The Juryo promotions have been announced. We have two returnees: Tokushoryu, after a single basho in Makushita, and Tomokaze, who makes his long-awaited sekitori return after a long road back from a horrific leg injury in Kyushu 2019, just when he seemed to be on the cusp of top-division stardom.
And two rikishi make their salaried debuts. The first is 29-year-old Tamashoho, one of Tamawashi’s few stablemates as well as his brother-in-law. After 11 years in professional sumo, just making it to Juryo is a major career achievement for him.
Much more is expected of the other debutant, 19-year old Ochiai. The amateur star makes history by becoming the first modern rikishi to make it to Juryo after a single basho. He debuted at Ms15TD, and there was much debate regarding whether even a 7-0 record at that rank would be enough for promotion. Ochiai did his part by going undefeated to take the Makushita yusho, and looked dominant doing so. Now the banzuke committee has confirmed that Ms15TD is indeed within the extended promotion zone, and we can conclude that the reason Shimoda, the only previous man to go 7-0 at that rank, wasn’t promoted back in 2006 was lack of space. Tachiai looks forward to following Ochiai’s sekitori career with great interest.
The corresponding demotions are not announced, but looking at the records in Juryo, we can infer that in addition to the slot opened up by Okinoumi’s intai, three spots are being made available by dropping J13w Kaisho, J11e Chiyosakae, and J10w Terutsuyoshi, all 5-10, to the third division. The former two had their fates sealed before the final day, while Terutsuyoshi lost an exchange bout to Tamashoho, completing his fall from Makuuchi in November to Makushita in March. Tachiai wishes salt bae a speedy return to good health and the sekitori ranks, where his talent and fighting spirit belong.
Hmmm, Ochiai’s a bit of a beast…Hiro showed one of his matches in the TV stuff…Certainly one to watch his progression…
He looked calm and dominant in all of his bouts. Great combination of power and technique. Will be really interesting to see how he fares in Juryo.
Yeah, just praying he doesn’t become the next “great white hope” That’s a label almost certain to mess up your head….
Ochiai has incredible stillness. His lower body looked downright peaceful during his bouts. I was concerned that his one fusen win would prevent him from making the jump to Juryo. He was never in danger of losing any of his matches so I guess that made the difference.
I’m already looking forward to seeing him against better competition.
Congrats to Tamashoho. From his past tournaments in the single-digit ranks of makushita, it seems quite likely that he’ll be one-and-done in juryo…but even if that happens, he’ll be able to look back and say “I made it. I was a sekitori”.
A bit of a side news, but i feel it still need a little mention somewhere here.
This has just been announced/tweeted an hour ago. (At the moment i am writting this)
Ours good and long time pal Jason Harris, a legend in sumo’s history on youtube and friend of Tachiai.org, just got his youtube channel deleted after receiving a third strike today from NHK. (I’m assuming it was also from them since the first one was.)
Over 7000 archived sumo match spanned over a decade of sumo history has just been erased ! Lost….. (Probably forever!)
I am…lost for words. To my eyes, it is such a tremendous….irreplaceable lost of sumo archived History. (with a big “H”)
Like many of you here, i am sure at one point or another, you have at least watched one of his video. Probably many like myselft, discovered sumo because of him in the first place.
Somehow…i feel like a little piece of myself died today.
Hello sumo fans,
weird coincidence, the Sumo Association puts up its own channel, and away goes Jason.
Not that I dislike Hiro, the man himself and the quality of the channel improved by leaps and bounds over the last few months.
Also a sad coincidence that we should loose both Okinoumi and Jason this January.
Even sadder that we lost the historic coverage of Jason’s sumo archive.
A big thank you to Jason!
Those are all backuped by Jason or fans, so the content will not be lost forever. Still, his clips were entrance point for me and majority of western fans to sumo, so them not being On youtube, not being in an yt algorythm, is a huge disaster, a biggest drawback for sumo in many years that cannot be recompensated in any way. We can Just hope for better Times for content to be freely available again but that is Just as vague right now as japan born yokozuna.
I dislike Hiro. He’s terrible at setting up drama or interest, and then he’s terrible at calling a match. No surprise if he’s actually a nice and knowledgeable guy, but he’s not a good sportscaster. Give me Murray and Mr. Gunning.
NHK needs to allow 1080 or better streams on demand within hours of the event, not 480 a goofy 4 times a day well after the event schedule. Or better, HIRE some of the foreign sumo producers to crank out their excellent product for NHK. It certainly wouldn’t be worse than most of the mundane garbage produced by NHK World month after month.
I’m with you here. It’s a loss for sumo fans and a terrible loss for Jason, who has been a devoted fan and increased the fan base exponentially. I feel sick. Who’s next, Kintanayama? Natto? Natto allows us to watch Juryo and Makushita and we’ll probably lose that now. Sumo Prime Time can’t replace the channels that show actual matches, and they probably have no intention of doing that. How are those channels hurting NHK? Shortsighted, irrational, and just plain stupid business decisions. How many people the world over watch NHK now because of becoming sumo fans through these outlets? As I recall, sumo is the biggest draw on NHK, and they could take off some of the rerun filler and shows and there would be more than enough room. This is petty and probably xenophobic excrement from the posterior of a male bovine.
I think natto was already banned more than once. He had to switch channel mid basho with the old one nowhere to be found. It’s indeed tragic, how NHK actively works on depleting foreign interest in sumo.
What do you expect from a bunch of old xenophobic japanese guys who heard about internet approximately a year ago?
Ochiai reached Sekitori just with one tournament!! How is that?
Sorry for my ignorance.
I don’t know the back story behind Ochiai, all I know is Ochiai is the winner of Makushita whose rank was within the already full Ms15 slot.
He got a head start at Ms15 because before joining his stable he was already a corporate Yokozuna.
You can read more about him in a recent Japan Times article:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2022/12/14/sumo/new-recruits-january-basho/
Thanks for the info, it’s very interesting.
So, so pleased to see Tomokaze back in the paid ranks!
I looked up Shimoda, who you mention in 2006 was the last Ms15TD who went 7-0 in his first tournament, but was placed at Ms1w rather than Juryo (unlike Ochiai). Poor guy, he went 2-5 in the next tournament and then spent the next six years entirely in Makushita, and a further three moving between Makushita and Sandame before retiring. In almost a decade of trying he never once made it to Juryo after that near miss!
Very Sad News – I will miss Both Jason and Okinoumi. I wish them both the very very best!
To add to the post, I look forward to seeing Ochiai – or as some post his name as “Ouchiai” too! I didn’t know that Tamawashi’s brother-in-law had been in Sumo for 11 years! Congrats to all of the Rikishis – Well Done!