promotion

Two Juryo Promotions Confirmed

Andy promotion, Retirement ,

As Leonid postulated, Hatsuyama (Tamanoi) and Kiryuko (Tatsunami) were promoted to Juryo. Hatsuyama will make his debut while Kiryuko will have his second attempt competing as sekitori. Kotokuzan’s narrow 4-3 record was not good enough to earn promotion from Ms4 but he will move closer to the promised land and have a good chance at promotion in January. Makuuchi veterans Chiyomaru and Onosho will likely slide into Makushita in January.

There is also news of eight retirements after the Kyushu tournament. Three men from Sandanme retired: Hayanami, Kotoozutsu, and Chiyoresshi. Two men from Jonidan retired: Daishosei and Kotoryusei. Jonokuchi wrestler Daishiyama as well as Nishikiori and Kokiryu, who had fallen off the banzuke, also retired. Unfortunately, I have not seen any news of Kawazoe since his early win and subsequent kyujo announcement. We will bring an update as soon as we have one.

Sumo News Round-up 2024.2.3

Andy Festivals, Japanese Culture, Kotonowaka, promotion, Tochinoshin (栃ノ心) , , , ,

Yes, the tournament is over. Terunofuji won in spectacular fashion against the impressive Kotonowaka. Our coverage from the tournament is collected here. Nevertheless, this week is jam-packed with sumo news.

Shin-Ozeki Kotonowaka

Kotonowaka was promoted to Ozeki, as expected. He came tantalizingly close to a yusho and was understandably disappointed to lose in the playoff. His performance over the past three basho has been of a consistent, high quality. But if we look back further, we can see a reliable, top-level sekitori since May of 2022.

Sumo fans everywhere were expecting him to change his shikona to Kotozakura, the shikona used by his grandfather. However, he has decided to stick with Kotonowaka for the time being, and will change his shikona in May.

Juryo Promotions Released

Along with Kotonowaka’s Ozeki promotion, the Banzuke Committee released the names of those makushita wrestlers who earned promotion to Juryo. This time, four rikishi return to juryo, no debutantes. We finally see the long-awaited returns of Wakatakakage and Hakuoho to the ranks of sekitori, along with journeymen Tsushimanada and Kitaharima.

You will remember that Wakatakakage and Hakuoho were top division wrestlers who suffered unfortunate injuries to the knee and shoulder, respectively, which required surgery and long rehab. In Wakatakakage’s case, he was Sekiwake in March of 2023 when he blew up his knee falling onto the tawara. Hakuoho’s shoulder had been a nagging concern going back to his amateur days. His other shoulder had surgery before going pro and the intense action of Makuuchi seemed to require the same surgery to be repeated on the opposite side after Nagoya 2023.

Both men dropped into Makushita during their rehab but will rise together in March 2024. Wakatakakage won the yusho, following up on his 5-2 in Kyushu. Hakuoho lost one bout to another standout, Onokatsu, to finish 6-1. Onokatsu lost his next match to Wakatakakage and he also finished 6-1, narrowly missing out on promotion.

Setsubun (February 3)

I’ve written about this a few times. Setsubun is a festival to celebrate the coming of spring. You have just cleaned the house at the beginning of January during “oosouji,” so let’s make an absolute mess of things again by throwing beans or peanuts at one of the kids, who runs around the house wearing a devil mask, and shouting “oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi” (“Bad spirits out! Fortune in!”) Brilliant. And, let’s top it off by standing up and eating a long sushi roll (eho-maki) while facing the same direction. This year, for those who observe, it’s east-north-east. With all of the kyujo from January, we need all the help we can get!

Tochinoshin Retirement Ceremony

Tochinoshin had his retirement ceremony at Kokugikan. These events feature exhibition bouts and various demonstrations, building up to the main event…the haircut. Yobidashi perform drum demonstrations while Tokoyama show how they make the infamous oicho-mage hairstyle donned by sekitori during tournaments. The Kasugano stable’s own Jiro is the top-ranked tate-yobidashi, and did the taiko demonstration while Tokotakumi, the level four Tokoyama, used Tochimusashi as his model. This was likely to be a role for Aoiyama but he was kyujo, as was Hokuseiho.

Kasugano-oyakata with the final snip

Gyoji certainly do not get the day off as they officiate bouts as well as participate in the Shokkiri. The comedy duo of Wakazakura and Tochimitsuru teamed up with Nishikido-beya’s Kimura Kintaro to lighten the mood with the famous “How NOT to Sumo” routine. Jinku included Yuki and Kasugano’s Tochigidake. At the end of the makuuchi bouts, Tochikodai closed things out with the bow-twirling ceremony.

