Catching up With Sumo News: New Yokozuna, Embezzling Gyoji, Hakuho Out, Foreigner Fan Club and More!

Rounding up my favorite English-language sumo sources (plus a few more)

As we’re ramping up for the July 2025 banzuke to be released in a little over a week, let’s catch up with the news, but first, some really important info:

I went to the https://tatsunamibeya.club/ link and pre-registered.

Being in the U.S., and unlikely to go to Japan anytime soon, I would not be able to attend a chanko party at Tatsunami, much less a final day party after a tournament.

But if they sent their annual calendar and banzukes, plus offer supporter-only merch… woo, I may be in!

Tatsunami is the stable with Hoshoryu, so yeah, this is a no-brainer for me. Plus, Meisei & Akua.

Let’s get to the bigger news, which yes, we all know, but let me link to my favorite sources.

New Yokozuna: Congrats Onosato!

I already congratulated him on his tournament win, and we all knew the promotion was coming. I plan on doing some Yokozuna stats in prep for the July tournament… I hope we get to see a great Yokozuna-Yokozuna showdown on day 15!

Let’s go to the coverage:

SUMO PRIME TIME by Hiro Morita:

Sumo Kaboom! on Yokozuna (well, pre-Yokozuna v Yokozuna) Showdown!

From the r/SumoMemes subreddit, a collection of Onosato pics. I will select a few:

thanks to u/Anxious_Foot_5648 for curating these!

Excelsior!

It even made international news:

AP News, 28 May 2025: Japan finally has a sumo champion after years of Mongolian dominance

TOKYO (AP) — Japan has a new sumo grand champion — or yokozuna — and the big news is he’s Japanese.

Onosato, the new grand champion, weighs 191 kilograms (421 pounds) and he is the first Japanese competitor to reach the top rank since 2017. By comparison, the average weight of an NFL lineman is about 140 kilos, or just over 300 pounds.

The sport has recently been dominated by Mongolians and prior to Onosato, six of the previous seven yokozunas have been from Mongolia.

I will be going over Yokozuna stats later, but it’s not just due to the Mongolian dominance (and, in particular, Hakuho dominance), but that the last Japanese Yokozuna, Kisenosato, in 2019, didn’t last too long as Yokozuna. With only one championship as Yokozuna, and then a crappy record after that… yeah.

A young new Yokozuna (Onosato just turned 25), who is looking like a brick wall, there is great hope for a much better record than Kisenosato’s.

The Embezzling Gyoji

This is the sort of story I love in my other substack, STUMP, where I love stories of financial shenanigans. For example, here is a podcast episode I did on fraud and embezzlement:

Fraud and Embezzlement! How to Prevent and Detect

This is especially relevant in this next story, which I picked up from Italianozeki, who posts on multiple platforms. I see his posts on both Facebook and X. He translates Japanese-language sumo news, which has been very helpful.

A key post:

𝐆𝐲𝐨𝐣𝐢 𝐊𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐚 𝐆𝐢𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝: "𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐳𝐳𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭" - 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 The Japan Sumo Association announced on the 9th that Makuuchi gyoji Kimura Ginjiro (Shibatayama stable) has been disciplinarily dismissed for embezzling cash and other assets from the Rikishi-kai (力士会 Rikishi Club) fund, intended for purposes such as supporting victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. This was resolved at a board meeting on the 2nd and communicated to him. His entire retirement allowance will be withheld.

There is much more at this link: https://x.com/italianozeki/status/1932440680540090421

There is more coverage here via the r/Sumo subreddit: Gyoji admits to gambling away wrestlers' disaster relief funds.

I will simplify the items:

• The gyoji Kimura Ginjiro was supposed to be in charge of managing this charity fund, and embezzled over the period January 2019 to May 2025

• The net amount embezzled, ¥21.87 million, is about $150K

• The gyoji was using the money to gamble

• There was essentially no oversight to the fund, and starting in 2024, somebody figured out something was up in terms of the balance of the fund - and asked Kimura Ginjiro for records. And he kept saying in the meetings: “Ooops, totally forgot, I’ll get it to you next time….”

• It’s difficult to hide a $150K hole in the funds

So yeah, it caught up to him, but it took many years because they had no oversight. There was no regular reporting and checking.

Again, you can listen to my podcast episode on fraud and embezzlement, where I talk about how one can prevent that.

I’ve lost a job due to somebody else’s embezzlement, so… yeah, I have a personal interest in this sort of thing.

Hakuho founding his own sumo company after leaving the JSA

I’m not going to get into the ugliness over Hakuho/Miyagino’s stable being taken away from him and never being given info on when he could get it back. Tochinoshin had his say, with respect to how others were treated in situations similar to Hakuho/Miyagino. It all sounded like bullshit to me — that is, Hakuho was treated worse, partly because he was non-Japanese, and partly because he had been the GOAT. When they got the opportunity to push his face in it… duh.

In any case, Hakuho walked away from the JSA and has founded his own company.

Back to Italianozeki:

𝐇𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐡𝐨 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐑𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 On the 14th, Hakuhō Shō , former Yokozuna, who retired from the Japan Sumo Association on the 9th, held a "69th Yokozuna Hakuhō Support Party ~ Illuminating the Future at 40 ~" in Tokyo.

….

In Mongolia, 40 is considered a special birthday, and attendees celebrated this milestone and new beginning. Hakuhō expressed his gratitude with a wry smile, saying, "Originally, this was a party to celebrate my 40th birthday, but the purpose has changed somewhat, and I'm a little nervous." At a press conference on the 9th, he revealed his vision for a "World Sumo Grand Slam."

On stage, he announced that the name of the new company promoting this vision would be Hakuhō Dayan Sumo & Sports Inc. 「白鵬ダヤン相撲＆スポーツ株式会社」 Dayan is named after Dayan Khan, the 34th Emperor who reunified the Mongol Empire in the 15th century.

What I’m hoping with the separation from the JSA, Hakuho will travel internationally more often, and perhaps make some stops in the U.S.!

The Sumo Kaboom gals covered it:

The r/Sumo thread on Tochinoshin’s comments: 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐳𝐞𝐤𝐢 𝐓𝐨𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐉𝐒𝐀'𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐡𝐨 — 113 comments as I post

It’s not just about Hakuho, of course.

More Sumo Content

John Gunning drops by r/SumoMemes: I ain’t got time to meme

hey, u/JohnGunning dropped it there himself

Dosukoi Sumo Salon has 6 on-demand episodes on NHK World available right now:

• Dashinage: Pulling Throw

• Pushing and Thrusting

• Dohyo: The Ring

• Yorikiri: Front Force-Out

• Sumo Stables

• Top-Division Debutants

I've watched all of these. I find it a good mix of access to some current & past rikishi, some analysis of various aspects of sumo.

While they don't assume the viewer has a huge amount of sumo knowledge, even those who are knowledgeable will find out new stuff, because they'll come at certain aspects from angles you probably didn't think of before.

UPDATE: Memory from last year

I went to Konishiki’s Sumo + Sushi last year, and had a great time.

I feel small!

I see that Konishiki has started announcing venues and dates for this year. Check it out!