Report card: 2024 Natsu Basho Part 6 - Tobizaru, Takayasu, Gonoyama, Hiradoumi, Daieisho and Atamifuji

Grading how the joi performed at the summer tournament.

Welcome to my penultimate report card for the 2024 summer basho. As far as my experiment goes (with breaking up the report cards into multiple smaller posts), I’m certainly going to continue to break up the report cards. However, I think I need to make each of them a lot more succinct. That way I can get them out sooner and hopefully have more downtime between tournaments. That’s downtime I could spend working on something else for this place (or just relaxing).

Anyways, though, we’re here to talk sumo. And below I have my write-ups for a group of guys who were trying to claw their way into the san’yaku. Below I’ve got Tobizaru, Takayasu, Gonoyama, Hiradoumi, Daieisho and Atamifuji.

Let’s get into it.

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Tobizaru

Rank: Maegashira 3 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D+

Tobizaru took home a losing record in May. However, the fact he’s able to get close to kachi-koshi (and often achieve it) while ranked here or hereabouts, despite his size disadvantage, is worthy of a lot of praise. Tobizaru has been ranked in the upper half of the maegashira since 2020. He was promoted to themakuuchi that year, scored 11-4 in his first tournament, and was promoted to M4. Since then he’s only lost double-digit bouts on two occasions (both in 2021). Since 2021 he’s been one of the most consistent and competitive wrestlers in the division.

Unfortunately, his semi-regular 7-8s mean he has never progressed past komusubi, but being a staple of the joi for so long is an achievement in itself. And it’s also easy to forgive his losing records given how much excitement he packs into every bout (and how enjoyable he is to follow outside of the dohyo).

But how does he stay so competitive? First and foremost it’s his division leading evasive skills. He fights with a buoyancy that makes him hard to catch and control. He’s basically sumo’s version of Flubber. That’s a double edged sword, though. Because he’s so bouncy, when someone does catch up with him he’s easy to bounce all the way into the second and third rows.

Tobizaru walks a tight rope in every bout. Sometimes he stays on, other times he falls. With this approach to fighting, I don’t think a 6-9 record is all that shabby.

On Day 1 in May everything went right for him and he was able to stay on that tight rope, despite everything Abi threw at him. In the bout below you can really see how good Tobizaru’s footwork is. He was able to navigate the straw, blindly, while side-stepping and curving away from his opponent. You can see how close his feet came to stepping outside the boundary, but he’s able to keep them in bounds even with Abi breathing down his neck.

On Day 2 we saw the risks involved with Tobizaru’s approach. Wakamotoharu clocked him with a forearm off the tachiai and tried to get close to him. Tobizaru was determined to not get trapped, though. He bounced back and came very close to scoring a win. Unfortunately for him he touched down first.

Hiradoumi had a similar idea to Wakamotoharu, he wanted to lock up Tobizaru to prevent any of his sorcery along the boundary. Unlike Wakamotoharu, Hiradoumi was able to stick to Tobizaru and leave no doubts over who went out first.

Tobi will get a small demotion off the back of this tournament (maybe to M5 or 6). I expect him to get a kachi-koshi in Nagoya from that position (and put on a show while doing so).

Takayasu

Rank: Maegashira 3 East
Record: 7-3-5
Grade: C+

It was another “what could have been” tournament for Takayasu. He looked fantastic up until an injury popped up and ruined his basho. He started his tournament off with wins over Wakamotoharu and eventual winner Onosato.

He was then kyujo for Day 3. He returned on Day 9 and went 5-2 to finish the tournament, beating Hoshoryu and Kotozakura.

Takayasu is so good. But it’s painful how much his injury problems have robbed from him in the last few years. I have no doubts that if he was injury free in this tournament he would have been a major factor in the closing days of the basho. Just look how he handled Onosato!

By now we all know how special Onosato is. And we know how strong he is, too. But look at how this banged up 34-year-old was able to stop the phenom in his tracks.

Takayasu is the best defensive wrestler in sumo and he showed that in the Onosato bout. Onosato went for Takayasu’s belt off the tachiai. This is a tactic Onosato began using in this tournament, so Takayasu probably had no idea Onosato would do anything other than plow into him and hit him in the chest. It’s amazing that Takayasu reacted so quickly and blocked off that hand from his belt. He then executed a pivot to break Onosato’s grip on the other side of his belt. From there Takayasu hand fought and then resisted both a hatakikomi and a hikiotoshi. Takayasu blocking off all these attacks, left Onosato befuddled and out of position, leading to his fall along the straw.

