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Kyushu 2026: Shonichi Preview

Andy Kyushu 2026, Kyushu Basho , , ,

Day One in the historic Hakata district of Fukuoka. Fresh off his victory in September, Yokozuna Onosato will look to win a title in Kyushu for the first time. It is fitting that his first bout this tournament will be against Yoshinofuji, whom he finally managed to beat on his path to that title. Prior to Aki, Yoshinofuji appeared to have access to Onosato’s kryptonite, winning their first three bouts. So, this will be a very tough challenge but with that first win, Onosato might feel like he’s broken the curse, gotten the monkey off his back. It won’t be an easy fight but he can go into it with a clear mind.

On the other hand, Hoshoryu has the weight of his rank on his back. He returns from knee surgery and has been working it out on tour and in practice. But this is a hon-basho. Is he “production ready?” The pressure to perform is not just coming from the press, who constantly reminds fans that he has yet to win a title as Yokozuna; his shisho is looking for nothing less than a yusho. Churanoumi will be a difficult opponent but one to whom Hoshoryu has never lost. Churanoumi will be motivated to represent Okinawans as he is now the highest ranked Okinawan sumo wrestler, ever. These are the most dangerous matchups, in my mind. It’s probably good, then, that I will not be up on that dohyo.

Aonishiki will fight Asanoyama in a first-time meeting (初顔合わせ). It’s rather astonishing to me that these guys haven’t fought yet. But here we are. Asanoyama, the former Ozeki still has hopes of returning to his former rank. There are many new fans will not recall the drama of his sudden fall from grace or even his first comeback. Asanoyama has clawed his way back, again, to the top of the rank and file. Can he make it back into sanyaku? Before the scandal, there had been murmurs of Yokozuna, as there are now for his opponent, Aonishiki. Frankly, I just want to see these guys stay healthy for a while. They will undoubtedly give it all they have. It should be a highlight bout.

Rounding out the Ozeki ranks, Kotozakura will fight Fujiryoga and Kirishima will take on Ura. At Sekiwake, we have Fujinokawa fighting Fujiseiun and Atamifuji battling Takayasu. There are some great rank-and-file matchups, too, like Daieisho versus Hakunofuji, Takerufuji against Hiradoumi and Kotoshoho versus Gonoyama. Wakamotoharu will fight Kotoeiho as he works his way back toward the joi.

I’m also watching Takanosho versus Oho. These guys could easily be fighting each other in the joi or sanyaku. In fact, that’s usually where they face each other. Their performances here toward the lower third of the banzuke could tell us a lot about their condition and prospects for moving back up…or sliding down into Juryo. Similarly, Ichiyamamoto will fight Asahakuryu and Abi will take on Toshinofuji.

American readers in particular, though, will be firing up the VPNs tonight to catch early action Sunamusashi will kick off the action tonight. He completed maezumo in September. He was raised in Hawaii and is the son of former Juryo wrestler, Sunahama. Sunahama was fighting in Juryo back when music was good. (Western Civilization peaked in the 1990s. Autotune ruined everything. I will not accept debate on this issue. But feel free to debate anything else in the comments section.)

Nagoya 2026: Senshuraku Preview

Andy Nagoya 2026, Nagoya Basho , ,

In honor of Senshuraku, I sourced some madai and cooked it up for the family dinner. I am still working on a more complete article to discuss it, but I want to tease it here. Frankly, the recipe that I used was so easy that the proper term would probably just be “method” rather than recipe. My social media followers will know that I tested this out last weekend.

uncooked madai flesh
Note the red and white skin and flesh of madai

There’s an Instagram account, AndrejCooksFish that I find interesting and actually tangentially relevant to sumo because of the importance of tai. And let’s face it, Tai is important to sumo and has deeper, cultural significance to Japanese culture which I will explore in more depth in a future article. He was promoting madai in London and it caught my eye. So, I reached out to some folks and sourced some fillets for testing out last week. I must say, the experiment turned out well.

Those of you who are in and near NYC are lucky. I found a nice market there who shipped me a couple of fillets. (MOGMOG) It was about $220 for the fish, $45 for shipping. They would have shipped me a whole fish but for my experiment, I wanted fillets because I’m doing one thing at a time and learning how to fillet a fish is for later.

I actually want to do the “king of filleting” techniques, emphasis on the “T,” because the kids didn’t like the skin. The way that Andrej does it in the video above, separates the skin from the flesh. So, keep in mind that the way I did it kept the skin. I liked the skin. It was crispy.

