Grand sumo tournaments

A honbasho is an official professional sumo tournament run by the Japan Sumo Association. Its results help determine positions on the banzuke, the association’s official ranking sheet, for the following tournament. Regional tours, or jungyō, feature practice, demonstrations and exhibition bouts rather than having the same ranking function.

The regular calendar has tournaments in January, March, May, July, September and November. Tokyo hosts three; Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka host one each. A tournament lasts fifteen consecutive days, from shonichi, the opening day, to senshūraku, the final day. Check the current official schedule for dates and venues.

Makuuchi is the highest division and jūryō the second; makushita is the division immediately below them. Names such as yokozuna and sekiwake denote ranks within makuuchi. Wrestlers in the top two divisions normally compete once a day, for fifteen bouts, while those below normally have seven. The tournament’s day number therefore does not tell you how many bouts every wrestler has completed.

In the official record table, ○ means a win and ● a loss; □ and ■ mark wins and losses by default. The symbol や means rest or no bout, not necessarily an injury. In a completed schedule, more wins than losses is kachikoshi and the reverse is makekoshi. The usual thresholds are eight wins in fifteen bouts or four in seven. The next ranking depends on the record and previous position, without a fixed promotion formula.

Ōshōma’s November 2021 makushita record was four wins and three losses. He lost on days 2, 6 and 15 and won on days 3, 7, 10 and 12, with no bout on the remaining days. By day 10 he had therefore wrestled five times. The empty dates are part of the lower-division schedule, not additional losses.

Wajima won the November 1973 makuuchi title with twelve wins, two losses and one absence. Injured, he withdrew from day 14, taking a default loss that day, and returned only for the final-day presentation. The default is included in his two losses; the missed final-day bout is the separate absence. This differs from a lower-division date on which no bout was scheduled. Withdrawal did not undo the title he had already secured.

A honbasho is neither a complete round robin nor a knockout bracket. Matchmakers arrange bouts as it proceeds, taking account of rank and performance. Stablemates and close relatives are normally kept apart in regular bouts, with exceptions for championship playoffs.

Each division has a championship, with a playoff to resolve a tie for the best record. The makuuchi title is a tournament result; yokozuna is the highest rank within that division. A committee also awards separate prizes for outstanding performance, fighting spirit and technique to eligible makuuchi wrestlers ranked sekiwake or below. These recognise particular achievements rather than finishing places.

The programme moves from the lower divisions towards jūryō and makuuchi, with ring-entering ceremonies between parts of the schedule. Normally, the first wrestler to leave the ring or touch the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet loses. Gyōji officiate; yobidashi announce competitors and handle other arena duties. Ringside judges may confer on a result. The ceremonies themselves do not produce wins and losses.

The Tokyo and Osaka associations merged in 1927. Live radio coverage followed in January 1928, creating a need to finish the programme within its broadcasting slot. Limits were introduced for shikiri, the preparation in which opponents face one another and coordinate their start: initially ten minutes in makuuchi, later reduced to four. Radio changed the arena’s timing as well as the audience’s reach.

Tournament duration changed separately from annual frequency. After an increase from ten to eleven days, the crowds attracted by Futabayama’s winning streak prompted a thirteen-day summer tournament in 1937 and fifteen days in 1939. The disruption after the war brought further changes. Fifteen days was a developed arrangement, not a rule that governed every earlier tournament.

Tournament frequency and duration changed through the prewar and postwar years. Nagoya hosted quasi-official tournaments from 1951 to 1957, then became the sixth official tournament in 1958, establishing the six-tournament, fifteen-day framework. During this period, a suspended roof replaced the four ring posts in 1952, opening spectators’ sightlines.

The six-tournament pattern has exceptions. The May 2020 tournament was cancelled amid COVID-19 restrictions, and the July tournament moved from Nagoya to Tokyo. The regular city list therefore describes a framework, rather than every year’s complete record.