2017 All-Japan Amateur Championship

[Asashosakari 19,542]

The annual major of majors to crown this year's Amateur Yokozuna is taking place in a few hours. If things go the way they did the last couple of years, results will be posted round by round in near-real time here. The tournament starts at 11am JST.

As far as I can tell there will be approximately 32 participants from each of the collegiate and business circuits (actual numbers seem to change year on year), plus the year's two high school major champions, Amarsanaa from the Inter-High and Naya from the Kokutai Juniors. They'll be drawn in groups of four which will compete roundrobin, with everybody advancing who manages to win at least 2 of his 3 matches.

NHK-G will be broadcasting the final rounds live for an hour starting at 5pm JST.

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Quick'n'dirty group results for now...I'll expand the names and add the affiliations later.

Round 1: http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2816/
Round 2: http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2818/
Round 3: http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2821/

Group 1
Shiroyama (1-0)    tsukidashi      Takahashi (0-1)          3-0 Shiroyama (Toyo University)
Igarashi (1-0)     tsukidashi      Tanaka (0-1)             2-1 Igarashi (Iwate Morioka-shi municipal government)
Shiroyama (2-0)    hikiotoshi      Tanaka (0-2)             0-3 Tanaka (Nagasaki prefecture)
Igarashi (2-0)     yorikiri        Takahashi (0-2)          1-2 Takahashi (Doshisha University)
Shiroyama (3-0)    uwatedashinage  Igarashi (2-1)
Takahashi (1-2)    utchari         Tanaka (0-3)

Group 2
Nakashima (0-1)    uwatenage       Sugano (1-0)             0-3 Nakashima (Nihon University)
Shigematsu (1-0)   tsukiotoshi     Higo (0-1)               3-0 Shigematsu (Toyo University)
Nakashima (0-2)    oshidashi       Higo (1-1)               2-1 Higo (Kindai University)
Shigematsu (2-0)   oshidashi       Sugano (1-1)             1-2 Sugano (Chuo University)
Nakashima (0-3)    yorikiri        Shigematsu (3-0)
Sugano (1-2)       oshidashi       Higo (2-1)

Group 3
Terasawa (1-0)     oshidashi       Naya (0-1)               2-1 Terasawa (Toyo University)
Hiroo (0-1)        yorikiri        Tomita G. (1-0)          0-2 Hiroo (Nihon University)
Terasawa (1-1)     uwatenage       Tomita G. (2-0)          3-0 Tomita G. (Wakayama prefectural government)
Hiroo (0-2)        oshidashi       Naya (1-1)               1-2 Naya (Saitama Saitama-shi Sakae HS)
Terasawa (2-1)     yorikiri        Taiji (0-1)              0-1 Taiji (Tokai Gakuen University)
Naya (1-2)         hikiotoshi      Tomita G. (3-0)

Group 4
Kizaki (1-0)       tsukiotoshi     Amarsanaa (0-1)          2-1 Kizaki (Nihon University)
Morimoto (0-1)     yorikiri        Delgerbayar (1-0)        0-3 Morimoto (Wakayama prefectural government)
Kizaki (1-1)       hikiotoshi      Delgerbayar (2-0)        2-1 Delgerbayar (Nihon Taiiku University)
Morimoto (0-2)     yorikiri        Amarsanaa (1-1)          2-1 Amarsanaa (Tottori Tottori-shi Johoku HS)
Kizaki (2-1)       oshidashi       Morimoto (0-3)
Amarsanaa (2-1)    yorikiri        Delgerbayar (2-1)

Group 5
Kurokawa (1-0)     tsuridashi      Nishi (0-1)              2-1 Kurokawa (Aisin Light Metals)
Haga (0-1)         hikiotoshi      Nakai (1-0)              2-1 Haga (Toyo University staff)
Kurokawa (2-0)     oshitaoshi      Nakai (1-1)              2-1 Nakai (Kindai University)
Haga (1-1)         oshitaoshi      Nishi (0-2)              0-3 Nishi (Nihon Taiiku University)
Kurokawa (2-1)     oshidashi       Haga (2-1)
Nishi (0-3)        uwatenage       Nakai (2-1)

Group 6
Nishino (1-0)      tsukidashi      Kato (0-1)               1-2 Nishino (Toyo University)
Tanioka (1-0)      yorikiri        Sasaki (0-1)             2-1 Tanioka (Kindai University)
Nishino (1-1)      uwatedashinage  Sasaki (1-1)             2-1 Sasaki (Tottori prefectural government)
Tanioka (1-1)      hikiotoshi      Kato (1-1)               1-2 Kato (Nihon Taiiku University)
Nishino (1-2)      uwatenage       Tanioka (2-1)
Kato (1-2)         yorikiri        Sasaki (2-1)