Tochinoshin has been one of the most successful foreign wrestlers, reaching the level of Ozeki largely through the brute force of what sumo fans knew as his “sky-crane.” He was particularly known for his rivalry with Ichinojo, with whom he fought several epic bouts, including the famous water-break bout. It seems that many wrestlers have had spectacular comebacks from injury lately, and Tochinoshin’s career is certainly notable for how he overcame a knee injury, dropped out of the professional ranks, and clawed his way back past his previous best rank to reach Ozeki.

A long list of sumo dignitaries took turns with the scissors, taking a snip of his topknot, including Asashoryu, Hakuho, Terunofuji, and his compatriots, Kokkai and Gagamaru. Former stablemate Tochiozan was also in attendance but, as mentioned above, kyujo Aoiyama was not.

Tochinoshin will not continue his career in the sumo association. He has been working with wine makers of his native Georgia to help promote Georgian wine. If one thinks that there are only two major types of wine, red and white, you likely have not had an opportunity to enjoy a Georgian “Amber.” Georgia is famous for being the birthplace of wine — no, not Italy or France. Yes, they have red and white wine, as well. But not many wines from the region (of any variety) find themselves in our shops or restaurants, so there is certainly lots of work ahead for Mr. Sky Crane.

Kyushu Honbasho Wrap-up

Andy Kyushu 2023, Kyushu Basho, Retirement, Yūshō (優勝) , , ,

The tournament is over but we know that the Makuuchi yusho is not the final sumo thing for the year. There was still quite a bit of news coming out of Fukuoka this week and I wanted to take a moment to cover that in this news brief. Yes, we had the final tournament results and top division special prizes but we also had a group of retirements, Juryo promotions, and we now turn to Winter Jungyo!

Kyushu Hardware Distribution

As far as the yusho, we got a thrilling showdown between Kirishima and Atamifuji on Day 14, which Kirishima won, convincingly. Then he defeated Takakeisho on Senshuraku to seal his 13-2 title and claim the Golden Macaron. Ichiyamamoto, Kotonowaka, and Atamifuji won Fighting Spirit prizes. No technique prize was awarded and only Atamifuji had a shot at Outstanding Performance but he would have had to win the yusho.

In the lower divisions, we have an interesting group of yusho winners. As Leonid covered previously, the Juryo title was claimed by Kotoshoho. He had a tough go of things in the top division but has surely reclaimed a spot there with an exciting victory over Onosato (actually two). The video below has a replay from their playoff, as well as footage from the yusho award ceremony. As Leonid also covered, Satorufuji won the Makushita yusho. Daishoryu, Dairinzan, and Aonishiki won the Sandanme, Jonidan, and Jonokuchi titles, respectively.

Retirements

The Kyokai announced seven wrestlers who retired during the tournament.

Daijo debuted in 2007 and reached Makushita for the first time in 2013 before falling back into Sandanme. He climbed back into Makushita two more times, in 2017 and 2018, peaking at Makushita 43. Kototakuya debuted in 2018 and cracked into Makushita in the summer of last year, spending much of his career in Sandanme, and much of that career in the wild pandemic era. Kirizakura called “time” on a career that began in the Spring of 1999. At 176cm and 92kg, he fought his entire career in the lower divisions, peaking at Sandanme 69 in May of 2011 (a rather contentious time).

Chiyoshishi‘s retirement was known prior to the basho as a result of the unfortunate underage drinking scandal during the Aki Jungyo. Tamanowaka began his career in 2018, peaking in Jonidan. Young Itoga had a short sumo career, starting in May of this year, and retiring after clinching his first kachi-koshi in September, and promotion to Jonidan. Similarly, Raikisho made a short effort, spending much time banzuke-gai and peaking in Jonidan.

Juryo Promotions

Leonid was spot on with his predictions for the Juryo promotions. Takerufuji and Oshoumi have earned their first-time promotions while Hakuyozan and Tochimusashi return.

Winter Jungyo Preparations

The winter jungyo tour kicks off tomorrow in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto. This first week of the tour will hop around Kyushu with dates in Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Oita, and Fukuoka prefectures before spending next weekend in Nagasaki. Afterwards, they will pop over to Shikoku in Ehime, before going back to Honshu at Hiroshima and spending a few days around Osaka, Hyogo, and finally closing out the tour on Christmas Eve in Tochigi. From there, we’ll surely see a lot of New Year holiday events back in Tokyo. I’ll give weekly updates of the tour events and the holiday happenings leading into Hatsu basho!

Juryo Promotions Announced (Kyushu 2021)

Andy Juryo (十両) ,
Some sail to Juryo on a barge from Makuuchi, for others, it’s a luxury cruise

The Japan Sumo Association has set up its banzuke for November and determined there will be three wrestlers promoted to Juryo from Makushita. One wrestler, Kotokuzan, returns to the salaried ranks. His debut in July yielded four wins but eleven losses and quick demotion back to Makushita. Four wins this tournament were all he needed to go back up, indicating that the 3-rank fall may have been a bit soft. Prior instances of 4-11 records from near the bottom rung of the Juryo ladder resulted in drops to the fifth or sixth rank in Makushita* (corrected). From that rank, even Shiba’s 5-2 was insufficient for promotion. I expect him to be at the bottom of Juryo this time with a short leash, meaning that another four-win performance in Kyushu should result in a more significant drop.

