Onosato Clinches Summer Title with 2 Days to Spare, Assures Promotion to Yokozuna (Update 1)

The Japan News

17:48 JST, May 23, 2025 (updated at 18:30 JST, May 23)

In winning his third career title in March, ozeki Onosato needed a victory in a championship playoff. This time around, he didn’t even need the full 15 days, and earned the ultimate payoff for his effort.

Onosato clinched the title at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament with two days to spare in Tokyo on Friday, defeating Kotozakura in an all-ozeki clash to assure his promotion to the top rank of yokozuna after just 13 tournaments as a pro.

“I’m happy,” Onosato said. “Each day, I tried to focus on that day’s bout.”

The 24-year-old, needing a win to assure he will walk off with the Emperor’s Cup on the final day for the fourth time in his career, was never in danger in an all-ozeki clash with Kotozakura.

After absorbing a strong charge on the jump-off, Onosato shrugged off a stiff-arm to the throat, then worked his way in for a belt hold, keep his body low and easily bulled Kotozakura over the edge to stay undefeated at 13-0. Kotozakura fell to 8-5.

The consecutive titles fulfills the Japan Sumo Association criteria for promotion to yokozuna, which will be officially decided soon after the end of the tournament. He will join Mongolian Hoshoryu at the top rank and give the sport its first native Japanese yokozuna since Kisenosato retired in January 2019.

Onosato, however, was not ready to talk about the promotion. “As the tournament is not yet finished, I want to concentrate and do my best over the last two days.”

Onosato’s rise to the pinnacle has been as quick as it has been spectacular. The Ishikawa Prefecture native joined the pro ranks out of Nippon Sport Science University, starting out in the third-tier makushita division in May 2023.

He needed just four tournaments to make it to the upper-most makuuchi division, and earned promotion to ozeki after winning the Autumn tournament in September 2024. He has yet to post a losing record in any tournament.

There were five wrestlers who began the day with 9-3 records, and four of them paired up. That assured that at least two would win, meaning that Onosato needed a victory to clinch the title on Friday.

Komusubi Wakatakakage won the first direct pairing, forcing out No. 17 maegashira Asakoryu to improve to 10-3. In the second pairing and final match of the day, Hoshoryu showed the pride of the top rank, fighting off a spirited effort from sekiwake Daieisho to notch his 10th win.

Earlier, sekiwake Kirishima, a former ozeki, joined the group at 10-3 by forcing out No. 6 maegashira Oshoma.

Komusubi Takayasu, trying to salvage a tournament that has seen him as the lone member of the sanyaku — the three ranks below yokozuna — to be assured of a losing record, slapped down No. 4 maegashira Ichiyamamoto to improve to 4-9.

It is a marked difference from the last tournament when the former ozeki came up within one win of first career title, which eluded him when he lost the playoff in March to Onosato.