New recruits Kyushu 2025

[Yamanashi]

5 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

The NSK pics of the 3 new recruits were posted a day late

o o o

"The three body types".https://www.healthline.com/health/male-body-types

[Tochinofuji]

On 04/11/2025 at 14:17, Akinomaki said:

 

Buckchuluun's name consists of Buck for Bökh, Mongolian sumo, and chuluun for an unbreakable stone. He had originally aimed to become an Olympic wrestler and like Hoshoryu came to Nittaidai Kashiwa high as a wrestling exchange student. Soon after his arrival, his father died in a car accident and he had wanted him to go into ozumo. To fulfil this wish, he switched to sumo when he entered university. In high school he won several national titles in freestyle wrestling, as 2nd year the interhigh and kokuspo juniors in the 92kg class, in 3rd year a national select tournament.

o o o

I have to say I'm excited to see how Buckchuluun does; certainly seems to have the build for power and I always enjoys seeing how makushita-tsukedashi rikishi do. 

[Naganoyama]

NSK data:
SHIKONA	KANJI	NAME	HEYA	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DOB	BIRTHPLACE
Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	ブフチョローン・トワードルジ	Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	Kasugano	180	125	15 - April - 2001	Mongolia
Seki Hiromasa	関　大将	Seki Hiromasa	Sakaigawa	172	83	19 - September- 2007	Fukuoka
Takeda Ryuto	武田　琉斗	Takeda Ryuto	Nakamura	170	158	07 - September- 2007	Oita

 

[Tochinofuji]

5 hours ago, Naganoyama said:

NSK data:
SHIKONA	KANJI	NAME	HEYA	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DOB	BIRTHPLACE
Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	ブフチョローン・トワードルジ	Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	Kasugano	180	125	15 - April - 2001	Mongolia
Seki Hiromasa	関　大将	Seki Hiromasa	Sakaigawa	172	83	19 - September- 2007	Fukuoka
Takeda Ryuto	武田　琉斗	Takeda Ryuto	Nakamura	170	158	07 - September- 2007	Oita

 

Anyone else thinking Tochinoma/Tochinouma/Tochinoba (栃ノ馬) is a likely shikona for Bukhchuluun? 

[Akinomaki]

The most famous maezumo bout ever

the media assembled for Asahifuji vs. Tenshoyama

o

fans already have (reused old?) support towels

oo

o oo oooo o o ooo

o o oo o o o o oo oo o ooo o

already the star interview

o

The other bout: Takeda lost to Seki

o

[Asashosakari]

Separate thread around Ochirsaikhan's shikona and debut here. A couple of brief excerpts from there and elsewhere for context:

On 14/09/2025 at 12:10, Naganoyama said:

(Aki 2025) NSK data:
SHIKONA	KANJI	NAME	HEYA	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DOB	BIRTHPLACE
Battsetseg Ochirsaikhan	バトツェツェゲ	Battsetseg Ochirsaikhan	Isegahama	185	150	17 - May - 2002	Mongolia
Ganbat Otogonbat	ガンバト	Ganbat Otogonbat	Tamanoi	197	173	18 - May - 2004	Mongolia

On 22/10/2025 at 22:23, Asashosakari said:

On 22/10/2025 at 19:25, Muhomatsu said:

... and we have a shikona for Oggi (Otgonbat) from Tamanoi-beya.

TENSHŌYAMA:  天昇山

https://x.com/sumo_tamanoi/status/1980888444894343278

To be exact, Tenshōyama Shōgo 天昇山 将伍 てんしょうやま しょうご.

7 hours ago, Yubinhaad said:

Anyway, [Ochirsaikhan's] full shikona is Asahifuji Hideki (旭富士 英毅) according to his profile on the heya website. [Link, ed.]

