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Grand Sumo’s first tournament of 2024 is a little over a week away. But before we get into all the great bouts and storylines that tournament is bound to throw up, we still have some time to continue our analysis of the previous event.
Below is my report card for the upper half of the maegashira who competed in Kyushu in November. This cohort includes Atamifuji, who fell short (again) and a couple of higher ranked folks who slightly disappointed.
Check them out below and let me know what you think in the comment section!
Atamifuji
Rank: Maegashira 8 West
Record: 11-4, Fighting Spirit Prize
Grade: A-
Atamifuji is no fluke. The youngster is surely san’yaku bound after this highly impressive start to his career. He’s been able to earn back-to-back 11-4 records since promotion back to makuuchi thanks to a devastating mix of power and technique, which is aided by his incredible physical profile.
He’s just so wide. His frame traps wrestlers in front of him and makes it very hard for them to find an angle of escape. Atamifuji makes that even harder by how he moves his feet and finds the angle needed to keep his opponent in front of him. He’s also excellent at not moving his feet, too. He can root himself to a spot and just cancel out his opponent’s pushing power.
Watch how the bigger Shonannoumi is incapable of making Atamifuji take a step backwards. Shonannoumi is also incapable of moving Atamifuji’s arms from his armpits, too, making his attempts to go for a throw completely futile. While Shonannoumi is trying to react he’s forced back with every step Atamifuji takes.
But Atamifuji doesn’t just settle for force outs. His rock solid arm positioning can be converted to throw attempts of his own. See how he takes down Myogiryu when the veteran tries to circle away.
Atamifuji’s Achilles Heel at this point in his career is pressure. He’s wilted in each of the last basho when faced with an opportunity to win it all. In September he choked against Takakeisho. In November he seemed frightened to face Kirishima.
He earns a high grade for the bulk of his work across the basho from me. But if he wants accolades that actually matter, he’ll need to get his nerves under control and fight the Kirishima and Takakeishos of this world like he does that Shonannoumi and Myogiryus.
Endo
Rank: Maegashira 8 East
Record: 5-10
Grade: E
Endo’s 2023 ended with a dud of a performance in Kyushu. His 5-10 followed 9-6 and 10-5 records last time out. I feel like he was a casualty of his rank in this tournament. He got off to a 0-6 start against opponents all ranked M9 and higher. It wasn’t until he was matched with the lower half of the maegashira that he was able to score a few wins.
He didn’t appear to be hurt in this tournament (at least not any more than anyone else). He just seemed rash in his decision making and not strong or quick enough to recover from his mistakes.
Below you can see him miss a charge on Shonannoumi and then fail to get his feet planted or body turned enough to prevent being forced out.
At 33 I think Endo (a once highly touted prospect) has peaked and will continue to tread water around M10 in 2024.
Kinbozan
Rank: Maegashira 7 West
Record: 8-7
Grade: C
Kinbozan continues to show flashes of being a very good wrestler. One of his go to moves has become what we see against Onosho below, where he turns his body into a matador’s cape and slides his feet one way while slinging his arms (and his opponent) the opposite way.
This move speaks to Kinbozan’s creativity and ability to react very quickly. He showed off those qualities in this win over Sadanoumi below, too.
Sadanoumi looks to have Kinbozan dead to rights on the straw, but somehow Kinbozan is able to turn him and throw him behind him, without moving his feet. This shows incredible strength, balance and flexibility.
Other than his rookie campaign in makuuchi in March (where he didn’t face anyone in the san’yaku), we’re yet to see Kinbozan display all these qualities on a consistent enough basis to challenge for a title. I think he’s close to that and I can see him making a komusubi promotion sometime in 2024.
Hokuseiho
Rank: Maegashira 7 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: D-
After I gave him his flowers for the aki basho Hokuseiho back-slid in Kyushu. In this tournament we were faced with the frustrating Hokuseiho we saw in past losing record tournaments, where he over-relied on his size and tried to stall his way to victory.
Those attempts to gas out opponents resulted in giving his opposition time to plan moves that could trip, push or elevate Hokuseiho to earn wins.
During the tournament he fell victim to the embarrassing fork-lift manoeuvre twice, once from Tsurugisho and once from Nishikigi.