Group 7
Fukai (1-0)        tsukiotoshi     Yanaka (0-1)             2-1 Fukai (Toyo University)
Hashimoto (0-1)    yorikiri        Miwa (1-0)               1-2 Hashimoto (Waseda University)
Fukai (1-1)        yorikiri        Miwa (2-0)               3-0 Miwa (Niigata prefecture)
Hashimoto (1-1)    oshidashi       Yanaka (0-2)             0-3 Yanaka (Kyushu Joho University)
Fukai (2-1)        hikiotoshi      Hashimoto (1-2)
Yanaka (0-3)       tsukiotoshi     Miwa (3-0)

Group 8
Arakizeki (1-0)    tsukidashi      Nakamura (0-1)           1-2 Arakizeki (Toyo University staff)
Kurokawa (1-0)     tsukiotoshi     Enami (0-1)              3-0 Kurokawa (Takushoku University)
Arakizeki (1-1)    tsukiotoshi     Enami (1-1)              2-1 Enami (Nihon University)
Kurokawa (2-0)     tsukiotoshi     Nakamura (0-2)           0-3 Nakamura (Aisin Light Metals)
Arakizeki (1-2)    tsukiotoshi     Kurokawa (3-0)
Nakamura (0-3)     oshidashi       Enami (2-1)

Group 9
Furukawa H. (1-0)  oshidashi       Goto (0-1)               2-1 Furukawa H. (Nihon University)
Yoshida (1-0)      oshidashi       Takahashi (0-1)          3-0 Yoshida (Aisin Seiki)
Furukawa H. (2-0)  yorikiri        Takahashi (0-2)          1-2 Takahashi (Nagasaki prefecture)
Yoshida (2-0)      hatakikomi      Goto (0-2)               0-3 Goto (Chiba prefecture)
Furukawa H. (2-1)  oshidashi       Yoshida (3-0)
Goto (0-3)         hikiotoshi      Takahashi (1-2)

Group 10
Miyashita (1-0)    uwatedashinage  Terada (0-1)             2-1 Miyashita (Fukui prefecture)
Sawada (1-0)       uwatenage       Ohara (0-1)              3-0 Sawada (Wakayama prefectural government)
Miyashita (2-0)    uwatenage       Ohara (0-2)              1-2 Ohara (Kyushu Joho University)
Sawada (2-0)       sukuinage       Terada (0-2)             0-3 Terada (Nippon Express)
Miyashita (2-1)    yorikiri        Sawada (3-0)
Terada (0-3)       yorikiri        Ohara (1-2)

Group 11
Kamiyama (0-1)     hatakikomi      Nishikata (1-0)          0-3 Kamiyama (Aisin Seiki)
Sato (1-0)         tsukiotoshi     Yamaguchi (0-1)          2-1 Sato (Nihon Taiiku University)
Kamiyama (0-2)     hatakikomi      Yamaguchi (1-1)          1-2 Yamaguchi (Kindai University)
Sato (1-1)         hikiotoshi      Nishikata (2-0)          3-0 Nishikata (Tochigi prefecture)
Kamiyama (0-3)     tsukiotoshi     Sato (2-1)
Nishikata (3-0)    oshidashi       Yamaguchi (1-2)

Group 12
Motobayashi (1-0)  tsukidashi      Yoshimoto (0-1)          3-0 Motobayashi (Kindai University)
Nakade (1-0)       yorikiri        Hori (0-1)               2-1 Nakade (Toyo University staff)
Motobayashi (2-0)  oshidashi       Hori (0-2)               1-2 Hori (Aisin Light Metals)
Nakade (2-0)       yorikiri        Yoshimoto (0-2)          0-3 Yoshimoto (Ehime prefecture)
Motobayashi (3-0)  hikiotoshi      Nakade (2-1)
Yoshimoto (0-3)    hatakikomi      Hori (1-2)

Group 13
Watanabe (1-0)     hatakikomi      Nishiura (0-1)           1-2 Watanabe (Kindai University)
Murayama (1-0)     uwatedashinage  Kajisako (0-1)           3-0 Murayama (Niigata prefecture)
Watanabe (1-1)     tsukidashi      Kajisako (1-1)           2-1 Kajisako (Toppan Printing)
Murayama (2-0)     tsukiotoshi     Nishiura (0-2)           0-3 Nishiura (Maguchi)
Watanabe (1-2)     hikiotoshi      Murayama (3-0)
Nishiura (0-3)     yorikiri        Kajisako (2-1)

