Report Card: 2024 Natsu Basho - Part 1: Tsurugisho, Takarafuji, Tomokaze, Roga and Tokihayate
The following post was first published on Sumo Stomp! on June 4.
The latest grand sumo tournament came to an end a few weeks ago. Young phenom Onosato walked away with his first Emperor’s Cup thanks to a sterling 11-4 record. Between tournaments I like to grade every rikishi who appeared in the makuuchi (top division). Here is the first of my report cards for the 2024 natsu basho (summer tournament). In this post I’ll be focusing on the injured Tsurugisho and Tomokaze, the struggling Roga, the rookie Tokihayate and the former sekiwake Takarafuji.
Let’s get into it!
Tsurugisho
Rank: Maegashira 17 East
Record: 3-12
Grade: E
Tsurugisho is juryo bound after his 3-12 record in May. His poor performance shouldn’t come as a surprise. In March, during a bout with Hiradoumi, he went down as if he’d been tagged in the knee by a sniper. He sat out the remainder of that tournament, but after being demoted to maegashira 17 Tsurugisho must have felt like he had to suit up and give it a go in May to try and save his makuuchi skin.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to overcome what may have been a pretty serious injury. On Days 2 and 3 he beat Tomokaze and Tokihayate (we’ll look at those later), but after that he went 1-11. The only win there was a victory over Oshoma, who looked like he was taking it easy on him. In that bout Oshoma used some very light thrusting and then got surprised when Tsurugisho summoned up enough strength to grab his belt and turn him 180 degrees towards the boundary and force him out. Tsurugisho took a nasty fall off the dohyo after that and it looked like his knee took another knock during the process.
The gifs below showcase how hurt and diminished Tsurugisho was for the majority of the basho. You can see the pain in his face versus Ryuden on Day 6.
And this final day bout with Nishikigi is one of the more gentle sumo bouts you could ever see. Nishikigi was also battling injury in this tournament and by Day 15 I think both guys just wanted to get it over with.
When Tsurugisho is healthy he’s one of the best oversized wrestlers in the maegashira. He has a ton of strength and a surprising amount of foot speed. However, like so many guys his size, if something is not operating at 100% he can become a push over rather quickly. Shockingly, Tsurugisho is only 32, so he should have enough years in front of him to recover from this and possibly get back to makuuchi.
Takarafuji
Rank: Maegashira 16 Wast
Record: 9-6
Grade: B
Takarafuji returned to makuuchi in May after just one tournament in juryo. And the former sekiwake looked great versus the lower rungs of the maegashira (better than he did during his single 8-7 juryo campaign). He was a wins leader for the first half of the tournament after going 7-1. That included a 5-0 start with wins over Tsurugisho, Tokihayate, Roga, Tomokaze and Daiamami.
Below is his win over Tomokaze on Day 4.
Most of his wins looked like this in May. He started with a defensive tachiai move, closing in his arms to block belt grabs and deflect thrusts. From there he used hand fighting to prevent his opponent establishing their game plan. Then he jutted to the side and found either a slap down or a rear push out opportunity.
This worked well against low ranked wrestlers, but once the matchmaking shifted from rank to record, Takarafuji was terribly exposed.
Against the more athletic wrestlers of the upper maegashira he was unable to withstand the opening clashes. And in the hand-fighting he wasn’t quick enough to deflect their strikes. Those better (and usually younger) wrestlers were able to stick with Takarafuji after his side-steps too and hound him out of the ring.
See his Day 12 bout with Onosato below.
Watch how Takarafuji tries to fight the same bout against Kinbozan as he did against Tomokaze, only for Kinbozan’s strength and speed to nullify all his defensive work.
Takarafuji’s second half of the tournament saw him go 3-5 to leave him with a 9-6 record. He should be pretty satisfied with that, though, since it gives him a solid foothold back in the division.
Tomokaze
Rank: Maegashira 16 East
Record: 2-13
Grade: F
Tomokaze must have been injured in this tournament. His familiar mummified right foot seemed to grow over the course of the basho and he had a bunch of athletic tape from his ankle all the way up to the top of his thigh.
If his entire right leg was seriously hampered, that would explain his lack of explosiveness and mobility throughout this tournament.
