This week’s update will be a short one. As I mentioned over on Blue Sky, though the Kyushu tournament is over and Hatsu won’t begin for a few weeks, there is always a lot going on in the Sumo World. I hope that platform will offer another interesting and active forum for fans to enjoy and share sumo-related content, discussion and analysis.
At this point, there aren’t a whole lot of active accounts on there so I created a “Starter Pack” with the goal of featuring strictly sumo-related content. Hopefully, one day there will be an ongoing, sustained conversation there. Currently, we’re on there as @tachiai.bsky.social, so if you provide sumo-related content and are active on the platform, let us know and we’ll get you added to the Starter Pack. We’re also intrigued by the algorithm flexibility and some of the other features.
I do not think traffic will really take off there until the stables and the Sumo Association have accounts there. When they’re producing content for Blue Sky, we’ll see it take off. The big venue still seems to be YouTube, and here’s the Sumo Prime Time wrap-up video for 2024.
End of Winter Jungyo
This year’s winter tour wrapped up in Okinawa in front of a large crowd of more than 10,000 sumo fans. Sumo on the Jumbo-tron! This event featured a makuuchi elimination-style tournament. The final bout featured Hoshoryu taking on Oho to win the Okinawa Basho.
＜冬巡業 #沖縄場所 ＞
— 日本相撲協会公式 (@sumokyokai) December 21, 2024
幕内トーナメント戦。
全取組の勝負結果と決まり手。
（左が勝ち力士）
動画は決勝の王鵬対豊昇龍。
一回戦
琴櫻（寄り切り）若隆景
若元春（寄り切り）欧勝馬
王鵬（寄り切り）琴勝峰
大の里（吊り出し）阿炎
大栄翔（送り出し）熱海富士
平戸海（突き出し）隆の勝… pic.twitter.com/3I7YMI9ihd
Banzuke Release
As Leonid mentioned in his Crystal Ball post, the banzuke was released early this past week and as usual, there are several items of note. Tamashoho (Kataonami-beya) was promoted to Makuuchi for the first time. Several wrestlers were re-promoted, including Kinbozan, Hakuoho, Kitanowaka and someone’s favorite bullet-train, Kagayaki. Hakuoho’s return has been eagerly anticipated given his obvious talent.
Konishiki Recovery
News from Tokyo that Konishiki had been hospitalized last month in kidney failure. His wife, Chie, donated her kidney and after a successful operation, Konishiki is in recovery. He has been spending precious time over the holidays with the youngsters at Musashigawa-beya. We hope to see him again at a Sumo+Sushi event in the future.
SumoDB Rollercoaster
Tachiai is forever indebted to the sumo database (sumodb.sumogames.de). At last check, the site was back up. I had reburied some new squid that I buried under my computer is seasoned with salt, sake, and some ground kachi-kuri. Hopefully this one will do the job.
The data that’s there and the interface are such valuable contributions to sumo-fandom. Whether you’re new to sumo and hope to learn more about the active rikishi, or you’re an old hand trying to tweak your GTB methodology, or a wannabe journalist pulling up stats for a retired rikishi, that site is invaluable. Unfortunately, it had been down for quite a bit over the past few weeks. As hours turn into days, many of us begin to fear the worst.
Onosho and Kyokutaisei Retired
As of our last post, Onosho (Onomatsu) and Kyokutaisei (Oshima) announced their retirements.
Onosho’s announcement was sudden as he is only 28 years old, but expected as he had been injured. He was an early rival of Takakeisho and a founding member of Bruce’s “Tadpole” cohort. He rose quickly through the lower divisions and established himself in the top division, peaking at Komusubi. But knee injuries really hampered his ability to stay among the joi-jin and press for higher rank.
He spent much of last year in the upper half of the rank-and-file but his final fall was rather swift. He was ranked Maegashira 5 in Nagoya but destined for Makushita by Christmas, so he decided to retire. He will not stay with the Kyokai but we are eager to see what he plans to do in his second career.
Kyokutaisei had a lengthy stint as sekitori, mostly in Juryo. He briefly did break through the tatami ceiling and rise into the top division, even earning a fighting spirit prize. However, he had spent the last few years in Makushita and was destined to fall back into Sandanme for Hatsu Basho. Ranked at Sandanme 20 to start 2025, Kyokutaisei decided to retire. He will not be staying with the Kyokai, either.
Wrap-up
My apologies for the rather perfunctory write-up. It’s been a crazy week. Next year, I hope Tachiai can host a Bonenkai. Maybe we’ll do it over Zoom or Teams or something so we can all forget the year, wherever we are. We are really excited for 2025 but I have a feeling 2026 will be even better!
Discover more from Tachiai (立合い)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Go Squid Power!
I will miss Onosho – I also miss the “tadpole fights” as Bruce would say. I guess Mitakeumi is the last tadpole standing?! And I guess that makes Enho the last of the pixies? I have read that Onosho plans on being a representative of cosmetics firm for Horse Ointment that helped his skin be healed. Don’t know if that’s true or not.
