September Basho Wrap-up

27 Sep, 2026

A few weeks ago I posted my pre-basho thoughts on what potential storylines might develop in the first week. I intened to do a folloup at the 8-day mark, but life gets in the way sometimes.

The tournament finished today, so let's see how many of these came to fruition! I've phrased them as questions this time whether it makes sense or not - I'm trying to invent a format here, give me a break.

Yokozuna

Hoshoryu Out After Surgery?

Not a lot to report here - he stayed out like he should, hopefully he'll wait until he's fully healthy and come back swinging.

Onosato Back From Injury?

The big question was simple - is he back or is he simply no longer incapable of pushing? By day 8 against mostly Maegashira opponents it looked much better than July. His 7-1 record was slightly blemished by the manner of his single loss - a really goofy bit of tawara ballet gone wrong, immortalised in Discord's current favoured GIF engine as "oh-no-sato". By the end of the basho it was clear he had lost some steam - still able to dominate weaker opponents but with consecutive losses against Ozeki Kirishima and Kotozakura it looked very possible he might lose the basho in a decider against Aonishiki, but he is very much the Rock to Ao's Scissors. A basho well won, it's good to see a Yokozuna able to fight at this level again, but he's clearly still only at ~80%.

Ozeki

Kirishima Yokozuna Run?

With a jun-yusho in July, a strong 13-win yusho would very likely give Kirishima the rope - but by day 8 that dream was already toast. 5-3 with losses to Takayasu, Yoshinofuji, and Churanoumi meant the best he could hope for was some kind of playoff at 12 wins, and immediate losses to Daieisho and Fujiryoga put him in danger of a losing record, needing 3 wins against Sekiwake+ opponents. It didn't look great, but he managed to close it out with a big upset win against Onosato gave him the buffer to lose to Aonishiki and still have a chance against Kotozakura, which he took for an 8-7 record. He'll be Ozeki for at least 2 more tournaments, and can focus on rebuilding for a future run.

Aonishiki Starting a Yokozuna run?

It was pure hype-driven thinking, but Aonishiki has shown incredible grit winning in July with an injured ankle - if it had healed in September he'd surely be a threat. It hadn't healed though, and he spent much of the inter-basho tour sitting out practice. By Day 8 it was looking grim - after a 3-0 start he lost 3 on the bounce and was sitting at 5-3 just like Kirishima. Unlike Kiri though, he just never looked like losing after that point - 6 straight wins put him tied for the lead and in a simple playofff-style Day 15 bout against Onosato. The big Yokozuna is still too much muscle for Aonishiki to grapple though and it was short work. Still, an incredible run of results with an injury that directly hampers his preferred style. November will be interesting.

Sekiwake and Komusubi

Atamifuji on a tenuous Ozeki run?

Atamin needed 12 wins for an ozeki promotion, or 10+ to make his life easier for promotion next basho. By Day 8 it was still on - 6-2 including a loss to Aonishiki was very workable. He even improved to 8-2, but after that the wheels fell off. 5 consecutive losses to end the basho, including a loss to Roga that is somewhat unforgivable in this context. Now he'll need 13+ wins next basho - not impossible, but it's a level of consistency he's never had in either of the 15-match divisions.

Sekiwake Fujinokawa has everything to prove?

I expressed a lot of doubts about Fujinokawa's ability to keep up when the top guys were healthy - only Aonishiki was visibly injured among his opponents so he'd have to show his best. By Day 8, I think the doubter in me was feeling justified - 6-2 with losses to the Tebaraki brothers, but a key win against Aonishiki, and all his toughest opposition yet to come. But goddamn this kid can move. His win against Kotozakura in particular felt like a perfect demo of his style - hit, shift, find an oppening, then apply power. At any point, he can transition to an evasive pulling strategy. he did this against Atamifuji on the final day, and it was like a magic trick. 11-4 is an outstanding record for a san'yaku debut, and sets him up for a potential Ozeki run over the next 2 basho.

Upper Maegashira (1-5)

Koto-bros Sharing M1?

