Top-level sport is an accelerated version of the wheel of life. Athletes go from ascending prospect to grizzled veteran in what seems like the blink of an eye.
In 2012, Terunofuji was a teenager slowly making his way up the banzuke towards the salaried ranks.
A decade later, the giant Mongolian-born standout is a highly decorated but aging yokozuna, struggling against the ravages of time and injury.
Sumo, of course, isn’t the NFL — a league where the average career lasts somewhere between three and four years, and superstars rarely make it to double digits. The long goodbye offered by a slow drop down the rankings for former stars in Japan’s national sport helps stretch out careers far beyond what would be possible in America’s favorite game.
Even so, extended stints aren’t as common as they might seem at first glance — especially in sumo’s upper echelons. Only nine of the 42 men in the top division in May 2012 were still there this past tournament, with the remaining 33 either retired or in the lower tiers.
More reminders of the ever-changing face of the sport came this past week with announcements of new promotees to the salaried ranks, and retirement ceremonies being held for some of yesteryear’s biggest names.
Aminishiki and Toyonoshima had their dampatsu-shiki at the Kokugikan — as is customary for men of their status. The former man retired three years ago, but COVID-19 caused havoc with the topknot-cutting ceremony schedule and a wave of postponements meant that it wasn’t until recently that the backlog began to clear.
Aminishiki was one of the more popular rikishi of recent times never to make it to ozeki or higher. The Aomori native had a long career punctuated with notable victories, including a defeat of Takanohana in 2003 that was the legendary yokozuna’s last-ever appearance on the clay.
Aminishiki’s golden period came in the latter half of the 2000s, when he was a sanyaku mainstay who regularly earned special prizes and defeated grand champions.
While Aminishiki was tall and lean — at least in the early part of his career — Toyonoshima was short and rotund. Measuring between 168 and (a very generous) 171 centimeters at various points in his career, Toyonoshima overcame his lack of height and was a difficult opponent for even the best rikishi. The high point of his career was a 14-1 record and Emperor’s Cup playoff loss to Hakuho in November 2010.
It was an outstanding effort that didn’t get the attention it deserved at the time, as it took place in the tournament where Kisenosato ended Hakuho’s consecutive win streak while the yokozuna was just six victories shy of matching Futabayama’s record of 69 straight wins.
As Aminishiki and Toyonoshima exit the stage, Oshoma, Gonoyama, and Chiyosakae will — figuratively and literally — make their bow under sumo’s bright lights in Nagoya next month.
Chiyosakae is a veteran who has spent the last decade in sumo’s third tier. Almost the entirety of his 35 minute press conference on May 25th was spent laughing it up with his stablemaster — former ozeki Chiyotaikai — and the media.
At 31 years old, Chiyosakae’s stint in the paid ranks is far more likely to be a brief capper on a long career than the start of a late run to glory. The resulting lack of pressure was evident in what was surely one of the most relaxed and casual media events in recent sumo history.
Gonoyama, an apprentice of another former ozeki, Goeido, is an ex-collegian whose performances in amateur sumo earned him a sandanme division starting point in the pros. He has had a steady, if unspectacular, rise since joining ōzumo in March 2021, and looks a good bet to make the top division before too long.
By far the most exciting of the jūryō newcomers is Oshoma. Completing the triumvirate of men under the charge of former ozeki, the 24-year-old is arguably the best-placed of the promotees to emulate or surpass the achievements of Aminishiki and Toyonoshima.
Sitting alongside 202 cm tall Naruto (formerly Kotooshu) — one of the few men that can make him look small — Oshoma spoke about the differences between amateur sumo, where he was a national champion, and the pro ranks.
“As a student, if you lose in a tournament, there is always the next meet. In the professional world, if you have a losing record, you fall down the banzuke and have to make the difficult climb up again. That means you have to give each bout your full effort.”
Oshoma, whose real name is Purevsuren Delgerbayar, won the title of university yokozuna while a student at Nippon Sport Science University. Despite several years in one of college sumo’s toughest programs — the last two amateur yokozuna have been NSSU men — it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Oshoma in ōzumo, and he’s been caught off guard by some of the differences in the pro game.
“During college practices we had a lot of bouts, and didn’t really do a lot of basic movements. After becoming a pro, the most important thing is basic movements such as leg stomps and foot sliding.”
Oshoma has clearly adapted, and his 7-0 title is a measure of his abilities with wins over several of the sports rising stars. At his current age (25), though, both Aminishiki and Toyonoshima were already in the top division with runner-up performances and special prizes to their names.
Oshoma won’t have as long of a pro career as either man, but the prospects of him earning a topknot-cutting ceremony in Ryogoku Kokugikan after he retires seem good.
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