Kakuryu suffered his first loss on Wednesday, while fellow yokozuna Hakuho remained unbeaten at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament.
In the day's penultimate bout, No. 2 maegashira Shohozan (1-3) defeated yokozuna Kakuryu (3-1) in the biggest upset of the fourth day at the 15-day meet at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan. Kakuryu slapped his opponent's face throughout the match, but the maegashira landed a winning shove as the yokozuna lost his footing and crashed down.
"I haven't been able to wrestle like I wanted to the past three days, so I just did my best to get good contact against my opponent," Shohozan said. "I was just struggling to push my opponent forward."