The Nagano-ken born rikishi has been rocketed to makuuchi, in the blink of an eye – makushita tsukedashi 10 in March 2015, maegashira 11 in November of the same year, for his debut in sumo’s first division.
Mitakeumi stayed down the maegashira ranks until September 2016, and then things spiced up a bit: he went 6-9 as a shin-komusubi in November, earned two kinboshi in January 2017, defeating Harumafuji and Kakuryu. That basho, of course, was won by Kisenosato, who got promoted to yokozuna.
Mitakeumi returned to san’yaku in March 2017, and stayed there for an incredible number of seventeen tournaments in a row – either as a komusubi or a sekiwake.
He won two basho, but, disappointingly, never got promoted to ozeki – only Kotonishiki had done so before.
Happy birthday, Mitakeumi Hisashi!
He’s born on December, the 25th of 1992. Happy birthday!
Mitakeumi fête aujourd’hui son 28ème anniversaire !
Le natif de la région de Nagoya a été propulsé en makuuchi en un clin d’oeil – makushita tsukedashi en mars 2015, maegashira 11 en novembre de la même année, pour ses débuts en première division.
Mitakeumi est resté parmi les maegashira jusqu’en septembre 2016, puis les choses se sont corsées: il a terminé le tournoi de novembre 2016 avec un résultat de 6-9 en tant que nouveau komusubi, remporta deux kinboshi en janvier 2017, en battant Harumafuji et Kakuryu. Ce tournoi fut bien entendu remporté par Kisenosato, qui fut ensuite promu en tant que yokozuna.
Mitakeumi a regagné le san’yaku en mars 2017, et y est resté pendant une incroyable période de dix-sept tournois consécutifs, en tant que komusubi ou sekiwake.
Il remporta deux tournois sans jamais être promu en tant qu’ozeki – seul Kotonishiki a réalisé cela auparavant.
Happy birthday, Mitakeumi Hisashi!
Il est né le 25 décembre 1992. Joyeux anniversaire !
Sumo fans got an early Christmas present—the January banzuke just dropped. Let’s take a quick look at where everyone ended up, and how the official rankings compare to my prediction from a week ago.
As expected, there were no surprises in the top two ranks, with the only difference from November being Shodai and Asanoyama exchanging spots. My prediction was also right on the money when it came to the less predictable than usual junior san’yaku ranks. Terunofuji’s 13-2 performance was indeed good enough to vault him into the East Sekiwake slot over the incumbent West Sekiwake Takanosho. And, at the rank we were all waiting for with baited breath, there are only two Komusubi—Takayasu, moving over from West to East, and Mitakeumi, dropping from Sekiwake but remaining in san’yaku after a 7-8 performance.
The decision not to create extra slots means that Hokutofuji and Daieisho had to settle for the top maegashira rank, as predicted, though I had them on the wrong sides. There were also no big surprises elsewhere in the rank-and-file. Of the 33 rikishi ranked at maegashira, my forecast had 13 in the exact spot, 8 at the right rank but on the wrong side, 9 off by half a rank (as in exchanging M11w and M12e), and only 3 off by a full rank.
What were these 3 misses? I did not expect Takarafuji to be ranked all the way up at M2e, ahead of Onosho and Wakatakakage. Onosho has a claim for the GSB snub-of-the-banzuke award, being over-demoted from M2e to M3w after a 7-8 record. Kagayaki (M6e) yet again seems to have benefited from very good banzuke luck, dropping only 3.5 ranks after a 5-10 performance, especially since ranking him that high meant splitting Ryuden and Meisei, who posted identical records at the same rank in November (for good measure, the banzuke committee also split Yutakayama and Kaisei, who were in the same situation).
As expected, Enho (J3e) and Kotoyuki (J9w) dropped out of the top division, and were replaced by Midorifuji and Akiseyama, whose placements at M14w and M16w, respectively, I correctly predicted. So, although its overall precision was hurt by the 17 half-rank misses, the crystal ball fared well in getting the big picture right.
What do you think of the banzuke? Let me know in the comments. And you can look forward to lots of coverage from Tachiai in the run-up to the Hatsu basho, which will be chock-full of exciting, high-stakes storylines.
I became a sekitori on the third basho of my career! Still, it’s fair to say I haven’t met expectations as I should have. I’ve earned kinboshi – all of them during the same tournament, which saw an ozeki being promoted to yokozuna right after.
My first stint in san’yaku lasted just one basho, with a 6-9 record. My second spell, however, was way longer.
I share an unusual record with former sekitori Kotonishiki.
