What are the honbasho?
The six official sumo tournaments of the year, each fifteen days long, run by the Japan Sumo Association. The modern six-tournament calendar was fixed in 1958: January, May and September at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, March in Osaka, July in Nagoya and November in Fukuoka. Every wrestler in the top division fights once a day; the best record takes the yūshō and the Emperor's Cup, awarded to the top-division champion since 1926, with a sudden-death playoff if two are level.[1] [2]
| Season | Pool / Format | Host cities |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 2026 | Aonishiki 12–3 (3rd Emperor's Cup) | Nagoya — IG Arena |
| May 2026 | Wakatakakage 12–3 (playoff) | Tokyo — Ryōgoku Kokugikan |
| Mar 2026 | Kirishima 12–2 (3rd) | Osaka — Edion Arena |
| Jan 2026 | Aonishiki (2nd) | Tokyo — Ryōgoku Kokugikan |
| Nov 2025 | Aonishiki — first Ukrainian Emperor's Cup | Fukuoka |
| Sep 2025 | Onosato 13–2 (playoff) | Tokyo — Ryōgoku Kokugikan |
Recent tournaments — champion, record and venue.
How does a wrestler get in?
There is no qualifying event. Entry is by rank on the banzuke, the ranking sheet reissued before every tournament. A wrestler joins a stable, passes the association's entrance examination, and climbs six divisions — jonokuchi, jonidan, sandanme, makushita, jūryō and makuuchi — with promotion and demotion driven each tournament by kachi-koshi, a winning record of eight or more, and make-koshi, a losing one. Only makuuchi wrestlers can win the Emperor's Cup.[1] [3]
How are the top ranks earned?
By convention rather than formula. Promotion to ōzeki conventionally requires roughly 33 wins across three tournaments at the sanyaku ranks; promotion to yokozuna requires consecutive championships or equivalent performance, on the recommendation of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council. A yokozuna is never demoted — a wrestler who can no longer perform at that level is expected to retire.[1] [3]
Who is winning now?
Sumo currently has two yokozuna: Hōshōryū, promoted in January 2025, and Ōnosato, promoted in May 2025 at 24 — the first Japan-born yokozuna since Kisenosato in 2017. The wrestler of the moment, though, is Aonishiki, the 22-year-old Ukrainian Danylo Yavgusyshyn, who won his first Emperor's Cup at Fukuoka in November 2025 and had taken three by the Nagoya tournament of July 2026.[2] [3]
References
- Japan Sumo Association — official English site. Accessed August 2026.
- Japan Sumo Association — tournament results. Accessed August 2026.
- Japan Times — sumo coverage. Accessed August 2026.