Group 14
Saigo (1-0)        sukuinage       Hashimoto (0-1)          3-0 Saigo (Tottori prefectural government)
Ichinose (1-0)     hatakikomi      Yamamoto (0-1)           2-1 Ichinose (Fukuoka prefecture)
Saigo (2-0)        yorikiri        Yamamoto (0-2)           0-3 Yamamoto (Amagata Industry)
Ichinose (2-0)     hatakikomi      Hashimoto (0-2)          1-2 Hashimoto (Kyushu Joho University)
Saigo (3-0)        yorikiri        Ichinose (2-1)
Hashimoto (1-2)    yoritaoshi      Yamamoto (0-3)

Group 15
Tomita Y. (0-1)    okuridashi      Nishizawa (1-0)          0-3 Tomita Y. (Wakayama prefectural government)
Nakajima (0-1)     uwatenage       Iwami (1-0)              1-2 Nakajima (Toyo University)
Tomita Y. (0-2)    yorikiri        Iwami (2-0)              3-0 Iwami (Maguchi)
Nakajima (0-2)     hatakikomi      Nishizawa (2-0)          2-1 Nishizawa (Nihon Taiiku University)
Tomita Y. (0-3)    yorikiri        Nakajima (1-2)
Nishizawa (2-1)    hatakikomi      Iwami (3-0)

Group 16
Shiraishi (0-1)    yorikiri        Takita (1-0)             1-2 Shiraishi (Toyo University)
Furukawa T. (0-1)  uwatenage       Sakashita (1-0)          2-1 Furukawa T. (Nihon University)
Shiraishi (1-1)    oshidashi       Sakashita (1-1)          1-2 Sakashita (Ishikawa prefecture)
Furukawa T. (1-1)  hatakikomi      Takita (1-1)             2-1 Takita (Mie prefecture)
Shiraishi (1-2)    oshidashi       Furukawa T. (2-1)
Takita (2-1)       okuridashi      Sakashita (1-2)

Group 17
Yurube (1-0)       hikiotoshi      Tomie (0-1)              2-1 Yurube (Ehime prefecture)
Okada (1-0)        sukuinage       Imoto (0-1)              2-1 Okada (Aisin Seiki)
Yurube (2-0)       uwatenage       Imoto (0-2)              0-3 Imoto (Kyushu Joho University)
Okada (1-1)        yoritaoshi      Tomie (1-1)              2-1 Tomie (Tokyo Nogyo University)
Yurube (2-1)       tsukiotoshi     Okada (2-1)
Tomie (2-1)        uwatenage       Imoto (0-3)

Edited December 4, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Akinomaki 40,673]

So it was a waste of time for Naya to delay his dohyo debut

[Asashosakari 19,542]

33 each from the university and corporate sections, not counting Taiji who did spot starter duty in group 3 due to an apparent injury. 17 collegiates and 18 business guys have made it through to the knockout stages, plus high schooler Amarsanaa. Naya has gone out.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Hmm, there must be an error in the published results...they've posted results for 5 preliminary matches to open the knockout rounds, which would make it 37 who got through, not 36. Looks like Haga in group 5 has qualified additionally.

Amarsanaa is out in the last 37:

Last 37 http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2823/

Tanioka (Kindai) oshidashi Nishizawa (Nihon Taiiku)
Ichinose (Fukuoka) sukuinage Okada (Aisin Seiki)
Furukawa H. (Nihon) yorikiri Haga (Toyo staff)
Amarsanaa (Tottori Johoku) oshitaoshi Terasawa (Toyo)
Yurube (Ehime) tsukiotoshi Sasaki (Tottori gov.)
 

Edited December 3, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Last 32 http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2825/

Murayama (Niigata) oshidashi Kajisako (Toppan Printing)
Sawada (Wakayama gov.) kotenage Fukai (Toyo)
Kurokawa (Takushoku) tsukiotoshi Kizaki (Nihon)
Tomie (Tokyo Nogyo) yorikiri Nishizawa (Nihon Taiiku)
Iwami (Maguchi) uwatenage Nakade (Toyo staff)
Nakai (Kindai) oshidashi Kurokawa (Aisin Light Metals)
Shiroyama (Toyo) tsukiotoshi Enami (Nihon)
Saigo (Tottori gov.) oshidashi Okada (Aisin Seiki)
Higo (Kindai) hatakikomi Igarashi (Morioka gov.)
Nishikata (Tochigi) yorikiri Miyashita (Fukui)
Shigematsu (Toyo) oshidashi Delgerbayar (Nihon Taiiku)
Miwa (Niigata) oshidashi Furukawa H. (Nihon)
Motobayashi (Kindai) tsukiotoshi Furukawa T. (Nihon)
Tomita G. (Wakayama gov.) yoritaoshi Terasawa (Toyo)
Yoshida (Aisin Seiki) yorikiri Takita (Mie)
Sato (Nihon Taiiku) tsukidashi Sasaki (Tottori gov.)
 