On Day 2 he met Tsurugisho and showed that he wasn’t fit enough (or good enough) to take out a fellow seriously injured rikishi.
The injury widened a lot of holes in Tomokaze’s game. It highlighted that he is only mid (as the kids’ say) when it comes to size, strength and movement. So anytime he meets someone with above average abilities in either of those departments he finds it very difficult to win.
The below bout against Bushozan is quite telling. Bushozan lacks in size, but beats Tomokaze in strength and movement (at least while Tomokaze is injured). In this bout none of Tomokaze’s thrusts result in stopping Bushozan coming forwards and when he gets put on the back foot, he’s unable to beat Bushozan in a foot race to side-step out of danger.
Tomokaze turns 30 this year. He has eight makuuchi basho under his belt, four of those came in 2019 before a knee injury and surgery forced him down to the jonidan. Since fighting back to makuuchi he’s gone 7-8, 5-10 and now 2-13. Unfortunately I think Tomokaze may have spent all his fight getting back to the top division and I’m not sure how much he has left to improve from here on out.
Roga
Rank: Maegashira 15 West
Record: 7-8
Grade: D
Roga’s 7-8 looks worse when you consider his opponents in this tournament. His wins came over the walking wounded Tomokaze, Tsurugisho and Mitoryu and the underperforming Nishikifuji and Tokihayate. His only other wins were over Ryuden and Hokutofuji, both by henka.
In his win over Nishikifuji on Day 12, one of the few wrestlers he can match and slightly exceed when it comes to strength and movement. However, the real deciding factor in this bout was Roga’s grappling. Once he was able to hold onto Nishikifuji’s belt he did a great Takayasu impression (and not just because of the hair on his back), twisting Nishikifuji outside while simultaneously dragging him forwards for the uwatedashinage.
There are not many guys he can drag around like that, though. In his bout with Oshoma (below) you can see how lacking he is in the strength department after Oshoma’s excellently timed shoulder roll sends him all the way to the straw.
And against Ichiyamamoto, Roga wasn’t strong enough to push Diet Abi’s arms off of his throat and thus prevent the set-up for the hatakikomi (something he should have assumed Ichiyamamoto would play for).
Roga is still yet to bank a winning record in makuuchi. He’s gotten a 5-10 and now two 7-8 records. There’s a chance he could be back down to juryo on the back of this make-koshi.
Personally, I think he needs to just commit to the bit and become a henka troll.
Tokihayate
Rank: Maegashira 15 East
Record: 6-9
Grade: D+
I was expecting more from Tokihayate in his makuuchi debut. I thought his defensive grappling and evasiveness would be enough for the rather slow and tired ranks that make up the bottom third of the maegashira.
He had some nice moments, like in this bout with Hokutofuji (who is likely still some way away from full fitness). In this bout he was able to prevent himself being pushed back by using underhooks and twisting Hokutofuji over to one side, making his foot rise from the clay. He almost scored an underarm throw from that position, but despite missing it he had the wherewithal to figure out his feet on the retreat and take Hokutofuji down as he charged forwards.
He was able to get a good win over Ryuden in a similar fashion, too. In that bout he was able to defend and then attack with an overhook this time (on Ryuden’s right side). In both bouts Tokihayate does a really good job of shifting his hips to get momentum to both cancel out his opponent’s tosses and to generate the torque he needs for his own.
Tokihayate needs to get his opponents moving in order to pull of those kinds of moves, though. If he can’t move someone, then he’s in trouble. As you can see below; when the banged up Tsurugisho stuffs his attempts to turn him and then simply shrugs him out.
I have more confidence in Tokihayate improving, compared to Tomokaze and Roga. I feel this way because his movement is really above average and that single advantage should be enough to help him stick around in this part of the division. I hope he doesn’t get demoted here (even though there are a good number of juryo guys warranting promotion). I’d really like to see him compete at makuuchi in Nagoya and see if can get a kashi-kochi without the need for more seasoning down in juryo.
Thanks for reading this mini report card for the May tournament. I’ll be back soon with my report card on the next six ranked wrestlers on the banzuke: Ryuden, Oshoma, Mitoryu, Churanoumi and Nishikifuji.
If you like this work, and want to support more of it getting made, please consider subscribing to Sumo Stomp! on Substack.