I apologize for the late posting, but things have been busy this summer at home – things keep changing around me – but my love of sumo continues.

Last bashō, I documented eight newcomers to the Third Division (Makushita). Two of them were given special dispensation to enter at the bottom of Makushita (Makushita tsukedashi) – Ishizaki and Kazuma. Ishizaki finished with a 6-1 record and will move toward joining his brother in Jūryō – only losing to fellow newcomer Kyokukaiyū on day 6. Kazuma hurt his weak knee (again) in a loss to Tokitenran (see below) on day 9 and finished with a 4-1-1 record.  Kyokukaiyū is fast on becoming the first sekitori to be raised by the new Ōshima Oyakata and finished 6-1 (losing only to Kazuma on Day 7).  Thus, there are a few good collegiate guys coming up the ranks that could have an interesting rivalry. The only other new makushita with kachi-koshi (majority of wins and a promotion) was Kanazawa, who ran off a 4-win streak from day 3-9 and only lost to some experienced wrestlers, but did defeat former Jūryō Tochimaru.  The only other one to remain in Makushita was Tatsuōshō, who finished 2-5 but was ranked high enough to remain in the division.

Back in Sandanme are Higonomaru (2-5 from Makushita 45e) but with a win over former top Division Amakaze, Mikazuchiyama (3-4 from Makushita 55e), and Kawamura (1-6, as expected, from Makushta 51e)

For Aki, we have three former university wrestlers, one who enters at Makushita Tsukedashi, and one who aims to be the Godzilla of the sumo world.

Inami (伊波)

Stable	Onoe
Age	24
Height (cm/feet)	189cm (6‘2“)
Weight (kg/lbs)	145kg (319 lbs)
Home prefecture	Kagoshima
High school	Kagoshima Commercial
University	Nihon University (日大)
Career Record	19-2
Debut	Hatsu 2024

Inami fits the form of Andy’s favorite type of wrestler (Nihon University + Onoe-beya), like Haruyama and Shiroma before him.  Clearly, Onoe Oyakata has kept up his recruiting links with Nihon University. Ideally, he can turn these Nichidai boys into sekitori.

Inami had a bit of a late start in sumo – only joining the Sumo Club as a Freshman at Kagoshima Commercial High School. However, by Junior Year he reached the top 16 in the National High School Championships and performed well enough to be recruited to join the vaunted Nichidai Sumo Club.

As a Freshman, he was #2 in the East Japan 135kg and Under Tournament.  He finished third in the same tournament his Sophomore Year and Junior Year.  His Junior Year, he won the Openweight National Student Championship.

Sumo was not his immediate goal, and as he graduated he spent time working as a sumo instructor at the Kagoshima Prefecture Sports Association. However, the early successes of his former Nichidai teammates Haruyama and Shiroma convinced him he needed to put on the black canvas and start a professional sumo career.

He has risen quite quickly through the ranks, only losing once each in Jonokuchi and Jonidan divisions, only losing the Jonidan division on Day 13 to Kyokukaiyū – potentially setting up a good rivalry. He won the Sandanme Yūshō in Nagoya – earning a large boost up the banzuke and promotion to Makushita.

Tokitenran (時天嵐)

Stable	Tokitsukaze
Age	22
Height (cm/feet)	172cm (5‘7“)
Weight (kg/lbs)	121kg (267lbs)
Home prefecture	Aomori
High school	Goshogawara Agriculture  and Forestry
University	Tokyo University of Agriculture (東京農業大学)
Career Record	17-4
Debut	Haru 2024 – Sandanme 90 Tsukedashi

The wrestlers out of Tokyo University of Agriculture (Tonodai) may not be as popular as their Nichidai competitors or as famous as the recent Nippon Sports Science University (Nittaidai) graduates, but they have a long tradition of being recruited by Tokitsukaze-beya. Of course, I think that the radish ceremony is interesting and hope that one day there is a crowd celebrating Tokitenran’s accomplishments by dancing with radishes in the Kokugikan.