On 09/11/2025 at 11:51, Naganoyama said:

(Kyushu 2025) NSK data:
SHIKONA	KANJI	NAME	HEYA	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DOB	BIRTHPLACE
Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	ブフチョローン・トワードルジ	Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj	Kasugano	180	125	15 - April - 2001	Mongolia
Seki Hiromasa	関　大将	Seki Hiromasa	Sakaigawa	172	83	19 - September- 2007	Fukuoka
Takeda Ryuto	武田　琉斗	Takeda Ryuto	Nakamura	170	158	07 - September- 2007	Oita

 

Bukhchuluun will be debuting directly in makushita in January.

Day 3

The two proper rookies Takeda and Seki and the two delayed rookies Tenshoyama and Asahifuji were joined by one rikishi who had fallen off the banzuke, Sakaigawa-beya's Daikinryu. Contrary to what usually happens with returnees he was apparently added to the maezumo signup roster at the bottom rather than the top, which may imply a late decision to have him participate. I wonder if that makes it more or less likely that he'll be dropping out after just one bout... In any case, this is Daikinryu's first competitive action since March.

I don't usually do any video editing because frankly I have neither the time nor the talent for it, and so I normally just start to crop from Abema's maezumo coverage once they're done cutting to makuuchi replays. But I didn't want to lose the camera pan across all five participants that they did before the replays, so there's a quick fade jump at 0:16 which might otherwise puzzle you if I didn't mention it. I'm probably not going to make a habit out of it.

Results:

Mz1  Tenshoyama (0-1)        Mz2  Asahifuji (1-0)
Mz3  Takeda (0-1)            Mz4  Seki (1-0)
Mz1  Tenshoyama (1-1)        Mz5  Daikinryu (0-1)

I've been somewhat skeptical of all the Ochirsaikhan/Asahifuji hype, but that was certainly a very convincing display against an opponent who's very likely at least of mid-high makushita strength right now. Pretty clear outcomes in the other two matches as well - Takeda looked about as clumsy as I had assumed from his physique so it's hard to judge how good Seki might be just off of this, and Daikinryu - although he'd been as high as mid-sandanme before getting injured - was quite overmatched against Tenshoyama.

One bout to preside over for each of the three jonokuchi-kaku gyoji on the roster, including newbie Kimura Senshin who made his official debut here with the second match. Pretty good showing for a first time.

Standings:

Mz1  Tenshoyama  Tamanoi    1-1
Mz2  Asahifuji   Isegahama  1-0
Mz3  Takeda      Nakamura   0-1
Mz4  Seki        Sakaigawa  1-0
Mz5  Daikinryu   Sakaigawa  0-1

I have no real idea if we'll be getting two or three days of maezumo out of this group, especially after they unexpectedly cut things short back in July.

Edited November 12 by Asashosakari

[Asashosakari]

Oh, BTW - technical issues (which are now finally over) prevented me from posting the ichiban shusse presentation of the September tournament at the time. I didn't want to bump the thread unnecessarily, so I've now added the video to the post from that basho's sole maezumo day: Link

[Kintamayama]

Asahifuji won today. He beat Seki. You may say it was a Seki tori.

Edited November 12 by Kintamayama

[Akinomaki]

2nd bout for Asahifuji

o ooo oo o o o o o o

2 more losses for Takeda today

oo

▽前相撲2日目 o

Spoiler

●武　田　はたきこみ　天昇山○
○旭富士　寄り切り　　　関　●
●武　田　引き落とし　大錦龍○

 

Edited November 13 by Akinomaki

[Gurowake]

On 09/11/2025 at 05:51, Naganoyama said:

Bukhchuluun Tuvaadorj ブフチョローン・トワードルジ

This is...somewhat of a disconnect between the Latin transliteration and the kana transliteration, especially for "Bukhchuluun".  I'm guessing "fu" and "kh" are the best ways to represent the actual sound from Mongolian in each system, but I normally wouldn't consider them equivalent.*  Google Translate actually picks up on that transliteration somehow when fed the kana.  What it doesn't pick up on is the few places that the kana uses so 'o's where the Latin uses 'u's, so it has "Bukhchoron".  I admit I generally don't look too hard at these things, so this might all be perfectly normal.  There's also weirdness in Google Translate's choices for how to Latinize トワードルジ, but that's only an issue with Google and the kana are a reasonable choice.  The only kana weirdness is not changing the vowel of "to" to a 'u' with a small kana, so leaving using an 'o' instead of a 'u' just like with the first name.