Both were able to do this because Hokuseiho is far too upright in the clinch. If he actually leaned into his opponents and positioned his feet back, it would be extremely hard for wrestlers to grab his belt and do much with it if they could reach. Moving his feet back would also make him less susceptible to trips, too.
The stalling routine also lacks any kind of intensity (something we see all successful wrestlers utilize each and every bout). At worst it’s a sign of laziness and at best it speaks to some kind of anxiety or discomfort.
His lack of intensity, and inability to rise to an occasion, was obvious on the final day of the tournament where he faced Ura in a Darwin match. Ura, who dives in low every bout, should have been squashed by the massive Hokuseiho.
Instead, Hokuseiho just made himself a target for Ura’s opening charge and looked for a clinch immediately. In the clinch he tried to set up a kimedashi (which would have been very difficult to pull off given how heavy Ura’s lower half is).
If you’re going to try and win with a kimedashi, though, you need to lock your arms onto your opponent like iron vices. Hokuseiho didn’t do that to Ura. Ura was able to yank out an arm and use that limb to attack one of Hokuseiho’s. Two arms usually beat one in sumo and Ura was able to spin Hokuseiho to get him off balance and then tip him over off the edge of the dohyo.
Hokuseiho has all the natural gifts you need to be an elite rikishi, but we’re still waiting to see if his mental game (and effort) can catch up to those and make him a serious contender in the sport.
Takanosho
Rank: Maegashira 6 West
Record: 5-6-4
Grade: E
This was another tournament where Takanosho struggled when matched against the upper half of the maegashira. He was 5-5 when he bowed out due to injury in Kyushu, with losses coming to mostly higher ranked opponents (excluding Atamifuji).
Takanosho’s sumo is very aggressive. Aggression is great, but it needs to be combined with control otherwise you’re just doing to be eating dirt in every other bout. That’s exactly what happened to Takanosho in Kyushu. In too many bouts he barrelled forwards hoping for the best, often with his head down.
See how easy it was for Nishikigi to slip past that over-committed push below, with a simple hop to the side (on an injured leg).
Takanosho has been demoted to M12 for January, his lowest ranking since 2019.
Shonannoumi
Rank: Maegashira 6 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+
Kyushu may not have represented a step backwards for Shonannoumi, but it certainly wasn’t a step forwards. I was very high on him when he came onto the scene and notched 10-5 in his debut makuuchi tournament. I’m enamoured with his speed and size combination and love who he can swiftly change arm positions, with enough force to disarm and sometimes put down opponents (like he does to the leaning Takanosho here).
This was his second 7-8 record in a row. In both his past two performances he was 7-7 on the last day and failed to clinch kachi-koshi. He doesn’t seem to present the same kind of nerves we see with Atamifuji in high pressure bouts. It feels a little more like carelessness and a lack of aggression have spelled disaster for Shonannoumi on his last two Day 15s.
In this tournament he met Gonoyama on the last day, a wrestler who brings aggression and intensity to every bout (to a fault, sometimes).
His loss to Gonoyama looked a lot like his loss to Kinbozan (which I featured earlier in this piece). Shonannoumi gets stuck looking for a hold, focusing on Gonoyama’s upper half, and neglects the part of the battle that happens below the belt. See how Gonoyama’s legs are driving forwards and Shonannoumi is stuck up-right and unable to dig his heels in to prevent a push out.
I’m not ready to write off Shonannoumi. I just need to see him sit down on his power more and put more weight into his pushing.
Midorifuji
Rank: Maegashira 5 West
Record: 9-6
Grade: B
I could write about Midorifuji all day. When he’s winning, he’s an absolute joy to watch. And he’s won more than lost this year. After an impressive 10-5 record in March he was promoted up to M1, but struggled mightily against the elites, going 6-9 and then 4-11. After being demoted he banked another 10-5 record and then, in Kyushu, he looked good again, notching a 9-6 record.
During his struggles he seemed to lose his way, unable to impose his exciting brand of sumo against the giants he goes up against in makuuchi. But in the last two tournaments, he’s looked back to his best — beating much bigger guys with his formidable arsenal of pull downs.
He dropped many opponents with hikiotoshi at Kyushu, but what I really loved was how he was able to use the threat of his pull downs, trips and throws to pressure his opponents and get them in dangerous situations where he could push and force them out.
