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mikawa

Primary School Banzuke 2018 - Grade 5

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Following on from yesterday's Grade 4 banzuke, we have here the banzuke for Grade 5. It's amazing to think that if we had compiled this exact banzuke back in 2008, then West Yokozuna would have been someone called Sato Takanobu, aka Takakeisho, aka our newest Ozeki. Who knows? Some of these kids might be just as successful once they've turned pro.

This banzuke takes into account the following tournaments:

 

East Yokozuna - Kuraoka Yuta (倉岡 優太), Kumamoto
West Yokozuna - Kodama Hayato (児玉 颯飛), Tokyo

East Ozeki - Yamashita Masakiyo (山下 正清), Kagoshima
West Ozeki - Furukawa Yuto (古川 勇斗), Fukuoka

East Sekiwake - Okuda Soma (奥田 蒼真), Osaka
West Sekiwake - Mashiko Takuya (益子 拓也), Tokyo

East Komusubi - Ito Hirohide (伊藤 博英), Kumamoto
West Komusubi - Kikuta Ryuga (菊田 流雅), Ibaraki

 

East Maegashira 1 - Noguchi Haruki (野口 明輝), Ishikawa
West Maegashira 1 - Kuramochi Yuto (倉持 裕羽), Tokyo

East Maegashira 2 - Sakamoto Ryo (坂本 遼), Kochi
West Maegashira 2 - Nakazawa Musashi (中澤 睦士), Tokyo

East Maegashira 3 - Yoshioka Ryudai (吉岡 竜大), Chiba
West Maegashira 3 - Miyazaki Keijiro (宮崎 慶仁朗), Tokyo

East Maegashira 4 - Otogonbato Baasandoruji (オトゴンバト バーサンドルジ), Mongolia
West Maegashira 4 - Inoue Taiga (井上 泰我), Kumamoto

East Maegashira 5 - Nishimura Kazuma (西村 和真), Kyoto
West Maegashira 5 - Iguchi Itta (井口 一太), Hokkaido

East Maegashira 6 - Sonoda Sora (園田 大空), Saga
West Maegashira 6 - Yamashiro Manatsu (山城 真捺), Okinawa

East Maegashira 7 - Matsushita Sotaro (松下 宗太郎), Ehime
West Maegashira 7 - Negoro Hiroto (根耒 大翔), Osaka

East Maegashira 8 - Aiba Koki (相場 昴輝), Kanagawa
West Maegashira 8 - Asada Haruto (麻田 遥人), Osaka

East Maegashira 9 - Sato Ritsuki (佐藤 律希), Fukushima
West Maegashira 9 - Iritakenishi Gosei (入嵩西 豪生), Fukuoka

East Maegashira 10 - Otani Natsuki (大谷 夏希), Okayama
West Maegashira 10 - Ogawa Yuto (小川 悠人), Kanagawa

East Maegashira 11 - Okazaki Ryotaro (岡崎 良太郎), Aomori
West Maegashira 11 - Shimajiri Taishi (島尻 大詩), Gifu

East Maegashira 12 - Kudo Ryusei (工藤 琉誠), Iwate
West Maegashira 12 - Niizeki Shion (新関 梓桜), Yamagata

  

Sanyaku Photos

East Yokozuna - Kuraoka Yuta (倉岡 優太), Kumamoto

Kuraoka.jpg

 

West Yokozuna - Kodama Hayato (児玉 颯飛), Tokyo

Kodama.jpg

 

East Ozeki - Yamashita Masakiyo (山下 正清), Kagoshima

Yamashita.jpg

 

West Ozeki - Furukawa Yuto (古川 勇斗), Fukuoka

Furukawa.jpg

 

East Sekiwake - Okuda Soma (奥田 蒼真), Osaka

Okuda.jpg

 

West Sekiwake - Mashiko Takuya (益子 拓也), Tokyo

Mashiko.jpg

 

East Komusubi - Ito Hirohide (伊藤 博英), Kumamoto

Ito.jpg

 

West Komusubi - Kikuta Ryuga (菊田 流雅), Ibaraki

Kikuta.jpg

 

Comments

Over the past year, we have seen a paradigm shift in the powers in this year group. Ever since a Grade 2 Kodama Hayato qualified for the finals of the Primary School Championships back in 2015, in the Grade 4 or lower category, I've always maintained that he is by far the best wrestler in his year group. His great sumo sense and very strong arms have allowed him to win THREE Hakuho Cups in a row. He also became Wanpaku Yokozuna at the first time of asking.

Everything seemed to be progressing as normal when he defeated Kobayashi Umeta in his opening Wanpaku bout last summer, which was a repeat of the Wanpaku final the year before. However, Kochi's Sakamoto Ryo had other ideas, as he dumped Hayato out of the ring in the quarter-finals. As it turns out, Hayato would not get past the quarter-finals in ANY of the other national tournaments in 2018. On top of that, it has been confirmed that Hayato has quit Mitaka Sumo Club, the club he joined when he first started learning sumo, with a lack of good training partners as the most likely reason. How will this affect this potential star of the future? Guess only time will tell.

When Yamashita Masakiyo took this opportunity to win the Wanpaku Tournament last year, I thought that he might be able to step up to claim the top spot in this banzuke, but other results hadn't gone his way, and so he could only finish third. However, let's not take anything away from that fact that Yamashita Masakiyo, along with his older brother Yamashita Shosuke, are the first ever sibling Yokozuna in Wanpaku history. It certainly runs in the family.

The one who did step in was Kumamoto's Kuraoka Yuta, who now has a 3-1 head-to-head against Kodama Hayato. His size and strength has allowed him to develop a very effective pushing attack, which has helped him in winning both the Primary School Championships and the Hakuho Cup. The Wanpaku Tournament is now the only individual tournament in which he has not yet tasted success, so he will be aiming to change that in 2019.

One of the coaches at Komatsuryu Dojo (John Gunning's club) has described this year group as "talented rikishi everywhere", and he's certainly got a point there. Komatsuryu Dojo alone can boast of 4 national quarter-finalists in this year group (Mashiko Takuya, Kuramochi Yuto, Nakazawa Musashi and Yoshioka Ryudai), and they're not even the best in Tokyo (that honour still belongs to the aforementioned Kodama Hayato).

Out of the four, I think that the best sumo wrestler at the moment is Yoshioka Ryudai, the youngest of the 3 Yoshioka siblings. Despite being the shortest in the group. Ryudai has shown some incredible strategic awareness in his bouts. One good example of this was when he faced Kodama Hayato at the Friendly Examination Tournament last August. Knowing that Hayato's biggest threat was his arm strength, Ryudai pincered Hayato's arms from the beginning, which gave Hayato a lot of trouble during the bout. If he had been a bit more patient in the bout instead of trying to go for the kill once he got a double inside grip, who knows what might have happened? By the way, Ryudai is a very reserved kid in real life. If you were to ask him a question, good luck trying to get anything other than one-word answers from him.

Yoshioka.jpg

The person whom I am most happy for for making this list is undoubtedly Miyazaki Keijiro. I first met him during a training session at Tachikawa Renseikan the night before the 2016 Wanpaku Tournament, and again in the summer of 2017. Fair to say, he's not exactly stood out from either session. However, when I saw him again last summer, there's been a marked improvement with his strength and with his sumo, which was a pleasant surprise. Such is the dedication that he has shown to sumo, that even when he was injured, he still travelled to the club just to watch his fellow club-mates train (as in the photo below). His dedication has since been rewarded with a quarter-final finish at last month's Hakuho Cup. Next up - Wanpaku Qualifiers 2019.

Miyazaki.jpg

Edited by mikawa
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