Sumo Scene / Hopes High for Start of New Era-Defining Rivalry; 2 Yokozuna Atop Both Sides of Ranking for Grand Sumo Tournament

Yomiuri Shimbun

a day ago

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Ozeki Onosato, right, and yokozuna Hoshoryu battle on the last day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan on May 25.
With a dominant victory at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in May giving him back-to-back titles, Onosato earned promotion to sumo's highest rank, making him the 75th yokozuna in the sport's history.
That puts a yokozuna on top of both sides of the banzuke rankings, along with Hoshoryu, a new addition himself after securing promotion following the New Year tournament in January. That adds to the excitement ahead of the July tournament, which will mark the opening of the newly built IG Arena in Nagoya.
It brings an end to a long stretch of tournaments featuring a lone yokozuna, most recently either Hakuho or Terunofuji.
Assuming that both yokozuna take to the ring on the first day of the tournament, it will mark the first time for that to happen in five years, dating back to the July 2020 tournament that was held in Tokyo.
At that time, Hakuho and Kakuryu filled the yokozuna slots in the rankings. But an aging Kakuryu withdrew from the tournament on the second day, never to appear in the ring again. In that sense, expectations are high that, given the young ages of the current yokozuna duo, they can build an era-defining rivalry that will last for many years to come.
The history of the sport is filled with eras in which two yokozuna have established a fierce rivalry.
There were the battles between Tochinishiki and Wakanohana I, which boosted sumo's popularity in post-war Japan. This was dubbed the 'Tochi-Waka era,' using the Japanese media's affection for using a single kanji character from the name of each person in a sporting duo, in some cases with a different reading.
Another was the 'Haku-Ho era' of Kashiwado and Taiho, who were both promoted simultaneously in 1961. The 'Rin-Ko era' of legendary yokozuna Wajima and Kitanoumi in the late 1970s thrilled fans for years.
Although the name failed to take hold firmly, the 'Ake-Taka era' of Akebono and Takanohana brought an unprecedented boom that spread across the nation.
Now, we finally have two yokozuna topping the rankings again. Still to be determined is what moniker will be assigned to their era. Will it be the 'Tai-Ho era' of Onosato and Hoshoryu, or the 'Toyo-Sato era' of Hoshoryu and Onosato? The mere thought of it gets me excited.
Of course, if the gap between the two yokozuna becomes too big and one dominates, there will be little enthusiasm for defining an era.
At the Summer tourney, Hoshoryu, as if to show his pride as the incumbent yokozuna, turned in a spirited performance to defeat Onosato in a head-to-head clash on the last day to deny him a perfect record. I hope to see similarly fierce encounters between the two in every tournament.
— Kamimura is a sumo expert.