Tokitenran started sumo at the age of 4 and won the Hakuhō Cup in 5^th Grade. He was also the runner up at the All Japan Elementary School Championships in Year 6. He joined the Goshogawara Agricultural and Forestry High School team (that has produced numerous good wrestlers). His Sophomore year he finished in the top 8 at the National Sports Festival and National High School Selection Tournament. His Junio year, he was 4^th at the All Japan Junior Heavyweight Class and Top 8 at the Usa National High School Selection, earning recruitment to Tonodai.

At the University level, he had some success – finishing 3^rd in the East Japan Under 135 KG tournament his Junior year and 3^rd at the All Japan.  Senior Year he was 3^rd at the East Japan Openweight and in the Top 16 at the All Japan Student Championship, earning a Sandanme Tsukedashi qualification.

He has had some professional success, taking a four tournaments to climb through Sandanme division. However, the Nagoya basho was a breakthrough for him – as he was undefeated going into a Day 13 showdown for the yūshō with Inami (see above).

Hōgashō (豊雅将)

Stable	Tokitsukaze
Age	21
Height (cm/feet)	179cm (5‘10“)
Weight (kg/lbs)	181kg (399lbs)
Home prefecture	Ishikawa
High school	Tsurugi High School
University	—
Career Record	77-63
Debut	Haru 2021

Hōgashō’s early claim to fame is that he is a distant cousin of former Tokyo Giants and New York Yankees professional baseball player, Hideki Matsui.  I once took a special trip out of my way to visit NYC with a Japanese friend just to watch Matsui in Yankee stadium. Until high school, Hōgashō was only practicing judo. In high school, he appeared in a few inter-high school sumo championships.

After joining sumo, he has steadily put on weight and risen through the ranks. When he reached Sandanme 55, he was celebrated at #55 (Matsui’s jersey number). He said that that rank specifically motivated him to win – and he finished with a winning record. He claims that being frustrated with his results gives him motivation to keep training and his motto is “struggle against the odds”. 

He claims to have difficulties adjusting to sumo, and sometimes has to resort back to his judo tricks – which is why you can see the big man sometimes resort to kakenage techniques. 

He says his goal is to become the “Godzilla” of the sumo world, to echo the nickname of his distant relation in the baseball world.

Mita (三田)

Stable	Futagoyama
Age	22
Height (cm/feet)	173cm (5‘8“)
Weight (kg/lbs)	118kg (260lbs)
Home prefecture	Tochigi
High school	Kuroba High School
University	Kindai (近畿大学)
Career Record	—
Debut:	Aki 2024 –  Makushita 60 Tsukedashi

For the third bashō in a row, we have a Tsukedashi in Makushita. This time, we have a college wrestler joining Futagoyama-beya (a first for them). For those that love watching the Futagoyama Sumo Food Youtube Channel, Mita will soon become a star among the foreign sumo fan community (if he is not already).

He started wrestling at age 5, though not seriously.  He got 16^th place in a team competition at the All Middle-School Junior High Championships for his team at Wakakusa Junior High. Apparently, he was classmates with fellow Futagoyama-beya rikishi, Nabatame, during elementary school. He started taking sumo more seriously as a scrawny 65kg youngster at Kuroba High School. He was interested in Sumo and was eating 8 meals a day to try and quickly gain weight. He had good early success, wining a Kantō regional tournament even without much girth. As a Sophomore, he got 3^rd Place in the World Junior Championships (under 80kg class) and Junior Year won an Under 100kg regional tournament and the All Japan Junior Weight Division Championship. He claims to have been eating onigiri during every school break to put on weight.

That was the beginning of his successes. He gained an additional 20kg and joined the Kindai Sumo Club. As a Freshman he won the West Japan Under 115kg Championship and was 3^rd in the National Student Tournament Under 115kg division. Sophomore Year, he again won the West Japan Student Championship. Junior Year – the West Japan Student Championship was his again, as well as he finished 8^th in the National Student Championship, clinching his Makushita Tsukedashi.  Senior Year, he was 3^rd in the National University Select Usa Tournament, 2^nd in the National University/Corporate Championship in Wakayama, and the West Japan Student Champion again. He won 4 Western Japan Regional Tournaments during his tenure – and now that he graduated, someone else finally has a chance. He helped lead the Kindai Club to its first University Team Championships in 13 years.  Unfortunately, he suffered a terrible ACL injury in the All Japan in December and required surgery – this is what delayed his sumo debut until Aki (while the other same-year tsukedashi entrants already made their debuts).  If he delayed further, he could have lost the tsukedashi qualification (which is only good for a year), so he has rushed his return. At Kindai, he was a teammate of Ōkaryū, who will likely get a writeup in the next edition.