Takayasu’s defense was also on full display against Hoshoryu (below).

This bout featured a prolonged stare down, with Hoshoryu doing his best to intimidate the former ozeki. Takayasu looked like he couldn’t care less, though. When the fight began, Hoshoryu tried to do what he does better than anyone else. But Takayasu blocked off his judo throws, first by attacking Hoshoryu’s grip and then by checking his attempt to hook his left leg. After he blocked the throw he was able to muscle Hoshoryu down for a very satisfying finish.

Takayasu is capable of quite incredible feats of strength on the dohyo. Check out how he flung Gonoyama to the ground with one hand (his non dominant hand, too).

Now I’m praying that the notoriously slippery clay in Nagoya won’t result in Papayasu slipping and suffering yet another injury.

Gonoyama

Rank: Maegashira 2 West
Record: 6-9
Grade: D+

Gonoyama was promoted to his highest ever rank for this tournament (thanks in part to two fusen victories in his 10-5 run in March). He did OK at M2 and really deserves a lot of praise for being able to stick around at M6 and higher for the last year (he was promoted to makuuchi for the first time at last year’s Nagoya basho).

Gonoyama has managed to stick around the high maegashira ranks despite only having one mode. Also, Gonoyama has not been able to progress beyond the high maegashira ranks because he only has one mode. That mode is fast forwards.

Here’s what it looks like when it works (versus an out of sorts Kirishima).

Here’s what it looks like when it’s against someone much quicker than him (against a flourishing Abi).

And here’s what it looks like against someone much stronger than him (versus an unstoppable Onosato).

Gonoyama is essentially playing Takakeisho and Daieisho’s game, but without their bodies. Takakeisho and Daieisho are able to be successful because there is only a very small pool of wrestlers who are stronger than them. There’s plenty who are faster and they are often exposed when they face those guys. But they rarely lose more than a single bout per basho due to someone out-muscling them.

Gonoyama, on the other hand, is going to keep getting so-so records if he’s OK with being outfoxed by more agile opponents and out-muscled by bigger and stronger opponents.

He could focus on adding muscle to make him more competitive with the Onosatos and Daieishos of this world. But I’d rather see him change up his tactics and be more willing to bounce around his opponents, instead of trying to gut it out and push through them.

Hiradoumi

Rank: Maegashira 2 East
Record: 9-6
Grade: B

This tournament was a real coming out party for Hiradoumi. Like Gonoyama, he knows only one mode. However, his fast forward approach has a lot more nuance to it. Gonoyama’s pushing is piston-like and focused on just pushing foes backwards. Hiradoumi is more conscious of the direction he is pushing someone.

Against Takakeisho, who he beat on Day 1 (for the first time in his career), he thrusted upwards to defect Takakeisho’s opening thrust. Then he pushed against Takakeisho’s chest to get Takakeisho to the boundary. He then pushed the chest a second time, but with an upward angle, bending Takakeisho’s back backwards and making it very hard for Takakeisho to respond. Hiradoumi then changed levels and pushed Takakeisho’s abdomen for the win.

Hiradoumi is not only proficient at changing levels on a vertical plane. He also does it along the horizontal plane. He rocks his body to either side when attacking and generates force in thrusts that hit off centre on his target. Those off centre thrusts are great for putting his opponents off balance and putting their bodies into positions that are difficult to attack from. See how Onosato gets backed up with Hiradoumi’s charge (which was a little early) and how, from there, he was never able to get comfortable or transition from defense to offense.

Hiradoumi wasn’t just a pusher-thruster in this tournament, though. He also showed off some moves that I’m not used to seeing from him. This thrust downiveon Atamifuji (below) is a good example of this. In past tournaments, Hiradoumi would have began frog hopping when Atamifuji tied him up, hoping to power him across the ring (despite Atamifuji having great position for an uwatenage).

Another unexpected move from Hiradoumi was his belt grab on Mitakeumi (below). I think he used this as a defense measure in response to Mitakeumi moving him so far back off the tachiai. Once Hiradoumi grabbed the belt, he used it to pull himself back from the brink and then transition into the winning yorikiri.

