Report card: 2024 Natsu Basho Part 5 - Midorifuji, Meisei, Onosho, Ura and Oho

Continuing to grade the rikishi who featured at the 2024 summer basho.

The new banzuke drops next week and I am hard at work trying to get all my 2024 natsu basho content done and dusted before that. For part five of my report card series I have a fun bunch to look at: Midorifuji, Meisei, Onosho, Ura and Oho. This might be the most watchable cohort this tournament. Though, other than Meisei, they would all be pretty disappointed in their records.

Let’s see what went wrong for them.

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Midorifuji

Rank: Maegashira 6 West
Record: 5-10
Grade: E

Midorifuji had another poor showing in May. That gives him three make-kochi in a row for the first time in his top division career. In 2024 he’s 17-28 with two 5-10 tournaments.

After a good 2023, I think the division has caught up to Midorifuji. Everyone knows how potent his katasukashi is at this point and we are now seeing lots of guys put a lot of attention into defending that move. Those opponents are able to commit a lot of energy to that defense because they feel confident that Midorifuji can’t beat them if he’s not dragging down one of their limbs.

See how Meisei handled Midorifuji below:

Midorifuji immediately tried to isolate one of Meisei’s arms off the tachiai. To execute the katasukashi he needs to lock in one underhook and then bring his free hand over the top and push down on his opponent’s shoulder, on the same side he has the underhook.

You can see above that Meisei was able to halt Midorifuji at the underhook stage, by first keeping his arms close to his side and then by using his elbow as a shield. When Meisei felt that Midorifuji didn’t have a hold of him, he shot backwards and forced the smaller man to chase him. This ended with Midorifuji over reaching and being driven down to the clay.

Midorifuji had similar trouble with Shonannoumi (below).

Shonannoumi also blocked Midorifuji from setting up the katasukashi. He did it by making sure he had Midorifuji at arm’s length, not allowing him to get close enough to secure an underhook. Instead of jumping back like Meisei did, Shonannoumi opted to push forwards when he was confident Midorifuji was no threat.

Hoshoryu, who was caught out by Midorifuj’s katasukashi in the March tournament, blocked the move this time around by using an overhook. See that below.

Hoshoryu locked on his overhook (which by default gave Midorifuji an underhook) and then used his free arm to attack the opposite side, making sure Midorifuji couldn’t use his free arm to attack his left shoulder.

Sadly this tournament really showed how one dimensional Midorifuji has become, as he over relies on the pull downs against wrestlers who are sick of being caught with them.

I’d like to see him employ some trips in the forthcoming tournament. I think all the attention folks are paying to his upper body might give him good opportunities to use inside foot sweeps and outside leg trips. He might be able to finish some bouts with those alone or, at the very least, he could destabilize opponents and allow himself to push them out or over.

Takerufuji

Rank: Maegashira 6 East
Record: 0-0-15
Grade: Ungraded

Takerufuji sat out the entire 2024 natsu basho due to the ankle injury he suffered against Asanoyama on the penultimate day of the 2024 haru basho. Takerufuji made the wise decision to not push his luck here and to rehab his leg with hopes of another strong campaign in Nagoya (where he will be competing from a pretty friendly ranking spot).

Meisei

Rank: Maegashira 5 West
Record: 10-5
Grade: B+

Meisei was a lot of fun to watch this tournament. He’s one of the most active wrestlers in the division and he is capable of unsettling opponents with his constant pressure. He pressures with thrusts but also with changes in position. He doesn’t like to stand still for too long. Instead he’ll get his licks in and then side step to create some space only to crash back into his opponent for more attacks.

His bout with Onosho (below) is a good example of this.

One move Meisei has in his arsenal that I really love is his body roll. In the above bout he uses it on Onosho after the tachiai. He triggers this move after Onosho has some success pushing him backwards. The move serves both defensive and offensive purposes. It deflects Onosho’s forward pressure and then carves a beautiful opening for Meisei to attack. Onosho is fast on his feet, so he was able to get square to Meisei quickly after the body roll to take away the strong angle Meisei had created. In this situation Meisei moved away again to create more distance and take advantage of Onosho as he tried to catch up.

