On Thursday, at a press conference organized by the Japan Sumo Association, Terunofuji, the sport’s 73rd yokozuna, announced his retirement from competition. The 33-year-old was a dominating force on the doh-yo. However, injuries prevented us from witnesses that dominance as much as we would have liked. Terunofuji leaves the sport with ten top division championships. He will remain with his Isegahama stable as a coach, using his current ring name (an honour only granted to yokozuna ranked wrestlers). He said he hopes to be a stablemaster at some point in his elder career.
Sumo loses its only yokozuna mid-way through the new year tournament
Terunofuji sat out the last two tournaments of 2024, nursing various injuries. He suited up for the first tournament of 2025, the hatsu basho (new year tournament), which started last Sunday and runs until next Sunday.
On day one of the tournament Terunofuji lost to Wakatakakage via katasukashi (under shoulder swing down). The quick defeat was somewhat surprising, but easy to chalk up to ring rust and the abilities of the quick and crafty Wakatakakage.
Terunofuji won his Day 2 and 3 bouts, over Takanosho and Kirishima, but looked laboured while doing so. He was able to get these opponents out via his usual yorikiri (frontal force out), but it was obvious he was operating at a diminished capacity.
On Day 4 he lost to Tobizaru, a rikishi he has plenty of bad blood with. The smaller Tobizaru was able to stick and move against Terunofuji and get behind him for the okuridashi (rear push out) win. During that loss Terunofuji looked very slow and somewhat disinterested.
Terunofuji pulled out of the basho the next day and announced his retirement soon after.
Terunofuji earned his rope the hard way
Terunofuji left his native Mongolia as a teenager, moving to Japan to attend a high school known for its sumo program. He joined a professional sumo stable after graduating in 2011 and competed in his first senior tournament soon after. His first stable closed a year later and he moved to the Isegahama stable.
He flourished at Isegahama, a powerhouse stable in the elite ichimon group of stables. He reached the makuuchi (grand sumo’s top division) in 2014 and won his first tournament in May, 2015. He was promoted to ozeki (the rank directly below yokozuna in the next tournament).
Terunofuji struggled as an ozeki, thanks to a number of injuries that began to crop up. The most serious of those injuries affected his knees.
In 2017 knee issues forced him to pull out of back-to-back tournaments. That cost him his ozeki ranking. More absences followed. This led to him being relegated from the top division. He sat out almost all of 2018. When he returned he was ranked in the jonidan (the division second from the bottom).
He fought his way through the lower divisions and got back to the makuuchi in late 2020. He won the first tournament back in the top division. He was soon promoted back to ozeki. In 2021 he won his third and fourth yusho (championships). After finishing runner-up after his fourth yusho he was promoted to yokozuna.
He won the title in his first and second tournaments as a yokozuna. Sadly, more knee issues would follow. Those forced him to pull out of a number of tournaments. Yokozuna can not be demoted, though. So he was able to retain his rank throughout his struggles. In 2022 he decided to have double knee surgery done.
He returned from injury in May, 2023 and won his eighth yusho. He pulled out of the next tournament and then sat out of the next two. He returned and won his ninth yusho in January, 2024. He pulled out of the next two tournaments but then won his tenth yusho in July, 2024.
He sat out of the next two tournaments before returning to action this January.
Who will take his place as sumo’s highest ranked wrestler?
With Terunofuji retiring, the Japan Sumo Association faces the prospect of there being yokozuna ranked wrestlers in the sport for the next tournament. The last time this happened was around 30 years ago. Most of sumo’s organized history (which stretches back to the late 1700s) has featured multiple yokozuna.
Fortunately, this retirement comes at a time where two wrestlers are eligible for yokozuna promotion, should they perform well at the current New Year tournament.
Generally, it is expected that an ozeki ranked wrestler who wins two tournaments in a row will be promoted to yokozuna.
In November ozeki Kotozakura won the top division tournament, beating his fellow ozeki Hoshoryu on the final day. After that tournament the Japan Sumo Association said that both Kotozakura and Hoshoryu were in line for a yokozuna promotion if they performed similarly at the current January tournament (with either a championship or a runner up finish).
At this time of writing Hoshoryu, the nephew of the 68th yokozuna Asashoryu, is among the tournament leaders with a 6-2 record. Kotozakura, the grandson of the 5rd yokozuna (who also used the name Kotozakura), is struggling, though, with just a 3-5 record.
Given Kotozakura’s struggles it seems highly unlikely that he will win this tournament or finish runner-up. Hoshoryu is in with a chance, though. However, it will take some work. Hoshoryu looked unstoppable in the first four days of the tournament, but he lost on Day 5 and Day 6 to Atamifuji and then Shodai.
The current leaders of the January tournament are low ranked wrestlers, whose stellar records are the results of competing against fellow low rankers. In the second week of the tournament they will begin fighting opponents with a similar record. This process usually separates the contenders from the pretenders.
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