promotion

Sumo News Update: July 2026

Andy Aki Basho, Juryo (十両), promotion, Retirement , , ,

Welcome back! Hopefully you have all sobered up from your senshuraku parties by now. Jungyo will kick off this upcoming weekend in Gifu city, an hour drive north of the venue in Nagoya. But before we focus on the tour this weekend, let’s cover a few items from earlier this week.

Juryo Promotions and Retirements

On Tuesday, the Sumo Association announced the three wrestlers who earned promotion to Juryo. Two will make their sekitori debuts (shin-juryo): Tanji (Arashio) and Tokifudo (Tokitsukaze). Nabatame (Futagoyama) will return after over a year.

Daishomaru’s retirement was the biggest announcement coming out of Nagoya. Subsequently, four more retirements have been announced: Tatsuosho, Asashorei, Nishikio and Asahirai.

Ticket Price Increases

Today, the Sumo Association announced wide-ranging price increases for tickets to tournaments in Tokyo and Osaka. Nagoya and Kyushu ticket prices are unchanged. The new pricing plan is here. For those of you who live in areas where public transit has “peak” or rush-hour pricing, you won’t be shocked that the Sumo Association has additional price rises for Day 14 and Senshuraku. And in Tokyo, they’re offering a new SS-tier seating arrangement, starting at 22,500-yen/person and going up to 24,000 on weekends and holidays and 25,000 during the final weekend.

Even if this price increase is not done in an official way, those of you who actually go to the tournaments are probably already paying higher prices on the secondary markets. For many of us foreigners, those secondary markets and resellers have been the only way in, anyway. Now, the official price is going up and the resellers will likely have to pass on the cost to their customers.

For most goods, when the demand suddenly increases the demand curve shifts outward. Prices go up but suppliers are encouraged to produce more. This moderates some of the price rise. In the FIFA world, the stadiums get bigger and the World Cup tournament expands to include more teams and more games. More fans are served. From what we’ve heard of Nagoya, the new seating arrangement for the new IG Arena does have a modest increase in the number of seats but not as much as would be possible. The Kyokai wants to maintain quality of viewing the action.

So, unfortunately for the sumo world the supply is relatively fixed. We cannot get more than 6 tournaments a year and these venues are not going to be expanded soon. We can get new products to try to satisfy that hankering for sumo action, like new Jungyo events (even in London and Paris) but we won’t get any new tournaments. Let’s face it, they’ve already expanded the calendar with the Kyushu tournament added back in 1958, I think. I’m too lazy to check SumoDB at the moment. Suffice to say it was a long time ago that they went to a six-basho calendar. If that changes I will eat Shonosuke’s fancy hat.

Yusho Prize Increases

The good news of the sumo boom is that the Sumo Association also announced substantial increases to the yusho purse and special prizes awarded at honbasho. Those increases will also start at Hatsu Basho 2027. The Top Division (Makuuchi) title purse will go up from 10,000,000 yen to 20,000,000 (*updated) — or roughly $124,618. Special Prizes increased from 2 Million to 3 Million. Yusho values below:

DivisionCurrentFuture
Makuuchi10 Million20 Million
Juryo2 Million3 Million
Makushita500,000700,000
Sandanme300,000500,000
Jonidan200,000300,000
Jonokuchi100,000200,000

The calendar is pretty full over the next month. August 31st the Aki banzuke will be released. I hope to give a few more updates about Jungyo before then.

Post-Hatsu 2026 News Round-Up

Andy Juryo (十両), promotion, Takakeishō (貴景勝), Terunofuji (照ノ富士)

You thought you were rid of me for six weeks. Think again. There are a handful of news items I wanted to bring to your attention.

Minatogawa-Beya (湊川部屋)

Former Ozeki Takakeisho has officially taken the reins at his old stable. Tokiwayama-oyakata, the former shisho (master), will turn 65 right before the next tournament starts on March 1. Currently, 65 is the mandatory retirement age. There is some speculation that might be changed but it’s difficult to imagine many folks will be happy with that if the number of available kabu remains the same.

For a period of five years, the former master can stay on as san’yo in more of an advisory capacity. Current Miyagino-oyakata (Yokozuna Asahifuji) is an example of someone in this san’yo position. However, the master has to hand things over to the next master. Just as Isegahama handed things over to Terunofuji, Tokiwayama-oyakata has passed the baton to Takakeisho. We wish Takakeisho well in this exciting new chapter of his career. This does not make me feel old, at all.

Juryo Promotions

The Japan Sumo Association officially released the names of the three Makushita wresters who will be promoted to Juryo. As Leonid alluded to in his Makushita coverage post, Toshinofuji, Fukuzaki, and Shimazuumi were the three leading candidates for promotion after their senshuraku wins. Toshinofuji and Fukuzaki finished with 5-2 records from Ms2W and Ms3W, respectively, while Shimazuumi managed 6-1 from Ms5W.

Shimazuumi returns to the Juryo after spending the past year in the third division after rehabbing an injury. Toshinofuji and Fukuzaki are bing promoted for the first time. Fukuzaki has also taken on a new shikona with his sekitori promotion. He is now Fujitensei and joins his stablemates Fujiseiun and Fujiryoga as sekitori. This leaves Himukamaru (4-3 from Ms2 East) on the outside, looking in.

