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mikawa

Middle School Banzuke 2018

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Starting from middle school, sumo tournaments are no longer gakunen-betsu (separated by year groups). That means first years compete on a level playing field with second and third years, in what can be described as "open" tournaments (like in golf). Third years usually have an advantage over everyone else, but things don't always go their way. For example, the final of a national middle school tournament back in 2010 was constested between TWO second-years. And the winner? Utetsu Fumiya, who is now known by another name - Onosho.

This banzuke takes into account the following tournaments:

 

East Yokozuna - Ochiai Tetsuya (落合 哲也), Tottori
West Yokozuna - Tebakari Taiki (手計 太希), Saitama

East Ozeki - Takeda Shoichiro (竹田 章一郎), Tochigi
West Ozeki - Nishika Haruto (西加 陽斗), Kagoshima

East Sekiwake - Yoshii Ko (吉井 虹), Shizuoka
West Sekiwake - Otsuji Riki (大辻 理紀), Hyogo

East Komusubi - Kawazoe Fuma (川副 楓馬), Kumamoto
West Komusubi - Arutangereru Sosorufu (アルタン ゲレル ソソルフー), Tottori

 

East Maegashira 1 - Fujita Kazuto (藤田 一翔), Chiba
West Maegashira 1 - Kosaka Tsuyoshi (小坂 剛司), Tokyo

East Maegashira 2 - Hanafusa Kai (花房 海), Tokyo
West Maegashira 2 - Hamaguchi Hayato (濱口 颯翔), Kagoshima

East Maegashira 3 - Komiyama Toa (小宮山 翔海), Tokyo
West Maegashira 3 - Ichikawa Taiyo (市川 太陽), Tokyo

East Maegashira 4 - Izumi Atsushi (泉 厚志), Saitama
West Maegashira 4 - Wakita Kotaro (脇田 晃太郎), Kagoshima

East Maegashira 5 - Nagamura Akihiro (長村 晃宏), Miyazaki
West Maegashira 5 - Inoue Goshi (井ノ上 豪志), Wakayama

East Maegashira 6 - Kodama Yuto (児玉 優翔), Akita
West Maegashira 6 - Kimura Joichiro (木村 丈一郎), Tochigi

East Maegashira 7 - Takko Asahi (田子 麻聖), Akita
West Maegashira 7 - Shirakawa Daito (白川 大翔), Kagawa

East Maegashira 8 - Nishijo Takuto (西條 卓斗), Niigata
West Maegashira 8 - Kakuta Toratoshi (角田 虎紀), Ishikawa

East Maegashira 9 - Lee Bill Christopher (リ ビル クリストファー), Kanagawa
West Maegashira 9 - Yagi Yuma (八木 裕真), Hyogo

East Maegashira 10 - Uchida Kyota (内田 京汰), Shizuoka
West Maegashira 10 - Magoshiro Masami (孫城 雅巳), Saga

East Maegashira 11 - Kobayashi Arashi (小林 嵐), Saitama
West Maegashira 11 - Yamashita Sho (山下 昇), Kochi

East Maegashira 12 - Yamato Yuji (山藤 勇治), Gifu
West Maegashira 12 - Iwamoto Yoshikazu (岩本 修和), Kagoshima

  

Sanyaku Photos

East Yokozuna - Ochiai Tetsuya (落合 哲也), Tottori

Ochiai.jpg

 

West Yokozuna - Tebakari Taiki (手計 太希), Saitama

Tebakari.jpg

 

East Ozeki - Takeda Shoichiro (竹田 章一郎), Tochigi

Takeda.jpg

 

West Ozeki - Nishika Haruto (西加 陽斗), Kagoshima

Nishika.jpg

 

East Sekiwake - Yoshii Ko (吉井 虹), Shizuoka

Yoshii.jpg

 

West Sekiwake - Otsuji Riki (大辻 理紀), Hyogo

Otsuji.jpg

 

East Komusubi - Kawazoe Fuma (川副 楓馬), Kumamoto

Kawazoe.jpg

 

West Komusubi - Arutangereru Sosorufu (アルタン ゲレル ソソルフー), Tottori

Sosorufu.jpg

 

Comments

The race for East Yokozuna for the middle schoolers was always going to be between Kumamoto's Kawazoe Fuma and Tottori's Ochiai Tetsuya. These two are pretty much your perfect sumo wrestler - big, strong, powerful, quick feet and quick thinking, have a great ring sense, technically sound, and on top of all that, a very strong desire to win. Therefore, it is no surprise to find Ochiai Tetsuya at the top of this banzuke. The kid even has a gym in his own home!