 

 

*Edit: Actually, thinking about it more, it does make sense.  Latin script is generally only going to use "kh" for IPA /x/, which probably is best represented in kana as "fu" even though the two systems end up looking quite different.  I still have no idea how Google Translate divined this though. 

Edited November 12 by Gurowake

[Koorifuu]

^ I guess that is why Hiro mispronounces Kazakhstan - the original pronunciation probably goes for that IPA 'x' sound (akin to a very hard h in English).

That reminds me of former makushita Kazafuzan. It's that disconnect between the English way to say it, the kana, and the original pronunciation that made me need years to understand that shikona was just Kazakhstan in Japanese.

Edited November 12 by Koorifuu

[Asashosakari]

Day 4

Good thing I posted no schedule prediction yesterday because they did something entirely different from what I would have guessed. Anyway, Daikinryu is still in so we continue with all five participants.

Skip to 1:45 if watching people wait is not your thing.

Results:

Mz1  Tenshoyama (2-1)        Mz3  Takeda (0-2)
Mz4  Seki (1-1)              Mz2  Asahifuji (2-0)
Mz5  Daikinryu (1-1)         Mz3  Takeda (0-3)

He didn't stand a chance against Asahifuji, but a courageous attempt to take the fight to his opponent by lanky Seki there all the same. Not much to say about the other two matches - Takeda is just way underpowered relative to everyone here, and honestly looks like he'll struggle to get past lowest jonidan for a while, too. The lack of lower-body stability, oh my... Lots of work to do for Nakamura-oyakata.

Standings:

Mz1  Tenshoyama  Tamanoi    2-1
Mz2  Asahifuji   Isegahama  2-0
Mz3  Takeda      Nakamura   0-3
Mz4  Seki        Sakaigawa  1-1
Mz5  Daikinryu   Sakaigawa  1-1

I could be overinterpreting things, but they don't really appear to follow the usual match-making setup from bigger maezumo groups (if they did, we likely would have had Takeda - Daikinryu as the first bout today). Instead it looks like they might just be doing a preset four-man roundrobin (Day 3 Mz1 - Mz2 and Mz3 - Mz4, today Mz1 - Mz3 and Mz2 - Mz4), with Daikinryu getting the leftovers, i.e. the loser of each day's first bout. So perhaps Mz1 - Mz4 and Mz2 - Mz3 tomorrow? I wouldn't say no to an Asahifuji - Tenshoyama rematch though, if they did decide to match up by record as they normally do... (Although pairing up by record won't work with the two 1-1's anyway, since they're both from Sakaigawa.) Either way, Day 5 should be the last day of Kyushu action for these guys, other than their return in kesho-mawashi on Day 8, of course.

[Reonito]

To say that Asahifuji vs. Takeda looks like a mismatch would be the understatement of the year.

[Akinomaki]

Final Asahifuji bout for 3-0 against Takeda

 ooo oo o

- looks like a makushita Mitakeumi to me

o

 

Toshoyama win over Seki for 3-1

o

Edited November 13 by Akinomaki

[Asashosakari]

Day 5

One last hurrah for our intrepid quintet.

The action starts at 2:00.

Results:

Mz3  Takeda (0-4)            Mz2  Asahifuji (3-0)
Mz1  Tenshoyama (3-1)        Mz4  Seki (1-2)
Mz3  Takeda (0-5)            Mz5  Daikinryu (2-1)

Yup, roundrobin plus guest after all.

It ended with him on the ground again, but that last bout was definitely Takeda's best showing. Maybe there's something there after all, but he needs to actually give himself the opportunity to display it (like he did here), and that can't happen if his opponent has it easy to make him fall over in the first couple of seconds.

The earlier two matches were the expected one-sided affairs, of course.