Method

  1. Salt
  2. Wait thirty minutes
  3. Pat dry
  4. Heat pan to medium-high
  5. Add a wee bit of oil and use paper towel to spread it and pick up excess
  6. Put in pan, skin side down
  7. Cook for 3-5 minutes
  8. Flip and cook the other side for a minute or two
  9. Serve with rice and a splash of ponzu (not shown)
  10. Done
moderately successfully cooked madai

What you see above is the tail portion of one of the tail fillets. I got two fish so there were 8 hunks of fish. This was the tail (approximately 100g) of one of those. I used 100g portions because many Japanese recipes use 100g portion for the protein. That was not enough so the second time I cooked it, the next night, I was using 220g-250g. That first night, the kids ate their 100g and immediately fought for another portion — it was that good.

As an aside, if you ever want to lose weight, eat a Japanese diet with a Japanese portion size. I did that a few years ago and shed like 30lbs. But I had to stop eating at restaurants here in The States because I would be full half-way through my meal. It took about two weeks to train my stomach for that but I was living the dream. But I digress. (Tangent is my middle name.)

I cooked it again last night with the little bit that I had leftover from last week and it tasted like fish. You know, the fish taste that you get at a fish restaurant, fish-sticks flavor. I’m not a huge fan of that flavor. Last week it was fresh and much better, demonstrating to me the importance of timing. I would have still been charged $25 for a serving of what I ate last night at a chain restaurant. It was just alright, last week was amazing.

Tonight’s Match-Ups

“Andy, I’m not here for fish, I’m here for fighting.”

Well, if you win those fights and want to hold the fish, you gotta learn what fish they hold and how to cook it. But let’s get back to the wrastling.

Lower Divisions

In Sandanme, Tenshoyama and Tochimusashi are 7-0. They’ll fight a playoff tonight. In Makushita, we’ll have the big 7-man playoff. Lots will be drawn, one guy will get a bye. The other six will fight. The three winners join the guy with the bye in a semi-final. The two winners fight each other for the yusho. So, the winner might fight three times…or two. We literally just did this a couple of months ago. Ikarigata plowed through Omori, Mudoho, and Akua to pick up the title in May.

Juryo

In Juryo, Nishikigi will fight Midorifuji in a Darwin bout. The winner is kachi-koshi, the loser make-koshi. Enho and Mudoho will fight for their kachi-koshi as Mudoho (Oho’s brother) visits from Makushita. Tochitaikai will fight Kitanowaka (7-7), with the urgency of a Darwin bout. Demotion to Makushita is on the line and even if Nishikigi loses, I don’t think he’s safe. It will be interesting here but 7-8 conceivably stays where they are while 6-9 gets the drop. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Shonannoumi will fight Tokihayate for the yusho. Win, and it’s his. Lose, and he might have to fight in a play-off. Arashifuji will fight Kyokukaiyu (7-7), and Toshinofuji will fight Kagayaki (7-7). If they both win and Shonannoumi loses his first bout. We’ll have a three-way contest where the first guy with two consecutive wins will take the title.

Makuuchi

Aonishiki (12-2) will fight Atamifuji (11-3) for the yusho. Kirishima is still in this if Atamifuji wins. But he will need to defeat Kotozakura, who seemed to be in “coast” mode against Onosato last night. So, it’s possible that we could have a three-way playoff in Makuuchi, as well. Add in here that Kirishima is possibly fighting for Yokozuna promotion, it just adds to the heat. Sprinkle in some seasoning by realizing that suddenly Atamifuji is certainly in the first leg of an Ozeki run. Who’d have thunk it?

Onosato will fight Kotoshoho for kensho and pride. Fujinokawa will fight Fujiseiun for kachi-koshi, and likely special prizes for Fujinokawa (and maybe a Sekiwake rank in there, too). Kotoeiho will fight Takerufuji and Asanoyama will fight Takayasu. I could see special prizes being on the line there, too. We’ll get the official announcements later.

See you tonight!

Nagoya 2026: Preview

Andy Nagoya 2026, Nagoya Basho ,

As action in that other competition heats up, our gladiators will square off this Sunday to kick off the Nagoya Basho. (I would not be surprised if a lot of sumo wrestlers are pulling for France in the World Cup. It looks like they had a lot of fun last month in Paris.)

The biggest storyline is the sudden kyujo of May’s tournament winner, Wakatakakage. He was rushed to hospital after experiencing severe pain in his thigh. He underwent surgery and we hope for a swift recovery. Thus, he is absent from the Day One match-ups. Another prolonged, multi-basho absence would be a real gut-check. He’d climbed back from the knee injury and we’d just started muttering the words, “Ozeki Run,” but now that’s gone. He will tumble into the midst of the rank-and-file for Aki, likely as far as Maegashira 10 or 11.

Hakuyozan, Juryo 13 West, will also be missing from action. He tore his achilles in June and is doubtful for a return this year. Let us hope the dohyo is suitably purified for the upcoming tournament. Matsuri broadcast will be live soon:

Welp, if you are a kadoban Ozeki, or a freshly demoted Ozeki, the Wakatakakage news is probably a welcome distraction. But let’s not forget that we will be looking for convincing performances from both Kotozakura and Aonishiki. Kotozakura will need eight wins to maintain his rank but he was not very competitive in several bouts last tournament. One feels it is a matter of time before he joins the crop of former Ozeki among the rank-and-file. He will face Takanosho on Day One. The pressure is on.

