Primary School Banzuke 2017 - Grade 6

[mikawa 1,794]

Following on from the Grade 5 banzuke, here is the banzuke for Grade 6 rikishi, which is created by adding up their results in national competitions during the past 12 months. Every banzuke will list the top 42 rikishi in each category.

This banzuke takes into account the following tournaments:

• 33rd Wanpaku National Championships
• 30th National Primary School Championships
• 8th Hakuho Cup

 

East Yokozuna - Tasaki Masami (田崎 正美), Osaka
West Yokozuna - Aino Shogo (相野 祥吾), Chiba

East Ozeki - Yamashita Shosuke (山下 昇介), Kagoshima
West Ozeki - Ote Kira (大手 希星), Kumamoto

East Sekiwake - Ichikizaki Daisuke (市来崎 大祐), Kagoshima
West Sekiwake - Munakata Seiren (棟方 聖蓮), Aomori

East Komusubi - Suzuki Masane (鈴木 真実), Shizuoka
West Komusubi - Uno Iori (宇野 伊央里), Ehime

East Maegashira 1 - Nakagawa Kyutaro (中川 球大郎), Osaka
West Maegashira 1 - Kunitsugu Kosuke (國次 晃輔), Okayama

East Maegashira 2 - Matsuda Ten (松田 天), Tottori
West Maegashira 2 - Igarashi Sho (五十嵐 翔), Toyama

East Maegashira 3 - Yokoyama Tsukasa (横山 司), Tokyo
West Maegashira 3 - Takeguchi Hiroto (竹口 広徳), Ishikawa

East Maegashira 4 - Kurosaki Seiru (黒﨑 碧琉), Niigata
West Maegashira 4 - E Javkhlantugus, Mongolia

East Maegashira 5 - Tsubakihara Masatsugu (椿原 将嗣), Osaka
West Maegashira 5 - Ikemoto Soma (池本 颯茉), Gifu

East Maegashira 6 - Ito Kota (伊藤 航太), Miyagi
West Maegashira 6 - Kitayama Keigo (北山 慶悟), Fukui

East Maegashira 7 - Kudo Keita (工藤 佳太), Iwate
West Maegashira 7 - Hayashi Yuta (林 悠太), Nagasaki

East Maegashira 8 - Masuya Ryosuke (桝屋 良輔), Nagasaki
West Maegashira 8 - Yokoo Haruto (横尾 悠翔), Hokkaido

East Maegashira 9 - Iga Chikanosuke (伊賀 慎之助), Kagawa
West Maegashira 9 - Kohiga Enzo (小比賀 円蔵), Ibaraki

East Maegashira 10 - Obata Reo (小畑 玲央), Akita
West Maegashira 10 - Hoshi Ryuki (星 龍希), Chiba

East Maegashira 11 - Matsunaga Akane (松永 聖鐘), Hyogo
West Maegashira 11 - Ishii Fumiya (石井 郁也), Saitama

East Maegashira 12 - Takebayashi Kenshin (竹林 顕信), Aichi
West Maegashira 12 - Wakayama Shogo (若山 将吾), Aichi

East Maegashira 13 - Taniguchi Yusa (谷口 優冴), Hyogo
West Maegashira 13 - Suzuki Nozomi (鈴木 希), Shizuoka

East Maegashira 14 - Osanai Fudo (長内 風道), Aomori
West Maegashira 14 - Abe Yuma (阿部 佑磨), Fukushima

East Maegashira 15 - Saito Shintaro (齋藤 芯太郎), Hiroshima
West Maegashira 15 - Kamijima Kosei (上島 晃成), Kyoto

East Maegashira 16 - Uemura Kotaro (上村 光太郎), Kumamoto
West Maegashira 16 - Uezato Ryuki (上里 琉希), Okinawa

East Maegashira 17 - Sasaki Kaito (佐々木 快都), Miyagi
West Maegashira 17 - Hyodo Kotaro (兵頭 虎大郎), Ehime

 

Sanyaku Photos

East Yokozuna - Tasaki Masami (田崎 正美), Osaka

 

West Yokozuna - Aino Shogo (相野 祥吾), Chiba

 

East Ozeki - Yamashita Shosuke (山下 昇介), Kagoshima

West Ozeki - Ote Kira (大手 希星), Kumamoto

 

East Sekiwake - Ichikizaki Daisuke (市来崎 大祐), Kagoshima

West Sekiwake - Munakata Seiren (棟方 聖蓮), Aomori

 

East Komusubi - Suzuki Masane (鈴木 真実), Shizuoka

West Komusubi - Uno Iori (宇野 伊央里), Ehime

 

Comments

East Yokozuna for Grade 6, Tasaki Masami, has had the exact same year as East Yokozuna for Grade 5, Fukuhara Joichiro. Both of them won the Wanpaku Tournament and the Hakuho Cup, and both of them reached the second round of the Primary School Championships. Tasaki's incredible strength and power has always been his greatest weapon, and it has proven to be more and more useful as of late. His only loss this past year was to Aino Shogo, who also does power sumo.

Speaking of, the equally as strong Aino Shogo fully deserves his West Yokozuna spot. Although Aino has not won any national tournaments yet, his performances last year have been exceptional, and I still believe that he would have won the Primary School Championships if he hadn't had to face Tasaki, Ote AND Yamashita on his way to the final. Beating any one of them would have been a very impressive feat. Beating all 3? That's Yokozuna level.

It has been a relatively unsuccessful year for Yamashita Shosuke, but that's only because of how successful he has been in Grades 4 and 5, winning four championships out of six. Yamashita is not as strong as the 2 Yokozuna, but he has very good ring sense and a bigger build. However, this is no longer as effective as it used to be, so Yamashita needs to expand his arsenal if he wants to keep up with Tasaki and Aino's progress.

It has been a mixed year for Kumamoto's Ote Kira. On one hand, he was able to reach the final of the Hakuho Cup; but on the other hand, he was only able to reach the last 32 at last year's Wanpaku. There's no doubt that his results over the past 3 years have been very good, even winning the Hakuho Cup in Grade 5, but Ote's simply not been as consistent as the top 3. Hailing from the legendary Uto Junior Sumo Club, Ote Kira has carried on the success of his club-mates, and that's saying something.

In the position of West Sekiwake is a certain Munakata Seiren. As you may recall, Munakata only started sumo when Kinboshi Sumo Club invited him to join them two years ago. In two years' time, Munakata has risen to become the sixth best rikishi in his entire year group. One can only imagine how much hard work he must have put in to improve this much. Over to you, Kanazawa Towa.

Yokoyama Tsukasa, whom you can see in the background of Uno Iori's photo, was featured in Inside Sport: Japan's episode on last year's Wanpaku Tournament. He has done very well during the past two years, but Yamashita Shosuke proves to be an obstacle that he doesn't have an answer for, at least not yet. West Maegashira 9's called Kohiga Enzo, he's quick.

Edited April 13, 2018 by mikawa