See how he handles Endo below. Endo, like everyone else in the division, knows where Midorifuji is dangerous, so he is hyper focused on blocking a throw attempt. Often you see wrestlers over-commit to throws when they get this deep and then get pushed face first into the clay. But Midorifuji is so smart in recognizing that Endo has skipped out of range and he’s humble enough not to continue to dig for the throw. Instead he switches tactics and goes for the path of least resistance, a push out versus his off-balance opponent.
His strength in pushing looked much improved this tournament, too. See how he was able to drive Shonannoumi out (while staying on his feet):
And Midorifuji was also able to pad his record with an occasional henka, too. Kinbozan never stood a chance here.
The fact Midorifuji doesn’t do this move 9 out of 10 times (despite how good he is at it and how appropriate it would be for a man of his size) really speaks to how diverse Midorifuji’s game is. The fact he doesn’t rely on henka and will instead take a hit and then work for a katasukashi or hikiotoshi also speaks a lot about his personality. More often than not he doesn’t turn from a challenge, he takes it on, with his chest out and then works to find a way through it. That’s part of why, for me, Midorifuji is so easy to cheer for.
Onosho
Rank: Maegashira 5 East
Record: 3-12
Grade: F
Onosho is like a few other wrestlers in that his fatal flaw is that he usually operates in linear movements, not lateral. He goes forwards hard and that can be enough to knock some people out. But it also makes it very likely that, if you get out the way, Onosho is going to keep on trucking and send himself out the ring.
That’s exactly what happened versus Midorifuji.
Onosho, like Takanosho and Hiradoumi, seems to lack humility in believing that they can push anyone backwards and out and that they’d rather fall flat on their faces trying to prove that than take an alternative approach.
3-12 is Onosho’s worst record in an injury free basho since 2020. It has resulted in a demotion down to M14 in January and puts him at risk of relegation should he under-perform again.
Nishikigi
Rank: Maegashira 4 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-
Nishikigi continued to deal with a calf injury throughout his time in Kyushu. You can see in the video below that his left calf is purple with bruises. This gif also shows you how this particular injury has been a nightmare for Nishikigi and his brand of sumo.
During his yusho-run in Nagoya Nishikigi was stopping everyone cold off of the tachiai and then powerfully forcing them back and over. But here against Midorifuji, he’s easily pushed back by the smaller man and he seems to give up at the boundary.
Given the injury, I think 7-8 was a decent achievement for Nishikigi. I hope he’s recovered now and ready to give the san’yaku the kind of problems he did in the summer.
Gonoyama
Rank: Maegashira 4 East
Record: 8-7
Grade: C+
Gonoyama continued to impress in Kyushu. The 25-year-old now has three winning records in his first three top division tournaments. He’s benefited from a very gradual progression up the banzuke, resulting in him not being totally overwhelmed by all elite competition.
His kachi-koshi this tournament, while ranked M4, included wins over Kirishima, Takakeisho, Wakamotoharu, Tobizaru and Hokutofuji. Despite scoring wins over these big names, he remains under the radar thanks to the immensely popular Hakuoho and Atamifuji who have arrived on the scene at the same time as him.
Hakuoho and Atamifuji have had much louder performances in 2023, with both coming close to winning championships. While this has been happening, though, Gonoyama has quietly solidified himself in the top division and earned a reputation as a ferocious opponent who is never an easy out.
His sumo is nasty and thrust-heavy. He blitzes as hard as anyone off the tachiai and after contact is made he is a wolverine, throwing hands and feet until it’s over. This style overwhelms many opponents, like the more reserved Shonannoumi below.
Gonoyama does struggle when he’s forced to problem-solve in something other than a fire fight. When Ura refused to be pushed back, and responded by grabbing his belt, Gonoyama looked a little lost and didn’t know which hold to go for in that situation. Ura used that indecision to spin him around and spike him off the dohyo.
Gonoyama has been promoted to M3 this tournament, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep his kachi-koshi streak alive. If he does, then we may be looking at a young komusubi in the making.
Tobizaru
Rank: Maegashira 3 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+
Tobizaru continued to be consistently inconsistent at Kyushu. His wild style often translates to him being able to surprise and beat the best out there. However, his frantic and often random attacks also lead to losses against wrestlers ranked below him.
In Kyushu he didn’t manage to get a statement win over any of the big boys, like he had in recent tournaments. He did get some slick finishes over fellow strugglers, though…
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