He likes “speed sumo” – otsuke, pulling, and wants to copy one of his heroes – Wakatakakage.  Like Wakatakakage, he suffered a knee injury that required a long recovery and is seeing his idol’s recent success as an inspiration.  He aims to be the best wrestler from Tochigi Prefecture and considers himself to be rivals with other Tochigi-ken wrestlers, like Nabatame. He joined Futagoyama-beya this past summer and was already training one-on-one with Nabatame in preparation for the Aki bashō.

Opinion time:

Successful recruits with no high school or university experience seem to be more and more rare these days. You have to consider that it can be a leap for a 15 or 16 year old to join the sumo world and try to stick with the hard daily life and make it to the top – someone in the form of Takayasu or Meisei (joined at 15 and spent 5.5 years in lower divisions) or Takanoshō (joined at 15 and seven years plus in lower divisions), or even Nishikigi (15 and 9 years in lower divisions).  To me, it seems that recent top ranks on the banzuke are filled with the ranks of “professional” amateurs out of high school and university clubs where they had access to professional coaches and training facilities.

Personally, I find the stories of the 15-year-old who joins sumo – slogs it out for 6 or 7 years before earning a sekitori slot – and fighting their way to the top against those who were trained in schools/universities as more inspiring. This makes it more fun to watch, say Hiradoumi (24 years old) – who only ever knew sumo life in a stable – challenge himself and rise to sanyaku than someone like Ōnosato (also 24 years old) – who had lots of other opportunities to get himself in a similar position.  Hiradoumi has only been trained in Sakaigawa-beya, while Ōnosato has had various trainers in high school and university. Hiradoumi had to slog his way through the lower divisions for years, serving his seniors and fitting into the hierarchy, while Ōnosato only wore canvas a short time and was treated with kid gloves during his short-time in the unsalaried ranks. Only born two months apart, they had very different careers to get them to Sanyaku about the same time. Don’t get me wrong – I do not have anything particularly against the more “professional amateurs” – and I am not implying that Ōnosato does not deserve to be where he is in the rankings or has not earned his success.  I am only expressing my opinion that I do not find the story of these successful high schoolers/university wrestlers as inspiring as those of the 15 year old or 18 year olds who sign up for the sumo world and work their way through it.  To me, it is not surprising that those with significant amateur success have a rocket-like rise through the lower division ranks – it should be expected. What is interesting is to watch the young guys gain weight, gain experience, and gain the hunger for future success.

That’s Justinough for now.

Last bashō, I documented four newcomers to the Third Division (Makushita). Kusano managed to win six straight, losing on day 13 in the Yūsho deciding bout to Fujiseiun. Aonishiki, the Ukrainian, also went 6-1 and will also get a hefty promotion for Nagoya – perhaps finding himself just outside the top 15 ranks. Kotetsu and Hamanoumi were make-koshi (3-4) and will head back to Sandanme.

Joining them will be Rinko (from Nishonoseki) who posted a disastrous 1-6. For Nagoya, we should see not just one – but two – Makushita 60 Tsukedashi. Both have familiar last names!

Ishizaki (石崎)

Ishizaki is following in the footsteps of his high school and university senpai and long-time friend, and brother Asakōryū, into the sumo world. He started sumo as a child at Shijonowate Sumo Federation and was 3 rd in the All-Japan Elementary School tournament in 6 th Grade. In the third year of Junior High, he was 8 th in the All-Japan Jr. High School Tournament.

Like his brother, he attended Meitoku Gijuku High School. As a sophomore he was 8 th in the All-Japan High School. The next year, he finished 3 rd in the All-Japan and runner up in the East Japan Student Championship (under 135kg). His high school career also included a 3 rd place finish in the Japan University Selection Tournament in Kanazawa, a runner-up in the All-Japan (no weight class), and another 3rd place finish in the National Athletic Meet. He attended NSSU, like his brother where he also won ribbons and trophies (3rd Place in the All-Japan (twice), 3rd Place in the World Combat Games.