Aonishiki will need 10 wins to regain his Ozeki rank as he earned his demotion in May. Aonishiki will fight Hiradoumi on Sunday. The pressure is on.

Shall we turn to our pair of Yokozuna? Onosato was the shock kyujo from Natsu Basho with Hoshoryu pulling up lame in a disastrous tournamet start. Nevertheless, both men made the trip to Paris for the Exhibition. They returned to perform their dohyo-iri at Atsuta Jingu (above). Hoshoryu will fight his nemesis, Oho. Onosato will take on Yoshinofuji. The pressure is certainly on.

Meanwhile, Kirishima will fight Fujinokawa. Both men had a mixed-bag basho in May. A lot going for these guys but there is are certainly some faults in the armor, shall we say? Atamifuji will fight Gonoyama. Frankly, the same thing could be said of that pair. And Kotoshoho finds himself at Sekiwake, ready to battle Churanoumi. Lastly, somehow Takayasu is expected to show up and fight Wakamotoharu. Day One action might give us an early read on whether these men are “production ready.”

Apologies for the brief preview. I hope you get to watch the dohyo matsuri. As a reminder, it’s on in a few minutes.

Natsu 2026: Senshuraku Preview

Andy Natsu 2026, Natsu Basho ,

This morning the Sumo Association posted the final bouts for the Final Day’s action.

Picture in your minds all of the names of wrestlers who are out of the tournament. Then, ponder this line-up for the final three bouts: Kotoshoho vs Churanoumi, Atamifuji vs Oshoma, Kirishima vs Ura. Before the kore-yori-sanyaku Wakatakakage will fight the makujiri, Fujiryoga, in a match-up of yusho significance. I never would have thought it would come down to this. It was not on my bingo card, as they say.

Certainly, there’s some (okay — a lot of) disappointment in how the basho has transpired but it is what it is. There has actually been some great sumo from a lot of new names. There’s an opening for another huge, exciting playoff to match the massive seven-man shindig in Makushita but that would require both Kirishima and Wakatakakage to fall on their faces at the finish line. I can’t say I’m looking forward to that eventuality.

Takayasu will plummet from sanyaku and one wonders whether he will be able to return. Deeper in the division, Iron Man Tamawashi appears headed for Juryo, coming up shy in his pursuit of the all-time record in makuuchi tournaments and likely ending his advancement up the list of all-time wins. (Let’s face it, Hakuho’s out of reach.) Ryuden and Oshoumi are set to join him on the way down. Nishikifuji is in peril. In Juryo, Nishikigi might drop into Makushita.

The annoying thing about sumo is that it seems every tournament brings the end of the career of some of our favorites, and it’s happening more and more in recent tournaments. Already there’s been a stream of retirement announcements from the lower divisions, including Yuma who cracked into Juryo a few years ago.

The Blooming Fujis

But the great thing about the sport is that there are always new faces making a name for themselves. From Asahifuji, who’s tearing things up in the lower divisions, to Omori…this tournament has really seen growth from the budding Fujis.

Fujinokawa has reached his career high rank here. He will stumble a bit with this make-koshi but he’s fighting well against the best. He will be around for quite a while and I am sure he’ll reach sanyaku in the near future. The same seems to be true of Fujiryoga and Fujiseiun, who are just starting to make their marks in the division and have been looking great this tournament.

(藤) If you are wondering about the kanji for this “fuji” it’s different from what you’re familiar with from Isegahama-beya: (富士). It’s not Fuji-san, the mountain. Their kanji is for fuji-no-hana, the wisteria. Kameido (where my wife is from) is famous for its fuji-no-hana and it’s in bloom in April/May.

The pic on the right comes from the Kameido Tenshinsha temple there. There’s a famous little red pedestrian bridge there but I loved this photo with Sky Tree in the background. The Hokusai museum isn’t far away, either. Right now they’re making ume-shu. I love ume-shu (plum wine).

Then, the Kototebakari brothers: Kotoshoho and Kotoeiho are real bright spots at Sadogatake just when stablemate and heyagashira Kotozakura seems to really be struggling.

The biggest story of all this tournament, though, is the return of Enho to Juryo. The significance of this tournament in his career cannot be lost. He is now eligible to retire as oyakata with the Sumo Association when it’s finally time to pack it in. I look forward to seeing him working with Ishiura to foster the new generation of wrestlers. But the way he’s fighting, he doesn’t look done.

If only there were enough kabu to go around, however. I think there’s one available at the moment…with many of the names that I mentioned eager to get it on loan or buy it outright. Tamawashi has signaled his intent to keep fighting, for example. Maybe there’s a reason.