first yushō, punctuated with a final day win over Hōshōryū. That 14-1 run helped him secure the record as the rikishi with the most top division wins in 2024, narrowly beating Ōnosato (someone he had a 4-2 record over in 2024). After that he looked like our best bet in the race to become the 74th yokozuna. But, alas, knee injuries upon knee injuries with not enough time to heal killed his chances of becoming getting the top rank last year. They almost cost him his ōzeki status, too. Despite the injuries he was able to bank five kachi-koshi in a row with his November performance. Being able to do that, while hurt, at the ōzeki tells you how good he is….
His biggest win in November was…
