Congrats to Hoshoryu on the 2025 Hatsu Basho Win!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Yeah, I don’t post during the tournament. I’m busy watching (and listening to Sumo Mainichi and Sumo Kaboom and…. (but more on that in a future post.))
But first, the BIG MACARON!
One of my favorite things about the Grand Sumo Tournament is all the prizes the winner gets, like the special giant macaron from France.
That Sumo Kaboom episode, Takakeisho and All the Prizes, from December 2020, describes the various prizes that go along with the tournament.
Comparing the Last Men Standing
Before I get into Hoshoryu’s kimarite and stats in general, let’s take a look at the three wrestlers in the play-off at the end of the January 2025 tournament: Hoshoryu, Oho, and Kinbozan.
I circled those three on my weight-height scatterplot.
Kinbozan and Oho had the same weight, but Kinbozan was the taller of the two.
Both Oho and Kinbozan are substantially heavier than Hoshoryu. And taller, but we generally pay a lot more attention to weight in sumo.
How much did that extra weight and height help them?
I think it depends where that weight is… and the composition of that weight.
Simply having weight for weight for weight’s sake isn’t necessarily helping you, as we can see.
The last time I did a specific Hoshoryu profile was July 2024:
Eyes on Hoshoryu for Nagoya
Yep, I’m doing some profiles of a few wrestlers as I’m waiting for the tournament to begin… why not?
Hoshoryu rank and weight stats
Since 2022, Hoshoryu has had a steady progress in rank. His weight, however….
They weigh the wrestlers only in the Tokyo tournaments, which are January, May, and September. Weight gain is part of sumo training, but I think if you’re simply trying to do this via water and/or fat, and not through weight training or muscle-building, it’s difficult to maintain.
They train hard — it’s difficult to maintain that fat if you don’t find it easy to pack on the pounds.
Hoshoryu career kimarite stats
The data come from the Sumo Database. Last time I looked, he had only 34 unique kimarite, and now he has 36.
While he has the two commonest kimarite as his two commonest, his percentages are lower, and distributes the percentages over a wide variety of techniques. This makes him an interesting wrestler to watch.
Last time, I focused on Hoshoryu’s weaknesses, but now let us look at his strengths: throws! His win percentages for shitatenage and uwatenage, both throw techniques, are much higher than the overall percentages, especially shitatenage.
Hatsu Basho 2025 for Hoshoryu
However, when we look at the January tournament:
In the 17 matches, there are only two throws: kubinage against Onosato (pretty impressive) and uwatedashinage against Daieisho.
Many of the others were straightforward, aggressive attacks. Many yorikiri.
And of course, it looks like he’s going to be the next Yokozuna… but more on that in a different post.
Hoshoryu Memes/Pics
Thanks to the good people of r/SumoMemes for sharing these memes and pics!
Hakkeyoi!