Juryo Debuts

The other two wrestlers will be donning kesho mawashi for the first time as professional wrestlers, Asanowaka and Hiradoumi. Asanowaka is the new shikona for Terasawa, who had been competing under his family name until this promotion. Asanowaka seems to have requested the shikona from current Takasago coach Wakamatsu, as back during his fighting days Wakamatsu never had any kyujo, or absences, throughout his career. If that name change helps him stay healthy, succeed, and remain in the paid ranks for at least a few more tournaments, he may well become heyagashira in 2022 as his former senpai, Asanoyama, tumbles into Makushita.

Tachiai readers may remember a feature article on mawashi written by Herouth, inspired by the unsolved mystery of Terasawa’s pilfered cloth, which happened to be imbued with mystical powers from the remains of his late pet rabbit. That article is always worth a read, not just for the bizarre who-done-it, but the wealth of information about practice mawashi and competition mawashi in both amateur and Grand Sumo. There’s a discussion of sagari as well as the difference between the silk shimekomi (which Asanowaka will now wear with stiffened sagari), and the cotton mawashi.

What are you still doing here? Go. Read it. Now. I’ll wait.

Welcome back. Fascinating read, no? Hopefully that answered some of the questions you had and likely pointed out some things you never even noticed.

Hiradoumi also joins Asanowaka in Juryo. It’s quite the basho for Sakaigawa beya as Sadanoumi’s 10-wins will lift him back into Makuuchi and Myogiryu’s jun-yusho performance was also rewarded with a special prize. However, both of these veterans are in the latter stages of their careers while Hiradoumi, at 21 years old, is still trying to establish himself. This was his fifth consecutive kachi-koshi record, making a rather determined slog through the grist mill at the top of the third division. Congratulations to all three!

The Intrigue

Not so fast, there Andy, I’ve got another question.

So, does this mean there were supposed to be two promotions and with Hakuho’s retirement Kotokuzan gets the “free pass,” and joins the pack on the lead lap? (I’ll find out who’s here for NASCAR references.) Or does this mean that Hakuho’s announcement was still not done in time for the banzuke committee to remove his name from the banzuke? I think it would be very odd for Hakuho to still appear on the list in Kyushu since he announced his retirement before the banzuke committee drew up their list. So Kyokushuho might still make the cut due to the lack of other promotion candidates among the top makushita ranks. If Shiba had a 6-1 record or a yusho, would he have joined the other three and taken Kyokushuho’s slot? Or will Kyokushuho drop, essentially for nothing?

Given the weak demotion given to Kotokuzan after his 4-11 record in July, I find it hard to demote Kyokushuho from a rank and a half higher on a 6-9 record. We know that 7-8 is often good enough to maintain ones rank and Kyokushuho has already had a couple of recent instances of two-rank drops with 6-9 records. Why not drop him to Juryo-jiri and only demote Takakento after his 3-12 and Asashiyu after his 1-14? This avoids the difficult choice of trying to decide who is the next deserving candidate from Makushita when it’s hard to justify Jokoryu at Ms4 with a 4-3, Shiba at Ms6 with a 5-2, or Tsushimanada at Ms9 with 6-1.

Anyway, my banzuke for Kyushu has Hakuho off and Kyokushuho sitting on the bottom rung of Juryo.

The Addendum

Not so fast, again, Andy! As Leonid rightly points out below, Takagenji’s gone. That’s what you get for removing the Scandal Meter. While his slot was conspicuously vacant in the last tournament, it will certainly be filled this time around. So that means two promotions were “extra” this time around? Will Takakento be saved? No. I think that’s the point that puts Hakuho back on the banzuke. My point above that the Kyokai would have to “go fishing” for a lackluster promotion candidate is only half the story. They need to find two promotion candidates from that field. Kyokushuho was never in danger of demotion.

So let’s turn back to those promotion candidates. A promotion from Ms6 with 5 wins is rare but has happened three times this century, to Baruto and Satoyama. Baruto proceeded to a very successful 12-3 record in that debut tournament, while Satoyama’s makekoshi 7-8 was still safe because he had been promoted to Juryo 12E from Ms6. His case was a highly unusual one, though, as he was one of nine promotions that tournament. The yaocho scandal had claimed many scalps that year. The Ms9 promotion with 6 wins is even more rare, last granted…let’s see here…to some up-and-comer named Hakuho in 2003. There are certainly more promotions from Ms4 with 4 wins, with Akiseyama’s promotion last year being the most recent example.

Without a fourth promotion, Hakuho is on the banzuke and someone’s getting robbed of a position in Juryo, and the victim appears to be Jokoryu.