In his bout with Kinbozan (below), the body roll was even more effective.

This time Meisei’s opponent had all sorts of problems sorting his feet out after the move. Kinbozan was not able to get himself square to Meisei after this and Meisei was able to thrust against his side and score a good win.

When he fought Shonannoumi (below), the body roll was taken away from him because Shonannoumi pinned his right arm (while probably looking for a kotenage). Meisei found a different route to get side on, though. He slipped around Shonannoumi, grabbed the back of his belt and then put all of his weight into Shonannoumi’s hip for the force out.

This record might see Meisei jump to komusubi. At 28, he still has time to improve on that (though I doubt he makes it past his former best mark of sekiwake). Either way, though, I expect him to continue to be one of the most entertaining rikishi to watch.

Onosho

Rank: Maegashira 5 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: D+

This was a frustrating tournament for Onosho, who banked a losing record on Day 13. This was a slight step backwards for him after impressive showings in March (9-6) and January (10-5). Onosho often struggles when he gets this high in the rankings, going 3-12 at M5 in November. You have to go back to 2021 for a tournament where Onosho got a kachi-koshi from M5 or higher. This might suggest that, at 27, Onosho may have already peaked.

However, I don’t feel like his body is a problem. I think it’s more an issue of style. Onosho is a bully and he likes to drive through his opponents. He can beat up on plenty of guys when he is ranked in the middle or bottom rungs of the makuuchi. But when he’s knocking on the door of the joi he is often exposed against opponents he can’t bully with his presence or relentless pressure.

This tournament was a lesson in “You reach, I teach” for Onosho, with him doing the reaching.

See below for three examples which all show Onosho over-committing on his forward drives (versus, Ura, Kotonowaka and Tobizaru). Each time he finds success in moving his opponent back off the tachiai (no mean feat against Kotozakura). However, once he feels that success he leans in and drives forwards with reckless abandonment. In each of these examples he ends up on his face. This happens because when he’s going forwards he is only thinking of pushing and is not trying to do anything more nuanced with his arm positioning. He is also either not recognizing or ignoring what his opponents’ are doing with their arms.

Against Ura, Onosho drives forwards and allows Ura to lock up his left arm for the finisher.

Against Kotozakura, he had a good idea about putting his right hand into his opponent’s armpit, but, again, he neglected to defend his left arm. Kotozakura was able to leverage that limb for a throw down as he deftly stepped to his side.

And versus Tobizaru, Onosho gets hung up in the middle of the ring with Tobizaru’s hand on his throat. Instead of pushing Tobizaru’s hand away, he tries to push forwards, through the hand. Tobizaru felt that and stepped away, letting Onosho’s forward momentum do the work for him.

If Onosho is to avoid this problem, he needs to become less linear with his attacks. He has good lateral movement in defense, but when he’s pushing he looks like a train on a straight track. He could also take some pointers from Meisei. Imagine if he is used that body roll on Tobizaru…

Ura

Rank: Maegashira 4 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: C

This tournament was a Tale of Two Uras. And for the first six days of this tournament is was the best of times for sumo fans as we started to dream about a yusho for the Peach Prince.

Ura’s hot start to the basho, where he set a personal record for six wins in a row, included victories over Oho, Meisei, Onosho, Midorifuji, Nishikigi and Mitakeumi. On Day 7 the match-making got a lot harder for Ura and his win streak was broken by Kotozakura. He then lost his next eight bouts (against top tier opponents such as Hoshoryu, Abi, Daieisho and Onosato). On the final day of the tournament he got a conciliation win over Wakamotoharu.