I am so happy for Hakuoho’s return – I can’t hardly wait!
Had a family emergency during last basho so I couldn’t say my respectful Thank Yous to you Andy, Iksumo, Josh and everyone else at Tachiai – I ALWAYS can count on you for the BEST and MOST ACCURATE COVERAGE AND INFORMATION – BIG BOWS TO ALL!!!
I don’t drink alcohol but I am so in for the Bonenkai!!! I will check you guys out on Blue Sky even though I don’t do social media and really appreciate this web site!
Thanks Again for a Great Year of Coverage that I count on!
Midorifuji is the pride of the pixies, the current mayor of the makuuchi munchkins etc etc
Love It! :)
Yeah, I heard that about Onosho, too
Sorry to hear about Onosho. He came on like gangbusters when he first arrived in Makunouchi, and I wouldn’t have guessed at that time that he’d end up being overshadowed by Takakeisho, as they both depart the sport. I never rooted for Onosho, but that was just my privilege as a fan; I certainly have nothing against him, and I wish him well.
Bluesky seems like a politically charged choice, but I guess everything is these days, either one way or the other. Good luck with it.
Thanks and happy new year to the Tachiai team!
As you said, everything seems to be. I’ve had a Blue Sky account since it was invite-only because I am cool like that. (We hear laughter but just ignore them.) There wasn’t much there but my WordPress configuration supports automated posting to multiple platforms, including Facebook and LinkedIn, Threads, and Instagram where I also have a presence. Many people left Twitter for Blue Sky so traffic picked up there a bit. But nowadays everyone has their preferences and it’s important to try to reach out to everyone because sumo is awesome.
Yes!
I’m saddened that there’s been nothing written about Kitanofuji’s passing. He was the oyakata of Chiyonofuji and Hokutomi (now Hakkaku Rijicho, head of the Sumo Kyokai). As a longtime commentator of NHK Sumo, he was loud and brash but colorful.
Thank you Andy and everyone else for a fun, informative, and well-mannered year of sumo duscussio! I have learned so much from y’all. I hope that 2025 brings much sumo excitement and good discussions along the way.
The light is returning, 50 more seconds of daylight today, so very best wishes for the New Year to you all/Bonne Année/Gelukkig nieuwjaar.
Gotta say, counting down to the 12th January now, AND sumo tickets for London!
Betty
Here’s to hoping that Kyokutaisei has a happy normal life afterwards. I bet he’s still gone much further in sumo than his 19yo self ever imagined, and I’m interested to hear what he plans on doing next. Plenty of people start new careers at his age.
Apparently he’s planning to open some sort of noodle restaurant. I’m surprised he stuck around the lower divisions for the last couple of years if he wasn’t going to stay in the JSA … maybe he was trying to but couldn’t get a kabu?
Nikkan Sports’s coverage of his press conference seemed to indicate that he had still harboured hopes of a successful comeback (and to be fair, until half a year ago it looked like it might be feasible). The makekoshi in Aki ended his desire to keep trying. But yeah, I think it’s possible that he was also hoping for a spot to open up, longshot that it was.
I could see realistic hopes of going back up until around the summer of 2023. Once he was no longer rocketing back up and it became clear that his “true” level was no longer “juryo mainstay” but rather well below that.
I wonder if he did want to stay within the JSA. That brings up the question: has any kabu-eligible rikishi ever taken a sewanin or wakamonogashira position?
Well, not comeback as in “becomes a steady sekitori again”, just “succeed at getting back to juryo”. It’s a pride thing as much as anything else for the guys who used to be up there, no different from, say, boxers who want to have “one more match” just to prove they can still do it.
The Tegatana required upon receiving the kenshokin from the Gyoji is a ritual that seems to be not universally respected by some of the top division folks.
Looking forward to Hakuoho winning many matches and giving his very respectful tegatana on receiving kenshokin that should be the standard for all who receive kenshokin in the future.
Sponsors giving the rikishi the gift of kenshokin needs to be respected in a greater way than some of the rikishi seem to do. Hakuoho gets that, and I hope that the rest of the Makuuchi will do so in the future.
Very sad to see the end of Kyokutaisei, someone I have followed since the start of my sumo fandom, like many people owing to the really good film about his start in the sport. Definitely hoping to check out his abura-soba place once more details are known about that.
I was surprised that he didn’t stay in the association but those kabu seem hard to come by.
Yeah there’s a real crunch right now IMHO
I know he was a bit of an edge case anyway, but the recent shift that everyone becomes sanyo after mandatory retirement has been a little weird. I’m in the minority of people who think they should probably go up to 125 members to create a stronger ecosystem with better coaching, coaching development, scouting and recruitment. Although maybe that’s not affordable.
They’re obviously facing a recruitment issue and I don’t think the solve on that for youngsters who might not think sumo is an attractive career is to increase the average age of those doing the recruiting… but what do I know :)