I’ve been high on Hiradoumi for a while and I’m delighted to see him develop along this path. I worry that he might be too small to really break into the san’yaku and stay there. But either way he’s a thrilling rikishi to watch and I hope I get to see him tested against the best for the foreseeable future.

Daieisho

Rank: Maegashira 1 West
Record: 11-4 (jun-yusho)
Grade: A-

After being dropped from the san’yaku for this tournament (for the first time in over a year), Daieisho had a chip on his shoulder. His 11-4 runner-up finish was a reminder that he’s an elite rikishi, albeit a very one-dimensional one.

He’s able to get away with his all out thrusting game thanks to his size (and how much of that size is muscle). My critique on him has always been, if he wants to be an ozeki or a yokozuna, he needs to find other ways to beat the elite wrestlers who know how to grapple. In this tournament he continued to fight just one way, but he did it better than he usually does.

In past tournaments Daieisho has made me mad because of how often he is thrusting off his tip toes. In this tournament, though, it looked like he was a lot more stable and really sitting down on his thrusts.

One of his best wins was over Kotozakura (below). Here you can see his feet are fully planted on his most meaningful thrusts. Daieisho showed good defense in this bout, too, slapping away Kotozakura’s hands which were reaching for his belt and breaking a strong nodowa thrust along the boundary.

Daieisho also sat down on his thrusts versus Abi. The winning thrust in their bout (below) came when Daieisho squared himself to Abi and really dug his feet into the clay.

His May game plan helped him earn his way back to the san’yaku. However, he still doesn’t have enough other tricks to make him a serious contender for cups at this stage of his career (especially given the competition around him and how versatile many of them are). The problem with wanting to thrust all the time is that your opponents can be pretty confident about what your next move is going to be. Onosato (below) found himself in lots of space and correctly guessed that Daieisho was going to lean through all that space to try and push him.

The 11 wins for Daieisho are his most wins in a tournament since March, 2023. In that tournament he went 12-3 and lost in a play-off to Kirishima. Since then he’s mostly gone 9-6, but he lost his sekiwake rank with a 6-9 this March. He’ll almost certainly be back in the san’yaku for Nagoya.

Atamifuji

Rank: Maegashira 1 East
Record: 7-8
Grade: C-

It’s so important to remember that Atamifuji is still just 21-years-old. It’s amazing how close he came to winning Emperor’s Cups last year, losing out to a Takakeisho henka at the aki basho and a confident Kirishima in Kyushu. Because of his young age and relative inexperience (just 22 tournaments, six in makuuchi) I think we can be pretty forgiving of this 7-8 record.

He’s not looked like the wrestler who stormed onto the scene last year. But he’s still very good, especially for his young age.

His May tournament got away from him thanks to a five bout losing streak that began on Day 4. That came after he took wins off Hoshoryu and Kirishima.

During that losing streak Atamifuji was repeatedly exposed for leaning too far into his opponents. Below are three instances where his head ended up very far in advance of his toes. Each time it happened his opponent found a way to send him down to the dirt.

Atamifuji had a chance to rescue a kachi-koshi on Day 15. However, he was unable to convert, losing instead to Takanosho (below).

It would be easy to suggest this is Atamifuji’s nerves getting the best of him again (as they did late last year). However, I haven’t seen the same telltale signs of anxiety he displayed when he was fighting with a yusho on the line (false starts, refusal to look at opponents, taking very long before getting set).

I think Takanosho deserves credit for doing a good job in this bout, more so than Atamifuji should be slated for ‘bottling it’. Takanosho got a great hit in off the tachiai and a good underhook and very powerful thrusts (look at how engaged his leg muscles were) earned him the win.

Atamifuji will go down a spot in the banzuke for the next tournament. I think he could benefit from a few tournaments at an even lower ranking, though. In this next tournament he’ll continue to try and figure out his game while facing the toughest opposition possible. I suppose that’s not that terrible for him, given that he’s progressed through the shark tank that is Isegahama.

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I hope you enjoyed this one. I especially enjoyed writing this since there are a couple of guys here I find really fascinating to watch and dissect.

Next up, grades for the san’yaku. It won’t be pretty.