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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo Kisenosato receives the Emperor’s Cup after winning an elusive championship at the 2017 New Year Tournament at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan.
By Kuniyuki Kamimura / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer
11:26 JST, January 8, 2025
With the new year, we get right into the start of the grand sumo tournaments for 2025. As always, kicking things off is the aptly named New Year Tournament, which starts on Sunday at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan.
The sumo world’s attention this year will be on whether we will see the emergence of a new yokozuna — or even more than one. Anticipation is building as the ozeki trio of Kotozakura, Hoshoryu and Onosato are all in a position to make the big jump to the highest rank.
Kotozakura and Hoshoryu are particularly close, and either could make it happen depending on how they fare in the New Year Tournament.
At the preceding Kyushu Tournament in November 2024, the two met in a de facto championship match after going into the final day with identical 13-1 records, with Kotozakura winning to notch his first career title. The eyes of fans will be glued to the action over the coming two weeks.
The Yokozuna Deliberation Council, which performs the role of recommending wrestlers for promotion to yokozuna to the Japan Sumo Association, bases its recommendations on its own set of criteria, which states that an ozeki must have a remarkable record of winning two consecutive championships or an achievement.
In the Kyushu tourney, Kotozakura won the title, with Hoshoryu second with one less victory. Looking at recent years, there has never been a case in which a wrestler was promoted to yokozuna without having won an Emperor’s Cup in either of the two most recent tournaments.
Should the results be reversed at the New Year tourney — Hoshoryu wins the title and Kotozakura finishes second with an equal number of wins (by say, losing in a playoff) or just one win behind — word is that there could be a “double promotion.”
Such an occurrence would indeed be a fabulous New Year’s gift to sumo fans.
Thinking back on yokozuna promotions, the case of Kisenosato comes to mind. It was exactly eight years ago that Kisenosato, currently Nishonoseki stablemaster, was promoted following the New Year Tournament. There had been many previous chances for him to win a title, but he had been continually foiled by strong rivals such as legendary yokozuna Hakuho (now Miyagino stablemaster).
In the 2017 New Year tourney, Kisenosato earned his long-awaited championship with a 14-1 record. He had been posting consistently good results over a long span, and in 2016 had secured the title of most overall wins for the calendar year.
The JSA leadership decided to ask the council to take these factors into consideration when deliberating on Kisenosato’s promotion. Also coming into play was that he would become the first native Japanese promoted to yokozuna since the third Wakanohana 19 years before, which evoked great excitement in the sumo world.
Unfortunately, Kisenosato suffered a serious injury at the following Spring Tournament, then continued to struggle until finally calling the end of his career in January 2019. But the dramatic story of his promotion to the top rank remains memorable.