He did not join sumo right after graduation, rather he went to teach at the Nagahama School for the Disabled and wrestled in corporate sumo (3 rd place at the National Teachers’ Championship). He decided that he would not let the chance to wrestle as a professional pass him by and joined the same stable as his brother. Given this pedigree and performance, we can expect him to join his brother in a white training mawashi soon. He is 23 years old (a little older than the typical college recruit because of the corporate experience), 172 cm (5’7’’) and weighs in at 120 kg (264 pounds) and comes out of Shijonowate, Ōsaka Prefecture – obviously same as Asakōryū.

Kawabuchi (川渕) – proper shikona to come.

Kawabuchi is also following in the footsteps of his brother, who fights out of Shikoroyama-beya (and has a jonokuchi division championship on his debut). They both came out of Kanazawa Gakuin High School, but the older brother started professional sumo at that point. The younger brother went on to Nihon University. Kawabuchi2 (as his older brother uses the shikona Kawabuchi) started sumo at Higashi Osaka Sumo Dojo. He won the All-Japan Elementary School Championship at 4th Grade. He attended Saisei Junior High, where he won the national Junior High School Team Tournament.

He attended Kanazawa Gakuin High School where he was named Top High Schooler for 2019. He was the Champion at the All-Japan Wight Class Junior Division, won the All-Japan Individual Weight Class, the All-Japan High School Usa, and was World Junior Heavyweight Class Champion.

As a high school champion, he joined Nihon University Sumo Club. As a Freshman he was 3rd in the All Japan 135kg+ weight class, 3rd in the All-Japan, and 2 nd in East Japan Freshman tournaments. He had multiple top finishes in the All Japan 135+ weight class, the National Student Selection Competition, the National University Kyushu, and won the National University Usa, the National Select University Tournament, the East Japan 135kg+, an the East Japan Student Championship.

All this experience gives him the Makushita 60 qualification. He did not join Shikoroyama stable, like his brother – but levered the Nihon University connections to join Kise-beya under former Higonoumi.

He is 22 years old, and a giant of a man at 187 cm (6’1’’) and 199 kg (438 pounds). He comes out of Ōsaka City (Ōsaka Prefecture). So the Ōsaka boys are well represented at this shin-makushita report for those entering at tsukedashi!

Tatsuōshō (立王尚)

Tatsuōshō is a 20 year old wrestler from Tatsunami-beya. He hails from Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture and is 184 cm (6’0’’) and 143 kg (315 lbs). He comes from Central Agricultural High School (Chubu). He started with judo in elementary school, but in freshman year of high school switched to sumo because of his grandmother. His wish is to become the first Yokozuna out of Okinawa! He made his debut in Haru 2022 and has a career record of 56-35. He has been in Sandanme for most of the past two years, steadily climbing the ranks. He had an amazing 6-1 record at Sandanme 7 East that will throw him into mid-Makushita for Nagoya.

Higonomaru (肥後ノ丸)

Higonomaru is perfect for the brother/Nagoya Makushita Debut theme. He is the younger brother of Makushita’s Higonoumi (Higonoumi 2). He is a 19 year old wrestler, hailing from Kise-beya like his brother. He comes out of Kumamoto City (Kumamoto Prefecture) and is 184cm (6’0’’) and 143 kg (316 lbs). He has flown up the banzuke since his Haru 2023 debut, with a career record of 34-15 and briefly appeared in Kintamayama’s celebrity youngsters page because of his rapid rise to Sandanme.

His father is a former Tokistukaze-beya wrestler who won a jonidan championship but retired because of injury. The sumo bug is in their family – so Higonomaru started sumo in 6th grade.

Unlike his older brother, Higonomaru went to high school where he was on the Kumamoto Agricultural High School team. He claims he wants to make Jūryō in three years and is seemingly on his way. He had a 5-2 record at Sandanme 9 East last tournament and will be in the lower third of Makushita – not a bad place to be after 8 tournaments in sumo to meet his stated goal.