Terunofuji Haircut on Abema

Terunofuji’s retirement ceremony will begin at 10:30am on Saturday, Japan Time. That’s 8:30pm Eastern time, 7:30pm Central in the US. It’s apparently being covered on Abema which will be nice for those in Japan — or those with VPNs who can pretend to be there. It should give a bit of a sample of what hanazumo is like.

Terunofuji will perform a dohyo-iri and there will likely be demonstrations of drumming and the hairstyling on the dohyo, as well as jinku singing, shokkiri, possibly some exhibition bouts before the haircut ceremony begins.

Aonishiki Promoted to Ozeki; Juryo Promotions Released

Andy Banzuke, Banzuke (番付), Juryo (十両), promotion, Sumo Topics , ,

Before heading out on holidays, there is a bit of news to bring to you sumo fans. The banzuke committee meets after each tournament and has drawn up the ranking sheet for Hatsu 2026. Most of it will remain secret until two weeks before action kicks off. However, these promotions are formally announced ahead of time so the heya and wrestlers can get acclimated to their new status and duties.

Aonishiki Promoted to Ozeki

As expected Ajigawa-beya’s Ukrainian phenom, Aonishiki, was promoted to Ozeki after his dramatic and triumphant Play-off yusho in Kyushu. The Sumo Association played it a bit coy heading into the tournament, dismissing promotion chances and saying that his September result would be the official start of his Ozeki run and they did not intend to include his 11-win result from Maegashira 1.

However, his late yusho march flipped the script and forced the Association’s hand. He did not just meet the unofficial 33-win benchmark, he plowed through it with a Playoff victory over a Yokozuna to boot. To be honest, I had hoped he would face Onosato again in the playoff but it was not to be with Onosato’s unfortunate injury and late scratch from senshuraku action. As it was, he beat Hoshoryu again with a wild takedown.

In the video below, Asakayama and Oshima oyakata came by to represent the Sumo Association for the promotion ceremony.

Aonishiki’s promotion will create a bit of balance on the banzuke, evening out the sanyaku ranks and eliminating the need for a Yokozuna-Ozeki. As I noted in my banzuke post from a few weeks ago, two Ozeki are required for a hon-basho and lately Hoshoryu has been carrying the distinction of being Yokozuna and Ozeki on the West Side. Since we won’t be seeing that for a while, to see what that looks like on the ranking sheet, check out that Anatomy of a Banzuke post. This will also eliminate that Maegashira 18 East position. So, we’ll have four full sanyaku ranks to start 2026 (Reiwa 8).

Juryo Promotions

Leonid has been following the progress of Makushita tsukedashi wrestlers since the most recent policy changes. Check the post below for his most recent update. Gone are the days of Makushita 10 debuts, like Endo. Now, those wrestlers with sufficient success in the amateur ranks can be skipped only as high as Makushita 60 when they debut.

One such wrestler, Kazuma, has earned his Juryo promotion by virtue of his Makushita Yusho, alongside Kyokukaiyu and Dewanoryu. It is worth noting that Kazuma defeated Enho on his way to the yusho. For his part, Enho finished 5-2 and will move up in the division, closer to the promotable range.

Kyokukaiyu will return to the ranks of sekitori after a one basho absence. Justin wrote a profile on him when he was initially promoted into Makushita. His 6-9 record in September forced him to be demoted but he has quickly been repromoted after a 5-2 in Kyushu. Dewanoryu of Oshima-beya has earned his promotion after spending much of the last five years grinding his way through the third division.

Congratulations to all of the promotees! Update your banzuke guesses accordingly!

The winter Jungyo tour will begin this coming weekend and will wind its way around southern Japan for much of the month of December. I hope to bring a few posts of the tour as well as the New Year celebrations. There is much mochi-pounding action ahead!

Onosato Promoted to Yokozuna

Andy promotion

Onosato was officially promoted to Yokozuna today. Kotoshogiku paid a visit to his former rival’s heya to represent the Kyokai and deliver the news, along with Dewanoumi-oyakata. Hat tip to Herouth for noticing that Kotoeko’s retirement ceremony this weekend will likely be our first glimpse of his dohyo-iri.

Juryo Promotions

The banzuke committee also announced promotions to Juryo, yusho winner Otsuji and Kotokuzan. While the other promotions and demotions have not been announced, you can review Leonid’s analysis of the likely banzuke movements here.

Some sad news to report as a list of retirements was shared. Along with Satonofuji, several of his heyamates retired, including Raiho, Hayatefuji, and Ono. Sawaisamu also called it a career. Others who joined them in the next chapter of their lives are Ryusei, Masuminato, and Kaitoma.

Lastly, there is a scandal brewing that necessitated an update of the scandal-meter. A gyoji has reportedly embezzeled hundreds of thousands of dollars from charitable donations and using the money for gambling. I’m sure more information will come out soon as this sounds like a criminal matter, rather than a civil one. I will bring more details when I have them.