But what about Kawazoe Fuma, you might be asking? Why then is he not at West Yokozuna? Well, he was on course for the just that (and then some) when he claimed second place at the Middle School Student Championships, but an injury suffered incredibly early on at the Middle School Championships soon derailed those plans, and so he has to settle for East Komusubi. I've always felt that Fuma is the best wrestler in his year group, but sometimes he's just been really unlucky. Their head-to-head record is 1-0 to Tetsuya.

Tetsuya was the most successful wrestler, but the most impressive wrestler over the past year has got to be Tebakari Taiki, younger brother of Ozumo hopeful Kototebakari. He's been getting audiences excited everytime he's stepped onto the dohyo. Taiki is a perfect example of "size doesn't matter" in sumo. He's very tall and strong, he's (relatively) thin, his sumo is very very clever. Taiki is basically the next Ura, but taller. You can see just how skillful he is by the way he dealt with Yoshii Ko, last year's Middle School Yokozuna, in the following bout (from 16:32):

 

As a sumo wrestler, West Ozeki Nishika Haruto is like an older version of Nakanishi Kaishin. He's short, strong and very clever with his sumo. However, unlike Kaishin, Haruto did not have anywhere near as much recognition during his primary school days, despite having been a national semi-finalist once. A lot of that has to do with two club-mates of his, whose stories had been told in this Amasumo article. Since then though, he has gotten better and better and better, and winning the Middle School Student Championships last year was certainly a deserved reward for his hard work. Now if only he had won the other tournament instead, then Sumiyo could boast of another Yokozuna......

If I were to write a "Rivalries in Amateur Sumo" article about Tebakari Taiki, then the story would also involve Hanafusa Kai. Those two have been at it since a very young age, so much so that when a radio program asked Kai who his rival was, he instantly replied "Tebakari Taiki-kun". I'll go into Kai's own sumo story another time, and boy has it been an adventurous one, but now that Kai has graduated from middle school, this does have serious consequences for his club (Mitaka Sumo Club), for whom he's been club captain for the past couple of years.

The reason for this is that Mitaka's rise has had a lot to do with recruiting Hanafusa Kai, and later on Kodama Hayato. Together, they have won numerous honours for the club, including 1 Wanpaku Championship and 4 Hakuho Cups, and they've even helped the club reach the final of the National Club Championships. However, now that Kai has graduated and Hayato has also left the club (along with his younger brother Kodama Sosuke and someone else called Yamashita Toma), it means that Mitaka only have 2 members remaining who can hold their own in the ring, and both of them happen to be in the same year group, and that year group just happens to be Grade 6. In other words, Mitaka will likely struggle to win another team match for a long time.

But one thing we can definitely look forward to are the second-years Fujita Kazuto and the Mongolian-but-now-moved-to-Tottori kid Sosorufu. They will both be exciting prospects over the next year, and let's not forget that we will be having a famous and long-time rivalry renewed - Narita Rikido and Uchida Kyota. It's going to be a straight shoot-out between Team Tottori and Team Shizuoka.

And for the fourth banzuke running, we get to mention a member of Tachikawa Renseikan - last year's club captain Ichikawa Taiyo. Taiyo started sumo when he was in Grade 4, and has seen huge improvements in his sumo over the years. So much so that he has been a vital member of Team Tokyo for the past two years, helping the team to reach a national quarter-final and then a national final. His favourite rikishi is Abi.

Ichikawa.jpg

Edited by mikawa
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Question Time:

At the start of this post, I mentioned that a national middle school final in 2010 was contested between TWO second-years, one of whom was Onosho. But who was the other over-achieving second-year?

Hint: He has also joined Ozumo since then, and I have written about him here in the Amasumo Section

Edited by mikawa

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East Maegashira 9 - Lee Bill Christopher,  Kanagawa. 

Please explain?

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4 hours ago, Bumpkin said:

East Maegashira 9 - Lee Bill Christopher,  Kanagawa. 

Please explain?

Child of foreign nationals residing in Japan attends a local school, joined the sumo club, and apparently does reasonably well in competition.

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17 hours ago, mikawa said:

Question Time:

At the start of this post, I mentioned that a national middle school final in 2010 was contested between TWO second-years, one of whom was Onosho. But who was the other over-achieving second-year?

Hint: He has also joined Ozumo since then, and I have written about him here in the Amasumo Section

That has to be Masa Yamamoto, aka Kiyonoumi! I'm sure in the days of his amateur glory he had higher expectations than a career in mid-sandamne....

Though, looking on the brighter side, he will be at a career high rank next basho and with 5 wins would be promoted to makushita...

Edited by Katooshu

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@Katooshu Absolutely, and the thing is, Toma Tsuguto's path and circumstances have been very similar to his up until the end of Middle School. It would be interesting to see if Toma can overtake Yamamoto on the banzuke.

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