The Sumo Scene / For Popular Ex-Ozeki Asanoyama, This Drop in Rank Was Not of His Own Doing

By Kuniyuki Kamimura / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer

10:44 JST, September 4, 2024

As the long summer vacation comes to an end, we can start preparing for the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament that begins on Sept. 8.

It will be the last tournament of the year at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, and is expected to be an exhilarating 15 days with tickets selling out daily.

However, I have mixed emotions when I think of a popular wrestler who will not be taking his place in the ring. There is an old saying that goes, “Clouds always follow the sunshine” — that happy events tend to be accompanied by problems — and that certainly holds true for former ozeki Asanoyama.

At the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament in July, then-No. 12 maegashira Asanoyama had cruised to victories on the first three days when tragedy struck. In a fourth-day loss to Ichiyamamoto, Asanoyama suffered a severe left knee injury. He was taken directly to the hospital from the arena.

The diagnosis was even worse than expected. He had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, forcing him to withdraw from the remainder of the tournament and subsequently undergo reconstruction surgery at the end of July.

Depending on how his rehabilitation goes, it could be anywhere from six months to a year before he can return to the ring.

Many people might recall that in the middle of the summer tournament in 2021, then-ozeki Asanoyama was caught violating the Japan Sumo Association’s guidelines for dealing with the novel coronavirus and hit with a heavy six-tournament suspension.

His rank was not protected during the suspension, causing him to plunge all the way down to the third-lowest sandanme division. Physically, he was the same wrestler and he quickly worked his way back up the rankings. Recently, his mantra has been, “I want to return to ozeki one more time.”

He had been back in the uppermost makuuchi division for several tournaments and was making his charge to ozeki when the injury occurred in Nagoya. It can only be deemed unlucky.

He will officially be listed in the juryo division for the autumn tournament. An extended absence as he rehabs could see him drop back down to sandanme, depending on how long he is out of action.

There was little sympathy for Asanoyama when he was punished for violating the COVID-19 policy because of his own lack of self-control. This time, however, many fans are feeling his pain.

“I want him to completely heal and make a comeback,” said stablemaster Takasago (former sekiwake Asa-sekiryu.)

Asanoyama is extremely popular, particularly in his native Toyama Prefecture. But he turned 30 this year, and it will take extraordinary mental strength for him to return to the heights he once reached.

I hope that he can somehow find a way to overcome this ordeal.

— Kamimura is a sumo expert.