Grand Sumo will host its next tournament in May. The 2025 natsu basho (summer tournmanet) will give every wrestler within the Grand Sumo system a chance to compete and improve their station in the sport. In the makuuchi (top division), those wrestlers will also be competing for the Emperor’s Cup – sumo’s greatest prize.
Before each tournament, the Japan Sumo Association releases its banzuke (rankings document). The banzuke ranks every wrestler in Grand Sumo and promotes and demotes them from their previous rankings based on their performances at the previous tournament (in this case the 2025 haru basho).
Check out the banzuke for the top division below and read on for news and notes to come out of these rankings.
2025 Summer Tournament Rankings
| East | Rank | West |
| Hoshoryu 🇲🇳 | Yokozuna | |
| Onosato 🇯🇵 | Ozeki | Kotozakura🇯🇵 |
| Daieisho 🇯🇵 | Sekiwake | Kirishima 🇲🇳 |
| Takayasu 🇯🇵 | Komusubi | Wakatakakage 🇯🇵 |
| Wakamotoharu 🇯🇵 | M1 | Oho 🇯🇵 |
| Abi 🇯🇵 | M2 | Gonoyama 🇯🇵 |
| Tamawashi 🇲🇳 | M3 | Hiradoumi 🇯🇵 |
| Takerufuji 🇯🇵 | M4 | Ichiyamamoto 🇯🇵 |
| Ura 🇯🇵 | M5 | Chiyoshoma 🇲🇳 |
| Oshoma 🇲🇳 | M6 | Tobizaru 🇯🇵 |
| Hakuoho 🇯🇵 | M7 | Churanoumi 🇯🇵 |
| Onokatsu 🇲🇳 | M8 | Kinbozan 🇰🇿 |
| Aoinishiki 🇺🇦 | M9 | Midorifuji 🇯🇵 |
| Meisei 🇯🇵 | M10 | Shodai 🇯🇵 |
| Endo 🇯🇵 | M11 | Shishi 🇺🇦 |
| Atamifuji 🇯🇵 | M12 | Takanosho 🇯🇵 |
| Tokihayate 🇯🇵 | M13 | Sadanoumi 🇯🇵 |
| Kotoshoho 🇯🇵 | M14 | Roga 🇷🇺 |
| Ryuden 🇯🇵 | M15 | Shonannoumi 🇯🇵 |
| Kayo 🇯🇵 | M16 | Nishikigi 🇯🇵 |
| Tamashoho 🇲🇳 | M17 | Asakoryu 🇯🇵 |
| Tochitaikai 🇯🇵 | M18 |
No changes at the top
As expected there are no changes at the very of the banzuke. The sport’s lone yokozuna Hoshoryu remains as the first name on the rankings. That is despite him going a disappointing 5-5-5 in the previous tournament. Yokozuna are the only wrestlers in the sport who can not be demoted based on their record. Hoshoryu’s rank is his until he decides to retire (which hopefully won’t be for a very long time).
Just below Hoshoryu are our ozeki. Onosato and Kotozakura retain their positions at that ranking, with Onosato occupying the marginally better east side of the rankings document. Onosato won the last tournament and is a shoe-in for a yokozuna promotion if he wins the May tournament.
Kotozakura almost lost his ozeki rank in March. The only way you can demote an ozeki is if they bank to back-to-back losing records. Kotozakura was able to avoid this fate, barely, by going 8-7 in the last tournament.
Turnover in the san’yaku
In the ranks below yokozuna and ozeki (sekiwake and komusubi) we’ve seen some turn over. The only man to keep his rank from March is Daieisho, who remains as the top ranked sekiwake. Oho (a runner up in January) was sekiwake in March, but he has been demoted down to maegashira 1 due to his 6-9 record in March.
Kirishima moves up from komusubi to take Oho’s place. The komusubi ranks have been taken up this month by Wakatakakage (who went 9-6 from M1 in March) and Takayasu (who took Onosato to a play-off in March).
Abi was demoted from komusubi for his losing record.
This is Takayasu’s first appearance in the san’yaku since January 2024. In that tournament he suffered an injury and went 2-4-9 before being demoted all the way down to M8.
Takerufuji to be tested
Takerufuji made headlines last year for winning the cup in his first ever top division tournament, a feat which had not been done in over 90 years. Injuries prevented him from building on that improbable victory, but he returned to the top division last November. Since then he’s done very well and been an outside contender for the championship on a couple of occasions.
His consistent winning has earned him his highest ever promotion, maegashira 4. At M4 he finds himself as part of the joi. The joi is the collective term for the maegashira wrestlers who can expect to be matched with the yokozuna, ozeki and other high rankers during the opening week of the tournament. Many rikishi never progress past this point in the rankings.
In May it will be Takerufuji’s chance to prove whether he will sink or swim under the pressure of having to face names like Hoshoryu, Onosato and Kotozakura (possibly back-to-back).
Youngsters invade the middle of the banzuke
The M6-M9 ranks look especially exciting for May. In there you’ll find impressive young wrestlers like Onokatsu, Hakuoho, Churanoumi and Aonishiki. Aonishiki, a Ukrainian refugee, was sensational in March, in his first ever top division tournament. He went 11-4 in that competition and was in with a chance to fight for the championship all the way until the final day.
Among that young talent there are a few tricky vets, too. Tobizaru (the flying monkey) and Midorifuji have games which are very hard to prepare for. Both of them will give this young core a hard time.
Promotions and relegations
Kayo, Tamasoho and Tochitaikai are the only wrestlers to be promoted from juryo (the second division) up to makuuchi for the May tournament. Tamashoho, the brother in-law of sumo’s ironman Tamawashi (who is M3 in May), has been up to makuuchi for one prior tournament. He went 6-9 then and was immediately relegated.
Kayo and Tochitaikai will be making their top division debuts.
There was no room in the top division for Kusano, who waltzed his way to a juryo championship in March (in only his sixth ever senior tournament). He’s ranked juryo 1 in May. Any winning record in the next tournament will probably see him promoted to the top division.
Mitakeumi, Nishikifuji and Shirokuma are the top division wrestlers who have been sent down to juryo with this banzuke. Mitakeumi, a former ozeki, went 6-9 in March, that was his fifth make-koshi (losing record) in a row.
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