Mikazuchiyama (御雷山)

Mikazuchiyama, from Shikoroyama-beya, is currently 19 years old. He came from Tsukuba City in Ibaraki Prefecture. He is 174cm (5’8’’) and 149 kg (327 lbs). He currently has a 91-77 career record, making his debut in the 2020 Haru tournament. He claims to be from the same hometown as the 34th Yokozuna, Minanogawa.

He has a judo background from his primary and middle school days and was a specialist in Haraigoshi technique (throw over the hips). He participated in the Wanpaku sumo tournaments in 4th and 5th grade – making the second round. He developed a passion for sumo and went knocking on the door of Shikoroyama-beya himself to join.

He is still young (at 19) to enter Makushita. He had a 5-2 record at Sandanme 20 East and has been generally in upper Sandanme since Natsu 2023. So he may be able to hang around in the bottom of Makushita. Let’s see if he can break out of that region in the coming year!

Kanazawa (金沢)

Kanazawa is a 21-year-old wrestler from Naruto-beya, who will make his makushita debut with stablemate Kawamura (see below). He comes out of Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture – so he will be making his Makushita debut from his “home turf”. He is 184 cm (6’0’’) and 172 kg (379 lbs). He has a career record of 53-35-3 (the absences came early in his career as a wave of Covid swept through Naruto-beya).

He has a Japanese father and a Italian-Paraguayan mother and comes from a Judo background. His unique heritage should make him one to watch. He attended Toyohashi Central High School and was a member of the Powerlifting Club (Best 8 in an Aichi Prefectural Tournament). He is the second from his school to join sumo after Tokitsukaze-beya’s Sōtenryū. He joined sumo in Haru 2022, after being scouted by Naruto-Oyakata for many years (at least since Junior High School).

He is a yotsu wrestler. He made rapid progress up the ranks, but seemed stalled in the Sandanme 40-60 range for the past year and a half. He has three straight kachi-koshi (including a 4-3 at Sandanme 7 west) that puts him into Makushita for the Nagoya basho.

Kawamura (川村)

Kawamura is a 22-year-old wrestler, also out of Naruto-beya. He comes out of Suzukai City in Mie Prefecture. He is 180 cm (5’11’’) and 125 kg (276 lbs). He has a career record of 122-100-23. He is small, but has a competitive spirit. Due to his competitive nature, his father recommended sumo as a child – which he did, but dropped out of it when he attended school. He was on the Ishiyakushi High School Weightlifting Club where he won a prize as a Freshman (2nd Place in the 85kg lifting in Mie Prefecture). His knew acquaintances of Naruto Oyakata and dropped out of high school to go pro!

His debut bashō was Natsu 2018, so he has taken his time to reach Makushita. Even now, he will be promoted all the way from Sandanme 35 East due to a 6-1 performance – which is a bit of an outlier for him. He may be expected to struggle in his 3 rd Division Debut. That competitive spirit has kept him around – he dropped from Division 4 to Division 6 due to an injury in 2021 and has come back from it to reach this career high rank – so he cannot be counted out.

Kyokukaiyū (旭海雄)

Our final entry in this digest is Kyokukaiyū, a 24 year old wrestler from Ōshima-beya (of Kyokutenhō). Like his stable-Master, Kyokukaiyū hails from Mongolia, and thus had to wait some time to get his visa and undergo additional training as a foreigner before making his debut in Aki 2023 (mae-zumo in Kyusho 2023). My understanding is that the “kaiyū” in his shikona comes from his name, meaning heroic sea in Mongolian – Dalaibaatar (and I believe the Baatar does mean heroic, but you can forgive me for not picking up much Mongolian on my two brief visits there!). He came to Japan at the age of 16 to do sumo.

He joined Asahigaoka High School in Kanagawa prefecture and won prizes (3 rd at the National High School Sumo Selection Tournament and 3 rd at the Kanto Open Weight Tournament). From there, he attended NSSU where he also placed in national tournaments (3 rd in the East Japan Freshman Tournament, 3rd in the 135kg+ Division of the East Japan College Weight Class Tournament, and he got a Sandanme Tsukedashi qualification (that went unused) form being in the Top 8 of the All Japan. He also finished in the top 16 of the National Select Sumo Tournament his Senior Year.