When putting together his win streak, Ura looked as active as ever and scored wins with a diverse collection of kimarite (katasukashi, uwatedashinage, oshitaoshi…). Unlike in the past, though, it didn’t seem like he was reaching for these moves. It all felt very appropriate, while still being fun to watch.

Ura also looked like he had a bit of a mean streak early on, too.

See his win over Midorifuji below, where he powered the smaller wrestler back into the first row. It looked like he put a little extra mustard on that one.

He was back to his friendly self for this win over Mitakeumi, though. After his excellently timed pulling force out he made sure to grab the former ozeki’s belt to ensure Mitakeumi didn’t take an unnecessary bump off of the dohyo.

There’s no real mystery over why Ura’s record fell off in the second week of the tournament. He was just facing a much higher calibre of opponent. All of those he faced on that run, other than Kotoshoho, have the edge over him in their head-to-head stats.

Hoshoryu is now 6-4 vs. Ura thanks to the crush out below.

The Hoshoryu bout above (and Onosato bout below) illustrated how Ura can struggle when he goes up against very athletic and aggressive opponents. These are guys who usually won’t stay in place long enough for Ura to work his magic on them.

I wrote at length about how Ura struggles against the san’yaku a few tournaments ago (link). The short version is that Ura likes to create highlights more than he likes to win and that’s just fine. When he’s looking for the spectacular against elite opponents, though, his attempts are usually stuffed and he ends up getting put down and/or out in short order.

Oho

Rank: Maegashira 4 East
Record: 6-9
Grade: D

This was a funny tournament for Oho. His six wins came against largely elite opposition, including Hoshoryu, Kirishima, Abi and Wakamotoharu. The other two wins were against Midorifuji and Hiradoumi (who I think has a shot at future elite status).

However, he lost to Tamawashi, Atamifuji, Gonoyama and started the tournament in an 0-4 hole after losing to Ura, Onosho, Meisei and Tobizaru.

Let’s talk about what Oho does well… He stays upright.

He’s a powerful, albeit slow, thruster. His slow-twitch thrusting style means he usually has his feet pretty set whenever he delivers a thrust. This means he is usually in a very stable position and he is able to recover well whenever his thrusts miss the mark or when his opponent creates space.

You can see against Kirishima (below) how Oho was able to stay on his feet after Kirishima side-stepped. He was then quickly in a position to thrust. That thrust then lead to a great step back and slap down combination.

His bout with Hoshoryu (who he has a 4-2 record against) looked similar. And it ended with the same power thrust, step back, slap down combo.

As far as what Oho doesn’t do well… In addition to not being very quick, like many pusher-thrusters Oho is a head-hunter and, when focusing so much on the chest-up battle, he can neglect what’s going on below that.

Faster thrusters like Abi and Ichiyamamoto create enough chaos that they can get away with it at times, but Oho doesn’t have that luxury.

See his bout with Tobizaru below. Oho focused on Tobizaru’s shoulders, but in doing so he doesn’t block Tobizaru’s low attack — targeted on his belt. Once Tobizaru secured that up he was able to rather easily get around Oho and maneuver him out.

Below is his bout with the quicker Tamawashi. Tamawashi found success by thrusting under Oho’s hands. This comes after Oho defends his high thrusts. Once Tamawashi locks in on Oho’s midsection he was able to get Oho moving backwards.

At 24, Oho still has lots of upside. And he has amazing size, which is something you can’t teach. He’s struggled a little since achieving his highest rank ever in March (M3), but he’s not been blown out of the water. A big reason for that is how competitive he has been against the san’yaku.

I’m optimistic Oho can continue to improve and I suspect he’ll have a good record in Nagoya after he’s demoted down to M5 or M6.

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Thanks for reading everyone! Next up is grades for Tobizaru, Takayasu, Gonoyama, Hiradoumi, Daieisho and Atamifuji.

Then I’ll have a piece on just the san’yaku. Oh, and don’t forget, I have a deep dive on just Onosato in the works, too.

Take care all!