Edited December 3, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Last 16 http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2827/
Murayama (Niigata pref.) tsukiotoshi Fukai (Toyo)
Kizaki (Nihon) oshidashi Tomie (Tokyo Nogyo)
Iwami (Maguchi) uwatenage Kurokawa (Aisin Light Metals)
Shiroyama (Toyo) yoritaoshi Saigo (Tottori gov.)
Igarashi (Morioka gov.) uwatenage Nishikata (Tochigi)
Shigematsu (Toyo) oshidashi Miwa (Niigata)
Furukawa T. (Nihon) oshidashi Terasawa (Toyo)
Yoshida (Aisin Seiki) yoritaoshi Sato (Nihon Taiiku)

Only two students left.

Quarterfinal http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2829/
Murayama (Niigata) hatakikomi Kizaki (Nihon)
Kurokawa (Aisin Light Metals) yorikiri Saigo (Tottori gov.)
Nishikata (Tochigi) oshidashi Miwa (Niigata)
Furukawa T. (Nihon) yoritaoshi Yoshida (Aisin Seiki)

Edited December 3, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Akinomaki 40,673]

Naya was the main focus so far - and likely will be for the whole tournament

o o o o oo o o o

o

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Semifinal http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2831/
Kizaki (Nihon) oshidashi Saigo (Tottori gov.)
Miwa (Niigata) yoritaoshi Furukawa T. (Nihon)

So a corporate winner for the first time in six years.

Final http://sumorenmei.moo.jp/2017/12/03/post-2833/
Saigo (Tottori gov.) oshidashi Miwa (Niigata)

25-year-old Tomohiro Saigo wins the second major title of his career after the 2016 Kokutai championship.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Akinomaki 40,673]

The papers talk of a final tournament of 40 - is that just the largest number possible, but not necessarily reached?

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/sumo/20171203-OHT1T50069.html

Edited December 3, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Akinomaki 40,673]

The final: Saigo oshidashi Miwa (rather looks like okuridashi)

ooo

Amateur yokozuna Saigo

oooo o  o

and more of Naya

oo  oo

Edited December 3, 2017 by Akinomaki

[Gurowake 4,092]

8 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

The papers talk of a final tournament of 40 - is that just the largest number possible, but not necessarily reached?

http://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/sumo/20171203-OHT1T50069.html

There *could* have been 51, in the unlikely situation that each group had 3 people qualify.

13 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

Hmm, there must be an error in the published results...they've posted results for 5 preliminary matches to open the knockout rounds, which would make it 37 who got through, not 36. Looks like Haga in group 5 has qualified additionally.

Haga likely beat the guy who you have listed as 3-0 in his group then.

[Katooshu 3,266]

Saigo was also 2nd at this year's corporate championships. I wonder how many of these top amateurs who elect not to turn pro end up regretting it. Surely they've put in a lot of time into sumo anyway, still enjoy competing, and are/were good enough to at least be strong sekitori prospects who could realistically have gotten there quickly from an elevated starting rank. I assume that training in the amateurs is still very intense too, though perhaps less so for older, accomplished guys who may be fairly in control of things at their clubs.

Edited December 3, 2017 by Katooshu

[Asashosakari 19,542]

11 hours ago, Gurowake said:

Haga likely beat the guy who you have listed as 3-0 in his group then.

Yeah, assuming only one result was in error it must be Haga-Kurokawa. They might still fix it, one of the results posts for last year ended up getting edited in some way.

I'll have to check if the 3-0 guys were seeded into the last 32 draw in some way and if Kurokawa doesn't match the pattern.
 

11 hours ago, Katooshu said:

Saigo was also 2nd at this year's corporate championships. I wonder how many of these top amateurs who elect not to turn pro end up regretting it.

It clearly happens at times (Daiamami was already out of university when he turned pro with the corporate title in hand), but in general I think most have carefully considered it, and while they do still like to compete they're not interested in doing sumo as a job. Participating in one of the big-name collegiate programs probably provides them with quite a few connections to secure a good job (and obviously at least some will also have credible academic records), so it's not like ozumo is necessarily such a great alternative career path.