He is an Oshi type wrestler, with an 18-3 career record that rocketed him straight from jonokuchi to makushita. He arrives in makushita courtesy of a Sandanme championship (7-0) at the bottom of the division (Sandanme 87 west). So he will be with fellow university starts Ishizaki and Kawabuchi at the bottom of the makushita division. Any fights between those three will be interesting to watch!

Summary

In summary, this tournament’s makushita debutants will be quite interesting – with three university stars, a few high school sumo club members, three brother pairs Higonoumi/Higonomaru, Kawabuchi/Kawabuchi 2, and Asakōryū/Ishizaki), a few weight lifters – one with Paraguayan heritage, and a young recruit out of junior high school who has steadily climbed the ranks! With this report, I am now looking forward to the Nagoya tournament.

But first…. I must join Andy at this weekend’s Sumo and Sushi. No return to the ring for me this year… I happened to have lost about 45 pounds – so I need to “rebuild my body” as they say. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to seeing Konishiki and his troupe and to have some live sumo in front of me without going back to Japan. If we can all just get the streaming situations sorted, that’d be great.

Muhōmatsu/Hochiyama – whatever you call me, I am Justinough.

Last bashō, I documented four newcomers to the Third Division (Makushita). Three of the four managed to get kachi-koshi (majority of victories).  Only Āron, from Nishonoseki, had a losing record of 2-5.  Shiroma’s 4-3 record did not come as a surprise, and Takashōki also had demonstrated an ability that would allow him to succeed in division three.  Suzaki’s 4-3 record was a bit of a pleasant surprise – mainly because I will continue to see his technique in the May tournament division three highlights (if I can figure out how to see them now that our heroic streamers have been kicked off of so many platforms).

Matsui (松井)

One newbie to Makushita that I did not cover is Matsui – as he got Tsukedashi qualification from the bottom of the division.  Matsui took a short-cut to the tsukedashi qualification, which has traditionally gone to ex-collegiate wresters with a few notable exceptions (Ichinojō and Hakuōhō),  Matsui, like Hakuōhō, joined the recently closed Miyagino-beya and now comes out of Isegahama-beya.  The similarities to Hakuōhō continue as they both are graduates from Tottori Johoku and went into corporate sumo after grandating high school.  Matsui finished in the top 8 in the corporate sumo (National Sports Festival tourhament), which qualified him to appear as makushita tsukedashi on his debut. He is 19 years old, 171 cm (5’8’’) and weighs in at 118 kg (260 pounds) – making him another one of the smaller Miyagino recruits (a la Ishiura, Enhō, Kihō, Raihō). He comes from Umi, Fukuoka prefecture.  The 5-2 record from this mainly tsuki/oshi wrestler in his debut is not a surprise.  We will see if he hits an upper limit.

Kusano (草野)

This tournament, there is another new entrant who has qualified for Makushita Tsukedashi and followed in the footsteps of his high school and university senpai and long-time friend, Kihō, into the sumo world.  It is safe to say that he was recruited to Miyagino-beya as it was being shut down.  As Miyagino is no longer permitted to officially recruit, it was Isegahama Oyakata who visited Buntoku High School for the recruiting announcement.  He was team captain at Buntoku High School when his team won at the interhigh for the first time in 21 years in 2019 and made college Yokozuna in 2023. He won the 101^st National Student Tournament  championship (after a monoii) in November 2023 and then finished in second place at the 72^nd All Japan Sumo tournament the next month. He also won the Gold Medal for the heavyweight division in the 2023 World Sumo Championship. He has amateur wins over Gōnoyama, Shirokuma, Asakōryū, Ōshōma, Ōnosato, and more.  Thus, he should be able to have good record in his debut.  He has been a consistent college performer, with a first, second, and third place finish at three major tournaments in 2023.  He uses a wide range of techniques, from migi-yotsu to tsuki, oshi and morozashi.

He is 22 years old, 185 cm (6’0’’) and weighs in at 160 kg (352 pounds) and comes out of Uto, Kumamoto Prefecture – same as Shōdai and his friend Kihō. At his press conference held at Buntoku, he indicated “I want to do my best to become a sekitori as soon as possible. My goal is to become an ozeki or yokozuna.”

