Kinboshi Ranking Update: Kinboshi Stats Comparison for Yokozuna in the Modern Era (as of February 2026)
Covers Yokozunas #45 - 75, Wakanohana (the first!) to Onosato
Yes, I’m continuing the project… and maybe we’ll have a new Yokozuna this year to add to the kinboshi list….
So no, this is not a list of who has won kinboshi, but comparing Yokozuna who have given up kinboshi.
It starts with Yokozuna #45, Wakanohana (the first of three… so far), who “ascended” to the title in January 1958.
This is important as the first 6-tournament schedule started in 1958. There were fewer tournaments per year before that, down to only 3 tournaments in earlier years. To make fairer comparisons, I went back to #45. (Also, I think that’s where JWags started in his kinboshi rundown.)
For all the following, I will show only parts of the ranking tables. The spreadsheet is downloadable at the end of the post, and contains all 31 Yokozuna being compared in the ranking.
Just so you know, as Onosato and Hoshoryu, being the only active Yokozuna, are the only ones racking up new kinboshi, so here are their current counts:
Onosato: 9
Hoshoryu: 13
Kinboshi count ranking, February 2026
Let’s start with the easiest: the kinboshi given up.
This hasn’t changed since the last time. It’s a function of longevity…. kinda.
Because Hakuho was Yokozuna for a very long time, and he comes in at #12 with 26 kinboshi. And Hoshoryu is already at half of Hakuho’s count.
Kinboshi Percentage Ranking
Let’s look at the percentage of Maegashira bouts that ended in kinboshi for each Yokozuna. This gets rid of the bias from having a long reign as Yokozuna.
Low percentage end: [the same as last time]
Hakuho had 484 total bouts against Maegashira ranks… Tamanoumi, being a Yokozuna for only 2 years, had only 61 bouts against Maegashira.
Let’s look at the high end. Last time, Hoshoryu was at #26 and Onosato at #22.
At #25 & #27, yeah, they’re at the high end.
Percentage of Matches which were against Maegashira Wrestlers
This one is not a performance metric, but to give an idea how often the Yokozuna were up against Sanyaku (Komusubi, Sekiwake, Ozeki, and other Yokozuna) wrestlers as opposed to Maegashira.
Some Yokozuna didn’t have many Maegashira matches, as there were plenty of other Yokozuna and Ozeki to battle.
I haven’t figured out how to fold in this metric — some others have been trying to measure “banzuke difficulty” over the years — but I thought I’d put this up for informational purposes.
Now that there is a second ozeki, Hoshoryu and Onosato are sliding down this ranking list. If there comes a third Yokozuna this year, that will only help.
At the low end:
Last time, I explained the saga of Futahaguro, the most embarrassing Yokozuna choice. I believe the JSA learned that you don’t promote an ozeki to Yokozuna just because you feel like you have too many ozeki and only one Yokozuna. Because the guy they promoted had never won a yusho, though he had come close.
To say he lacked hinkaku is an understatement.
Correlation Graph
One of the things I have been testing is whether this percentage of Maegashira bouts is related to kinboshi percentage.
The R^2 is a little stronger than last time… but it’s still not that strong of a correlation.