Still, it's going to be interesting if we're ever going to see somebody take SdTd status from a corporate result, and how much follow-up there will be to Ichiyamamoto under the new age limit extension rule in general.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Just realized that last month's gakusei champion Nakashima went 0-3 here...that can't be happening too often. (And I had his name as Nakajima, that's fixed now.)

I'll try to add given names and class years to the results posts, but I'll probably need some help with that.

[Katooshu 3,266]

I noticed that. Injury perhaps? Happened to Shodai in 2011 as well (which I know from your 2011 results!).

Edited December 4, 2017 by Katooshu

[Asashosakari 19,542]

Confirmed that the Kurokawa def. Haga result in group 5 must be wrong - all 3-0 finishers were drawn on the left-hand side of the last 32 draw, but Kurokawa is on the right. I've made this change in the results now.

In general it looks as though there's no further results-based seeding in the knockout draw at all. The left-hand side of the draw consists of 12 3-0's and 4 2-1's, but there's no apparent pattern to how the 2-1's were inserted. In addition it's seemingly possible to have immediate rematches from the group rounds - the two qualifiers from group 13 and two of the three from group 5 met again immediately, as did the two from group 3 (but here the 2-1 finisher had to survive the prelim round first).

What there might be though is seeding based on team affiliation. For all the teams that managed to get 2, 3 or 4 qualifiers into the knockout rounds, the team members ended up as far away as possible from each other (different halfs / quarters of the draw).

Edited December 4, 2017 by Asashosakari

[mikawa 1,794]

This site has the full names for the top 8 rikishi. They are:

Winner - Saigo Tomohiro (西郷 智博, Tottori Prefectural Office)

Runner-Up - Miwa Hayato (三輪 隼人, Niigata Prefecture)

Semi-Finals - Kizaki Shinnosuke (木﨑 伸之助, Nihon University)
Semi-Finals - Furukawa Takahiro (古川 貴博, Nihon University)

Quarter-Finals - Murayama Taiyo (村山 大洋, Niigata Prefecture)
Quarter-Finals - Kurokawa Soichiro (黒川 宗一郎, Aisin Light Metals)
Quarter-Finals - Nishikata Wataru (西方 航, Tochigi Prefecture)
Quarter-Finals - Yoshida Keisuke (吉田 圭佑, Aisin Seiki)

[mikawa 1,794]

4 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

Yeah, assuming only one result was in error it must be Haga-Kurokawa. They might still fix it, one of the results posts for last year ended up getting edited in some way.

Kurokawa's results in the preliminaries were WWL, Haga's were LWW, so this confirms that the Haga-Kurokawa result was in error.

So that makes 2 Hayatos finishing runner-up in a national tournament yesterday, Miwa here and Kodama elsewhere.

[Gurowake 4,092]

13 hours ago, Asashosakari said:

What there might be though is seeding based on team affiliation. For all the teams that managed to get 2, 3 or 4 qualifiers into the knockout rounds, the team members ended up as far away as possible from each other (different halfs / quarters of the draw).

This is likely the case.  When I did Forensics (speech) in high school, at the tournaments we went to, we never competed directly with another member of our school unless there were more people in that event from our school than there were separate sections of competition that round.  This was the case even when there was no team competition, which was usually the case - only the state final tournament did they award things to schools and not just individuals.  It was pretty rare to have happen since you were limited in the number of people you could bring in each category, but could happen after some of the field was eliminated, especially in the final round where there'd only be one section (and in my event two of the best kids were from the same school, so they often both made the final section of 6).  So given that everyone at the tournament had a team affiliation, they probably strove to keep them apart in the bracket as much as was possible for however many people qualified.  No one wants to travel to a major competition and face someone that they practiced with (which happens frequently in another activity I used to be involved in since there were no explicit teams).

 

[mikawa 1,794]

Here are videos of the tournament:

Preliminaries, Round 1

 

Preliminaries, Round 2

 

Preliminaries, Round 3

 

Last 37 and Last 32

 

Last 16 - Final

 

[Akinomaki 40,673]

more from especially the local papers

The only win of Naya at the tournament

o

o oo

winner Saigo

o

runner-up Miwa

o o

Higo losing in the best 32

o

[Akinomaki 40,673]

The champion 2 years ago Mitoryu congratulates the winner of this year Saigo

final

Naya's win

[Akinomaki 40,673]

Not only rikishi and oyakata, also amateur rikishi make those courtesy calls to the administration at home - especially if they are the employer.

Saigo reported his yusho as the first amateur yokozuna from an organization attached to Tottori to his top boss, the governor.

o o

He works for the sports department part time and is also external coach at his old Tottori Johoku high.

[Akinomaki 40,673]

The NHK broadcast