Kotetsu (虎徹)

Kotetsu is a 22 year old wrestler from Ōtake-beya.  He hails from Tsu, Mie Prefecture and is 181 cm (5’11’’) and 169 kg (372 lbs).  He comes from Nabari High School. He started with judo when he was in third grade and finished in 2^nd place in a Prefectural judo tournament as well as appearing in the Tōkai tournament.  He had no experience in sumo but war recruited by Ōtake Oyakata.  His shikona comes from a famous Edo period swordsmith and was given to him by his father. As you can note in the picture above, he won the Jonidan division (Division 5) in Haru 2022, after overcoming an injury in Aki 2021 that dropped him from lower Sandanme back to Jonokuchi.  He has been in the upper half of Sandanme for most of the past year and flirting with a promotion to Makushita a few times.  His 5-2 record at Sandanme 19 will clinch his promotion to Division 3 in May and join his stablemate Suzaki! He has a 85-56-20 career record since his debut in March 2020.

Aonishiki (安青錦)

Aonishiki is a 20 year old wrestler from Ajigawa-beya.  He hails from Vinnytsia, Ukraine and is 180cm (5’10’’) and 125 kg (275 lbs). He has rocketed up the banzuke since his debut, with a 20-1 record since his debut in Nagoya 2023. He began wrestling at age 7 and practicing sumo at the age of 13 and won the bronze medal at the middle weight class at the 2019 World Junior Championships and won the 2021 European Sumo Tournament under 100kg division. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was evacuated as a refugee to Japan in where he started training at Kansai University. He was invited to come to Japan by the Yamanaka family.  Mr. Yamanaka had met him at the World Junior Championships and accepted him into his home where he started training first at Sekidai Sumo Club and then the university. His shikona is a reference to the blue in the Ukrainian flag, the color of his eyes and a deference to Ajigawa-Oyakata (former Aminishiki). The first name of his shikona, Arata, is to honor Mr. Yamanaka.  He won the jonokuchi (division 6) and jonidan (division 5) yūshō back-to-back and won his first six fights in Sandanme (Division 4) – starting with a career record of 20-0.  His winning streak was broken by Nagamura (see earlier new Makushita reports) in the division finals.  Aonishiki wrestles both on the belt (yotsu-sumo) and by pushing and thrusting.

Rinko (麟虎)

Rinko is a 17 year old wrestler from Nishonoseki-beya.  He hails from Okaya, Nagano Prefecture and is 173cm (5’8’’) and 118 kg (259 lbs). I am always energized to see 16- or 17-year-olds enter Makushita – they have chances to flame out, or have high ceilings. After the March tournament, he has a 50-34 career record. Rinko joined sumo along with his twin brother, Hayashiryū (林龍), at the 2022 Spring tournament.  The Hayashi brothers started sumo wrestling in elementary school and trained at the same sumo dojo as Mitakeumi.  The brothers were active in national competitions throughout middle school and were recruited together by Nishonoseki oyakata.  Both brothers started out with similar shikona, using the Hayashi (林) character that can also be read as “rin”. Given his success, he was rewarded with a shikona change.  The new “rin”, (麟), has historically been a kanji used in Nishonoseki stable, being the latter one in “Giraffe” (Kirin – 麒麟). He is joining other Nishonoseki recentl shin-Makushita (Āron and Nishida – see earlier entries).

Hamanoumi (濱ノ海)

Hamanoumi is a 22-year-old wrestler from Tokitsukaze-beya alongside his brother – Hamayutaka.  He hails from Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture and is 186 cm (6’1’’) and 171 kg (376 lbs). He has a sub-.500 career record of 134-153 – which is not something you often see from a new-Makushita wrestler outside a freak 7-0 appearance from lower Sandanme or 6-1 from about Sandanme 50.  However, Hamanoumi has been in the “promotion zone” since early 2023 and has established himself as a solid upper Sandanme level wrestler. He was a baseball player in elementary and middle school and had no experience as a sumo wrestler before deciding to join his older brother at Tokitsukaze-stable.  This lack of sumo experience was quite evident in his early career. He is one of the “long-time” makekoshi streakers to start a career – going 8 tournaments in jonokuchi before achieving the elusive first kachi-koshi.  He has put on a lot of weight since his debut in March 2017 – gaining about 70 kg. He likes sushi, but is not a fan of spiders.