The final standings:

3-win target achieved
#1  Mz2  Asahifuji   Isegahama  3-0
#2  Mz1  Tenshoyama  Tamanoi    3-1

Remaining order
#3  Mz5  Daikinryu   Sakaigawa  2-1   [returnee]
#4  Mz4  Seki        Sakaigawa  1-2
#5  Mz3  Takeda      Nakamura   0-5

Asahifuji in the top spot because he finished one bout earlier and that's how it normally goes, but I'm actually not fully convinced it'll hold here since they really only gave him the earlier bout so that Takeda would have the short break before his second appearance. (They couldn't do Tenshoyama - Seki first and have the loser of that bout go against Daikinryu because of the Sakaigawa collision.) But I'm probably overthinking this and it'll just be done like it always is. Having defeated the three other rookies Asahifuji obviously deserves to be first in line, anyway, as little as that ultimately means for their upcoming first ranking positions in lowest jonokuchi.

Presentation on Day 8 as always and then we're done here altogether.

Edited November 13 by Asashosakari

[Tetsuoka]

I wonder if Takeda is gonna be the next Hattorizakura. I don't see him winning a single Ozumo bout...

Tenshoyama has somehow similarities with the young Akebono.

[Reonito]

19 minutes ago, Tetsuoka said:

I wonder if Takeda is gonna be the next Hattorizakura. I don't see him winning a single Ozumo bout...

He's got some size, they can probably teach him to do something with it

[Asashosakari]

I don't even think Takeda's going to take particularly long to get his first KK, second or third basho would be my guess...jonokuchi provides enough opponents against whom he literally just needs to do what he did against Daikinryu for a bit, stay on his feet, and he's large enough to dispatch them in some way after that. But even a simple 4-3 means a ~40 rank promotion, and around Jd80 he'll definitely already run into many opponents that will punish his current shortcomings (or would, if he hasn't worked on them by then).

Minami half a year ago looked worse in maezumo, IMHO, and even he has done it.

Edited November 13 by Asashosakari

[Tigerboy1966]

7 hours ago, Tetsuoka said:

Tenshoyama has somehow similarities with the young Akebono.

That's exactly what I thought. Lots of sheer size and long limbs. That gives him advantages and disadvantages and it will be interesting to see what he can do with that physique.

[Oshirokita]

23 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

looks like a makushita Mitakeumi to me

Well, these days actual Mitakeumi looks a lot like a makushita Mitakeumi on some days...

;-)

[Kintamayama]

Asahifuji will be wearing the former Yokozuna Asahifuji’s Pegasus- themed kesho-mawashi at the  shinjo-shussei hiro (presentation of the new recruits) to be held tomorrow. "He asked me for  permission and I agreed ," said the ex-Asahifuji now Miyagino Oyakata. Miyagino commented on Asahifuji's mae-zumo tournament, "I'm glad he fought without injuring his opponents. That's difficult." He praised him for being considerate of his opponents and getting through the mae-zumo matches without having to use his full potential.. It's also unusual that he will wear the original "Asahifuji" kesho-mawashi, even though it's borrowed, at this ceremony.

Edited November 15 by Kintamayama

[Bunbukuchagama]

1 hour ago, Kintamayama said:

Asahifuji will be wearing the former Yokozuna Asahifuji’s Pegasus- themed kesh-mawashi

I heard his tsuna is being prepared at the heya as we speak.

[Reonito]

1 hour ago, Kintamayama said:

"I'm glad he fought without injuring his opponents. That's difficult." He praised him for being considerate of his opponents and getting through the mae-zumo matches without having to use his full potential.

This is one of the most remarkable comments I've ever seen.

[Kintamayama]

3 minutes ago, Reonito said:

This is one of the most remarkable comments I've ever seen.

I agree- quite shocking..

[shantan123]

26 minutes ago, Reonito said:

This is one of the most remarkable comments I've ever seen.

How so? He's been training for years at isegehama and is clearly very strong and is going up against the most green wrestlers in sumo. If he went all out, he would risk injuring the young rookies. That much is pretty obvious. The same would be true of any wrestler that had great potential. 

Edit: unless you're talking about the "that's difficult" part (because it's not).

Edited November 15 by shantan123