Sharing the top spot but with a massive gulf in experience - by day 8 they both looked stunned. 3-5 for Kotoshoho, 2-6 for Kotoeiho, fairly standard Maegashira 1 scores. Shoho recovered a bit with consecutive wins for 5-5, but took a nasty head to the face against Churanoumi on day 11 and had his bell rung hard. Hard enough to sit out the rest of the basho. Kotoeiho scraped together some late wins for a 5-10 record, technically tying his brother but I think the nod of "better in defeat" goes to the Elder Kotoshoho.

Fujiryoga at a career high rank again?

He's like a ratchet - never losing position on the banzuke, but with a new career high rank could he keep up with the increased scrutiny of the joi? On day 8 it looked like a solid "maybe" - 3-5 with some hard-fought wins and a mix of understandable and less-so losses against the likes of Kotozakura, Atamifuji, Roga, and Takanosho. His record was good enough that he stayed fighting joi opposition though, his lowest ranked opponent was M5w Oshoma, and he strung together 5 wins out of the last 7 witha freebie from Kotoshoho's absence. A solid 8-7 outcome keeps the ratchet moving, and with the results around him he might get a pretty substantial boost to his rank this time. Another new challenge awaits.

Lower Maegashira (6-17)

I'll keep these mostly brief - these were pretty speculative at the time, and have mostly stayed that way.

Takerufuji back in the pack?

"If he's 6-2 or better I think we start to get excited." I said that last time. On day 8, he was 5-3, but looking comfortable with it. He pingponged wins and losses from there, finishing 9-6 - solid! Clearly belongs in the fight, but don't expect another yusho anytime soon at this rate.

Shishi grinding his way up?

Honestly a dire start for Shishi - 3-5 against opposition that are never easy - Ura, Wakamotoharu, Asanoyama are all totally normal losses here. The second half was better, as he got a lot of M13 and below bouts to even it up by day 14 - losing to Asasuiryu on the last day giving him a solid enough 7-8 at a career high rank.

God I really hope Wakanosho isn't still hurt?

Thank god he stayed home. I honestly don't want to see him in November either, despite what that's gonna do to his rank.

Makuuchi Debutants - Asasuiryu and Toshinofuji?

Split fortunes for these two - Asasuiryu started 4-4 vs Toshinofuji's 6-2, but despite Asa getting on-paper harder opposition in the second half (5 M10 or higher opponents to Toshi's 3), the scores evened somewhat with 8-7 and 9-6 records respectively. Great debuts with some really gutsy performances, from two totally physically opposite wrestlers.

Wrap-Up

Overall, this was a really fun basho - it looked for a while like Onosato might run away with it, two wins clear of the competition while the ozeki were struggling, but Sumo finds a way. While I wish the final bout was more of a pitched battle, that's just not how Onosato wrestles. Win or lose, he does it fast. I'm sure there's some database out there that tracks match durations, and if there is I'd wager his distribution is an outlier.

A small note as a follow-up on my previous post about some Sumo Stats, we have another 12-3 yusho. This is the 6th in a row, a genuinely unheard of run. We've previously had a couple of 3-basho runs at 12 wins, both starting in 2022 and both containing a bunch of absences from the sole Yokozuna Terunofuji. Between 1958 and 2021, there had never been more than 2 consecutive 12-3 yusho. I hasten to reiterate here - I don't think this means the tournaments are bad or the quality of sumo has dropped. What it primarily means is that there is no-one stronger-than-the-rest-enough to keep the numbers up. Whether that's "everyone is shit now" or "everyone is strong now" is a matter of debate that doesn't interest me.

Right now it feels like Sumo is in a decent place. Injuries are this never-ending concern at the top and one that can only be resolved with compassion and understanding, something the organisations running things aren't really known for. A key takeaway for me personally (and I've seen this said elsewhere) is that the intra-basho tours are clearly not helping things.

A lot of hay was made pre-basho about how much practice Kirishima was doing - the last of which was his 12-1 practice session against Fujinokawa¹, who beat him in the tournament itself as part of Kiri's barely-good-enough kachikoshi. Aonishiki, on the other hand, has barely done any pre-basho practice for the last two tournaments and has gone 23-7 on a busted ankle. It's not just injured athletes who need rest, everyone does, and I hope (likely in vain) that the JSA takes this on-board.

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